"Flatty's " adventures in Germany

FINALLY, I've made it to Germany! It has been a long travel from Australia to Europe but I made it just fine – and just in time for the Easter holidays! Please check out Grandma Sandi's Webshots to see my pictures. We don't know how to attach them here.

I'm staying with the Schueller family – Birgit and Thilo and their two children Colin (12) and Alisha (9). (My brother's name is Colin, too, only he's 4.) I'll stay here for 12 days from Thursday, April 9th till Tuesday, April 21st, 2009.

My host family lives in the Saarland which is the second smallest federal state of Germany. The Saarland is located in the South-West of Germany at the border to France. Birgit has mailed the map on these pictures to you and she has highlighted in pink the places we will visit. The little town I'm staying in right now is called “Riegelsberg”. Colin is pointing at it on the map with his finger (Webshots again).

After a good night sleep, I had to get up pretty early on the morning of Good Friday. Here in Germany, they call Good Friday “a silent holiday” – all the stores and shops are closed and most everybody is off from work and school. Even the church bells are silent on Good Friday in mourning Jesus' death – and that's why I had to get up early...To substitute for the church bells, the kids and youth of the parish walk the streets at 8am,
noon and 6pm making a terrible noise with selfmade wooden "instruments" called “Kleppern” (basically approx. 10”x8" boxes hanging around their necks on a string with a handle – when the handle is turned a wooden setup inside the boxes creates that terrible noise...). Colin and Alisha took me along and we met our group in front of their church. You won't believe the noise they made with those “Kleppern”! Thilo even recorded a short video to give you a visual and acoustic impression of what we did (http://www.thiloschueller.com/ftp/Kleppern.mpeg). The kids also have a rhyme they repeat all the time telling the people that the bells are silent in mourning and that the kids' noise is supposed to call people to mass. The last walking session was on Saturday morning at 8am (so, no sleeping in on Saturday either as I wanted to accompany the kids again...). Then all the kids meet for a joint breakfast at the parish's community center before they walked their streets again, ringing at the doors to collect donations for the church's servants and the kids' and youth' activities... This was a very different but very exciting experience for me.
After all this walking, I slept like a stone.

Following mass on Easter Sunday, Alisha and Colin let me participate in their Easter egg hunt in the garden. I piled up all my finds in front of some pretty daffodils and had Thilo take some pictures. Over here in Germany, Easter Monday is another holiday where everybody is off from school and work. How cool is that? Anyway, the weather was great, and after mass we packed a backpack picnic and everybody's hiking boots and off the Schuellers drove with me to Mettlach, a town the Saar river is flowing through. This town is the home of the headquarters of the famous tile, porcelain and bath ceramics manufacturer Villeroy & Boch. However, we didn't go shopping but parked our car there and took off into the woods for a beautiful hike. In Germany, distances are measured in kilometers (km) rather than miles. We took a windy trail from the banks of the Saar river walking up and down the slopes of the hills alongside the river. After 6 km (1 mile = 1.6 km – can you do the math?) we reached a very scenic point – the Cloef – from where you can overlook the so-called "Saarschleife” (Bend of the river Saar). The Cloef is located high above the point where the Saar river flows down from Saarbrücken, makes a gorgeous U-turn and flows on towards Trier. As this is one of the famous sights of the region, there is a tourist information office nearby. Birgit talked to a nice lady behind the counter who found her a number of brochures in English about the Saarland in general and the Saarschleife in particular. I've packed up these brochures in a big envelope and have mailed it off to school. As the mail needs to go by plane, it will take a while before my package will arrive. But believe me it's worthwhile waiting for it...

After having collected the brochures, we took a short break at a café and had some strawberry cake. Everybody was so hungry that the cake was gone before we thought of taking a picture. But it tasted
wonderfully! Next, Alisha and Colin wanted to show me the playground next to the café. They have been there before quite often and wanted to show me this terrific slide. Wow, that was lots of fun. I enjoyed the seesaw very much, too. Now, we had to go back. As the weather forecast had predicted thunderstorms for the later afternoon, we decided to take a slightly shorter route back to Mettlach. The rain started about 10
minutes before we reached the car. But luckily, I was securely packed away in my Aussie travel bag so that I stayed cozy and dry.

You won't believe where we had dinner that night! In a real brewery! They make their own brand of beer there and serve local specialties to eat. Thilo suggested that I had to try the “Gefillde mit Sauerkraut und Specksosse” (potato dumpling filled with ground meat, sauerkraut and creme sauce with ham). D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!! After all this excitement and the wonderful food, I almost fell asleep in the car.

Tuesday brought my next adventure. The kids are still on spring vacation, so Alisha had some time to make me another outfit. Guess what she made me – a horseback riding outfit! She even made me a helmet! And in
the afternoon, I got to accompany her for her riding lesson! I've never been in a barn before – and today I got to not only help to clean and tack the horse but to sit on it together with Alisha! That was pretty high up there! Those horses are HUUUGE! To tell you the truth, I was pretty glad when I was back on the ground. But it was an exciting adventure. What I think is funny, though, is that although everybody speaks German here (luckily
Birgit and Thilo can translated for me, Colin has had English in school for almost two years now, so he's pretty good at communicating as well, and Alisha is just talking with her hands and feet and we get along wonderfully, too) a lot of the horses in that barn have English names! The horse Alisha and I rode on is called “Shadow”. You understand that, don't you? Would you ever consider calling your horse “Schatten” (which is the German word for “shadow”)?

On Wednesday, Birgit took the kids to Saarbrücken, the capital of the Saarland, to do some shopping. After we had everything on our list, we stopped on one of the bridges crossing the Saar river and took a few pictures to give you an impression of the surroundings.

In the afternoon, yet another adventure was waiting for me. This time, Colin took me along. He is a member of
the junior pole vaulting team of the Saarland and had a training session scheduled for the afternoon. It is absolutely fascinating to watch the kids run with those long poles and have themselves thrown up into the air and maneuver over the bar. I did NOT give this a try but insisted on having my picture taken together with Colin holding one of those “tooth picks”...

Thursday and Friday were pretty busy days as the family had to prepare a lot of things because Alisha will celebrate her First Communion on Sunday! And I'll be here to see her in her pretty dress!!! So, we had so much going on that we didn't find time to take some pictures. As it rained all day long, this was ok with me and I just relaxed for a bit.

On Saturday, Alisha's grandparents arrived for the big event the next day. I got to meet Opa Otto and Oma Karin! They stayed for two nights. We had coffee and cake and spend the afternoon playing a number of board games. Sunday was the big day for Alisha that she has been anxiously awaiting for so long! Uncountable guests arrived and the entire party went to church for the ceremony. After a two hour service, lots of congratulations and pictures taken, everybody returned to the house for a wonderful selection of food and lots of fun and talking. More pictures were taken throughout the day. The entire house and yard were humming with excited people and Alisha looked to very pretty in her white dress. Finally, we found a quiet moment to have a picture taken of her and I. Doesn't she look wonderful? Most of the guests left before the second service of the day in the early evening. Everybody was so very tired that night! While Colin had to go back to school on Monday after the Easter break, Alisha had another day off – but had to attend service at church to complete the official First Communion celebrations. Some friends and neighbors came over in the
afternoon to help eat the left-over cake and cookies.

Finally, on Tuesday, everyday life returned for Alisha as well. She had to go back to school – and took me
along to visit with her 3rd grade class. As her regular teacher still is on sick leave, the substitute teacher took
a picture of the entire class and I on the school's playground during break.

Well, and this is rounding off my adventurous stay with the Schueller family in Germany. As you can see, I'm
heading to Spain next to stay with Cristina. As Spain is another European country, this trip will take just a few days. Watch out for my next travel report from Spain!!!”
Love to all,
Flat Jake - "Flatty" as they nick-named me!!

P.S.from Birgit: Dear children, I hope you will enjoy hearing and reading about Flat Jake's adventures in Germany as much as my family enjoyed having him here and showing him around. I've mailed some brochures (in English) on our part of Germany your way last week and hope the package will arrive soon.
Everybody here who has gotten involved in either taking pictures of or being in a picture with Flat Jake loved this project and sends greetings to you! Have a wonderful summer.
Hugs, Birgit, Thilo, Colin & Alisha Schueller