The Black Forest

Six years ago in mid-winter, Lydia, her husband and their two sons took me to a special restaurant high in the Black Forest. You pick out the trout you want from a large outdoor tank, then go inside and wait for it to be cooked to perfection. Some of my favorite memories are of the long drive through the Forest filled with deep-winter snow, the patterns made on the snow by cross-country skiers, and the warmth of the thick-walled German lodge.

It was a delight to return to the Forest in early springtime with Lydia and Mary. We left early in the morning in order to have as much time as possible before catching the train to Nancy in France.

The beauty of the grass- and flower-covered rolling mountains is almost painful to remember – because I long to return and spend days hiking the trails and painting the scenes, eating bread and cheese on sweet-smelling grassy hillsides, and dozing in the sunshine. These pleasures are in Lydia’s backyard, only moments from Emmendingen. Frequently, she borrows a horse and rides on these mountain trails, wandering far from the tension that plagues even good daily lives.

On our morning in the Forest, we were heading for the ruins of the Emmendingen castle. A few years ago, my brother Charles and his wife were here with Lydia. She told me how much fun he had exploring all the levels, exulting in flying here and there just like a kid! There are six children in my family, us three older ones (Mike, me, Sally), and three younger ones (Charles, Jon, Lydia). I was 10 when Charles came along, and he was a trial! An explorer as soon as he could walk, it was not unusual for the whole family to be searching for the tiny toddler blocks from home. I loved picturing him as a grownup bounding all over the castle with as much glee as when he was a youngster.

Parking at the bottom of the castle’s hill, we hiked up a grassy path through meadows thick with dandelions, yellow cups, purple lupin, and white Queen Anne’s lace. Apple trees shaded the soft brown most contented cows in the world. Thick stands of other trees sang with birds (invisible, you remember from my walk in Dijon), and in the background rang distant sheep bells. I felt closer to being Heidi than ever in my life.

A recent Final Jeopardy answer was Heidi, and none of the young contestants got it! Has it really been relegated to the classics bookshelf that no-one reads anymore? What a loss that would be.

I loved the castle. It seemed so German, evoking Wagner’s Siegfried and Isolde. In the far distance was Witch’s Mountain where witches dance during lightning storms. The castle is on the peak of a mountain with one half clinging onto the steep cliff-like mountainside. How did they do that!! Look! The stones are heavy, weighing down the foundation. I can’t begin to imagine the forethought and labor it took. But what fun to be there, imagining how life might have been for the women whose task was to make a welcoming home out of such a formidable place.

Local people, proud of their castle, keep it in repair and are rebuilding the sections as much as they can, depending on donations of money and labor.

This dedication is an example of the indomitable spirit that rebuilt Germany after World War II when bombing raids had leveled most of it. Freiburg, that beautiful city, was rebuilt mostly by the women since a large part of the men were killed in the war. The city took its time to rebuild and look the way it used to, going slowly, using old techniques that the original builders had used, and salvaging as much of the original materials as possible. The result is a lovely city, modern in amenities, but old and comfortable in look and feel.

Over the Rhine to Germany

Early Sunday morning, May first, we trained to Colmar where my sister Lydia met us and drove us to her home in Emmendingen, Germany. On the way, we crossed over the Rhine river, stopping to watch ships navigate through the locks. It was fascinating to see how the big boats lead the way, find their places along the side, then the small boats follow and snuggle up even closer to the sides. Then all are raised slowly by infilling water until the right level is reached and they are let out to continue up the river.

You can see there was quite a large crowd enjoying this. It was rather like a party where a magician is entertaining everyone with impossibly gigantic and unreasonable tricks -- the huge gates that raise and lower, the giant boats, the mass of water, and the small personal boats tagging along behind, everything in order, but everything wondrous, too.

Lydia, having lived in Germany for 20 years or so, speaks English with a German accent and has trouble remembering some English words. Even though her sons tease her about the few mistakes she still makes, she is perfectly competent with everyone – the storekeepers, her art students, the landlord, the bureaucracy, etc. That lovely lady with the big smile is Lydia, and I was lucky to get her picture since she usually ducks and covers.

France and Germany have had difficult relations probably since before the Rhine separated the barbaric Germans from the Romanized Gauls of what became France. Mary and I, being Francophiles, had to tone down our enthusiasm for the French in Lydia’s presence. She’s lived in Germany long enough to have absorbed their prejudices against the free-flowing Franks.

I asked her what about them bothered her most. She replied, “They drive too close.”

We laughed, but she was serious. She’s right, too, but it never bothered me.

When we were in Germany in 1961, the people we met were not happy to see us. They had been through World War II, rebuilt their country afterwards and – I’m not sure what the reason was, but Mary and I felt unwelcome. One man is indelibly etched on both our memories. We had gotten used to jaywalking in New York, London, and Paris, but when we did it in Frankfurt, a man followed us for two blocks scolding us in German. I had had a year of German in college, so could understand a bit and speak a bit more, and though it wasn’t ideal, it was better than if we’d tried speaking English all the time.

Six years ago, I returned to visit my daughter who was in the Army stationed in Bavaria, and also the family of a boy who had been an exchange student with my husband’s family years before, and, of course, Lydia. Then and this time, I felt so welcome everywhere I went! The atmosphere was totally different. It wasn’t only because I had people to visit, because I traveled on my own between places and found friendly, helpful people everywhere. Time heals, and I’m glad.

I’ll tell about Emmendingen, Freiburg, and the Black Forest in the next post. They deserve their own space.