After ending my previous post with Friday, the 26th of May, this one is about the weekend.
By then, I had been testing negative for several days, and apart from the occasional coughing, my Covid symptoms had gone. It meant we could really enjoy what was a very summer-like weekend.
On Saturday (May 27), we went for a late breakfast at "Bubbles", a small café in the middle of town centre. It is owned and run by an American lady and offers a variety of food and drinks you would not necessarily find at an average German café. For instance, they make French Toast (which sends you on a sugar high and means you won't want to eat anything else until the evening), but I prefer their avocado bagle.
After our meal, we strolled across to the palace grounds. From there through the deer park, the long tree-lined path downhill to the lake, where we stopped at the beer garden for a shandy. O.K. surprised me by wanting to rent a boat, and so we did. There is still something utterly romantic and beautiful about being rowed across the lake by the man you love!
 |
| Bunting in Ludwigsburg's town centre |
 |
| Gate to a smaller garden within the palace grounds |
 |
| Beer garden near the lake |
 |
| Lake Monrepos and Monrepos palace as seen from our boat |
The walk home was unspectacular; I did find the uphill bits (and it's almost all uphill from there to get back to my place) somewhat more exhausting than usual, but that was to be expected so soon after my illness.
At half seven, we were at my Mum's, where we enjoyed a delicious meal on her balcony, complete with strawberry punch and asparagus salad - May and June are the perfect season here for both.
Saturday had been warm, and Sunday (May 28) was even a little warmer.
After breakfast, we took the local train to Marbach and walked to Steinheim. Just outside Marbach, there is a tiny house in the vineyards. It belongs to the winemakers' association, and on that day, they were open for business: benches and tables were set up on the grass outside, and they were selling wine as well as non-alcoholic drinks and snacks through the window.
We had not known about this, but it made for a nice distraction, and we had a refreshing glass of chilled white wine with soda (called Schorle weiß-sauer in German).
Once we arrived in Steinheim, we had a small portion of ice cream and then walked up the hill behind the village (sorry - it is officially a town, but by its size, I consider it a village). You know that part of the world from many a post of mine, since it is where my parents had their allotment until a few years ago.
 |
| Steinheim's town hall, built in the late 1500s. |
 |
| View of Steinheim from the top of the hill |
After so much ice cream, we were not exactly hungry but wanted something savoury, and so I prepared a small evening meal of baby spinach salad, bread and cheese. Watching a cheesy movie on TV was the perfect end to the evening, and because Monday was a public holiday in Germany, O.K. did not need to drive home.
Schorle weiB-sauer : the perfect way to celebrate your (almost) Covid recovery.
ReplyDeleteA distant cousin of guilt (Germans must have a word for it) assails me because
I have so far escaped the virus.
Being rowed across the lake by your beloved is happiness : you look a picture.
My lost hope for Europe : a federation of friendly states, no Passport Control.
European wars (the beautiful ruined Europe Maurice Gee visited from
New Zealand) forever consigned to the history books.
Marbach's vineyards is a lost symbol of those broken EC dreams of mine.
Baby spinach salad is the kind of dish my younger sister served as starter
in her new flat in Putney.
A Lebanon cedar on the other side of the road does not obscure the blazing
morning sunshine.
Outside the first floor balconied window I saw a man holding the hands
of his little girl and son as he escorted them to school.
I heard many friendly German voices outside the House of Parliament and
Westminster Abbey.
There were schoolgirls of about sixteen sculling on the Thames in their narrow
canoes, about twenty minutes' walk from my sister's apartment.
Be well !
Jack
P.S. Maurice Gee is still alive, born in 1932.
I had lunch with he and his wife in London in 1997. He loved Europe.
A distance cousin of guilt because you have not yet had Covid? I simply felt lucky - and never expected to catch it now, when we are officially not under pandemic conditions any more, and especially not that I would catch it from my Mum, of all people.
DeleteI like the image your mention of the man walking his children to school puts in my mind.
Admittedly, I have never heard of Maurice Gee. I agree that it is sad to witness first-hand what has become of the original idea when the Europäische Gemeinschaft was first started.
I am rereading Going West, a novel about a fictional New Zealand poet,
Deletemodelled on Louis Johnson, James K Baxter & Alister Te Arika Campbell.
Maurice Gee is one of my favourite living writers.
Along with Peter Handke, Ismail Kadare, Edna O'Brien, Anne Dillard, Janet Malcolm, Alice Munro, Jane Urquhart, Anne Tyler, Richard Ford, Jenny Erpenbeck, Herta Muller, Marina Warner, Allan Massie, Cees Nooteboom, Charles Baxter, Michael Arditti, William Dalrymple, Ma Jian, Yan Ge, Melvyn Bragg, Susan Hill, Margaret Drabble, Sarah Perry, Len Deighton, LynneTilmann, Salman Rushdie, Saskia Goldschmidt, Charlotte Rogan, K-Ming Chang,
Milan Kundera, Isabel Allende, James Runcie, Jessie Greengrass, Bae Suah
... and many more as well as poets.
I have never read Zadie Smith though my sister has all her novels.
My brother gave me the DVD of The Irishman two years ago and I still have
not watched it.
The YouTube trailer of a movie or TV drama is all I have time for.
I rescinded my TV licence five years ago so I could read more.
I am reading *Joe Cinque's Consolation* by Helen Garner (YouTube)
a true-life crime story about young Australian lives ruined by drugs.
I am going to order Garner's diaries and I want to reread all of Shakespeare,
and Flaubert (haltingly) in French.
Harold Bloom (YouTube) is my favourite lit. critic; he was smart and I am stupid.
*Harold Bloom: Shakespeare. The Invention of the Human.*
DeleteYouTube.
Out of the 24 hours each of us have every day, you must be reading 23 to fit it all in.
DeleteFrom your list of authors, I know 12 by name but have not read something by all of them.
Oh, this is all so lovely and summery...being rowed in a boat by the man you love and with you in that cute hat! This could be an ad to show for those who wish to tour Germany, just saying! Glad you are doing better!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kay! Apart from the occasional cough, I feel now that I have fully recovered (keep in mind that since the weekend I wrote about in my post, almost another two weeks have passed).
DeleteTalking of Len Deighton I wonder what Ian Fleming or John le Carré would have thought of the latest Ipcress File TV series. They allegedly occasionally met up with Len Deighton but alas their meetings ended in arguments about who was best equipped to write the most realistic books. It's a shame all three focused on fiction. Fiction, fiction, fiction ... why are so many spy novels thus? Factual novels enable the reader to research more about what’s in the novel in press cuttings, history books etc and such research can be as rewarding and compelling as reading an enthralling novel.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, if even just marginally autobiographical, the author has the opportunity to convey the protagonist’s genuine hopes and fears as opposed to hypothetical stuff any author can dream up about say what it feels like to avoid capture. A good example of a "real" raw noir espionage thriller is the first novel in The Burlington Files series. Its protagonist, Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ) aka Edward Burlington, was of course a real as opposed to a celluloid spy and has even been likened to a "posh and sophisticated Harry Palmer". Apparently Bill Fairclough who was one of Pemberton’s People in MI6 once contacted John le Carré in 2014 to do a collaboration. John le Carré replied "Why should I? I've got by so far without collaboration so why bother now?"
A realistic response from a famous expert in fiction but maybe there was another more compelling and truthful reason. For more beguiling anecdotes best read a brief and intriguing News Article about Pemberton’s People in MI6 dated 31 October 2022 in TheBurlingtonFiles website and then read Beyond Enkription.
Meike - Love, love the pix of you on the lake and in the pretty countryside - your hat is great, love hats myself.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mary! My Mum gave me that hat a few summers back after my eye operations. It is really helpful and sensible to wear one in our hot summers now. O.K. wears a hat, too; the Panama type.
Delete