After our brief 5-day visit to Bologna, we said our good-byes to Nate and Italy and flew back to Frankfurt, Germany on our airline of choice, RyanAir. Our friend Lemmer and his girlfriend’s brother Joe picked us up at the main train station in Frankfurt and we drove the 90 kilometers north to Marburg, a medieval college town where Lemmer lives. Lemmer, for a little background, first met NikiAnne in the Dominican Republic in January 2000, when she was beginning her semester in Santo Domingo and Lemmer was one year into his two-year trip around the world. After he finished his travels, Lemmer headed back to Germany, where he grew up, and began pursuing his Masters in psychology at the university in Marburg. In September 2001, while in the U.S. for a family wedding (his mom is American), Lemmer stopped off in Washington, D.C. for 10 days and stayed with NikiAnne, or more appropriately me, since NikiAnne was temporarily living at my house until she found her own.
So,
back to the present. We arrived in Marburg about one hour after leaving
Frankfurt, and promptly made our way down to the Lahn River with Lemmer and his
girlfriend Mira to meet up with some friends for a picnic dinner. With the
city’s castle looming in the background, the setting was a perfect introduction
to the medieval ambiance of Marburg. Later, at dusk (around 10 pm), as the bats
were circling the sky around the castle, we walked to a nearby park to play
some late night bocci, or as they call it, bol. Though they take the game
pretty seriously, as we noticed that they brought their own set of finely made
bocci balls, it turned out to be a pretty relaxed game. When it got too dark to
see, we headed back to Lemmer’s house, hoping to sleep off the effects of a
long day of travel.
The
next day was beautiful when we got up at noon. Shaking off a little jetlag, we
lackadaisically made it to the kitchen to help prepare what became one of the
largest breakfasts we’d had yet. Basically Lemmer’s entire refrigerator was on
the table for us to devour…cheese, pate, sausage, tuna salad, fruit, juice,
tea, coffee, cereal, yogurt, oatmeal, eggs, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes and
olives. It is at this point that we will point out a reoccurring theme
throughout our travels in Germany- cheese. During our nine days in country, we
had some of the best and definitely some of the smelliest cheese we have ever
had in our lives. And so, naturally, in Lemmer’s refrigerator and then on his
table were at least six different types of cheese, and even more different
types of cheese consistencies- some solid, some like cream cheese, and then
some others that just weren’t like anything else. Within two days we had each
identified our favorite types and went to work at eating Lemmer out of house and
home.
After
such a breakfast, it was only fitting that we all take Mira’s dog for a very
long, and much needed walk through the forests surrounding Marburg. The shade
of the evergreens provided cooling relief from the 90-degree summer sun. When
we emerged from the thick forests, we found that Mira, Joe, and Lemmer had led
us up to the city’s castle, home of one of Germany’s former Dukes and his wife
Elizabeth. From the castle, we were rewarded with great views overlooking the
city and the nearby foothills. If you look at our photos taken from the castle,
you will notice a leaning wooden steeple from a church. Through many storms and
strong winds the steeple has survived and acquired a bit more character.
(Residents are very tied to the personality of this lopsided steeple). Also
visible from the castle is the Elizabeth Church, constructed to honor and named
after the Duke’s wife, Elizabeth, or better known by locals as St. Elizabeth.
She was said to give food to the poor and shelter the homeless, which explains
her earned title of saint.
And
then it was off to go camping about 45 minutes away along another one of the
rivers that crisscrosses through the surrounding countryside. To get to our
campsite from the main road, we turned left, literally into a pasture and
continued through it for about 200 meters until we came to a riverbank. We
parked, and then had to wade across one river to reach an island where we
unpacked our stuff. We relaxed on the riverbank for about an hour before the
rain clouds began to gather not too far overhead. The first few drops sent
everyone scurrying to gather their belongs quickly and store them underneath
one of two train tracks that were about 50 feet away. Once our things were
safely stored in a spot that was, for the moment, dry, most everyone ran back
to the car to wait for the sky to clear. Everyone that is except for NikiAnne,
Lemmer, our new friend Patrick, and me. We decided to wait out the storm
underneath the train tracks where it was fairly dry. And then the sky really
opened up, with the train tracks doing little to shelter us from the storm. Wet
but undeterred, we fumbled around with fastening some ponchos to the tracks
overhead to construct a makeshift shelter, but it did not help in the least.
Luckily, Lemmer had the great idea of pitching the tent, so all four of us
suddenly began running about with renewed purpose and within 20 minutes had
managed to pitch the tent on a shore of rocks.
Gradually,
the others, puzzled by our absence, returned to the tracks, and for the next
three hours, we all hung out in and around the tent. Finally, when a break in
the rain came, we all took our things, ran back to the car, and headed back to
Lemmer’s for a barbecue. Patrick, exemplifying the generous hospitality we
received throughout our stay in Germany, brought over enough food to feed
around 30 people, with most of it consisting of cheese, since he and his
brother run a cheese delivery service. And at the end of the barbecue, with
most of the cheese left uneaten, it was passed on to Lemmer and his guests (us)
to finish it over the next six days. The cheese, though delicious and great for
snacking, would come to haunt us by the end of our car trip from Marburg to
Cologne, then Dusseldorf and finally to Berlin.