Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 A REST DAY IN EDELSFELD
Discomfort in my legs resulted in a restless night for me. It was obvious that I had done too much walking for having walked over seven hours in the heat. I'd decided the night before that I wouldn't be able to go for another day of touring until I had rested and recovered, so this was a day in for me. I'd checked at the train station the day before for train connections to other cities and scrapped the plan to go to Rothenberg because of needing to make two train connections. Wurzburg and Regensburg were still on my list, but I was really starting to think going again to Nuremberg first to visit the museums I'd missed the first time.
I woke when Harry did and read until after eight when I dressed and went down to breakfast. Then I went back up to the room and worked on my geocaching information until my restless night caught up with me and I lay back down to a two hour nap-that was heaven, being able to just lie down and sleep when I felt like it! I was up again when Harry showed up with lunch. I'd saved some food from breakfast, since the dining room was closed for lunch and dinner on Tuesdays. He brought a 12 inch Subway sandwich with chips and a drink and gave me half the sandwich and a handful of chips. This time he had them put ranch dressing instead of oil on my half. I was able to save my brochen roll, cold cuts and cheese for a picnic the next day.
After lunch I finished working with the geocache information, then decided to try to venture out for a walk. Harry had brought some fresh hydrocortisone cream, so I put that on and headed out. I wanted to see the nearby graveyard and go to the konditeri for some pastries.
I reached the cemetary by going down the road behind the gasthaus and down a block, where it was on the corner of the next street. I turned left and walked up and into a gate into the grounds. The graveyard was fascinating. There was a small chapel and rows of plots, perfectly kept. The little square family plots were beautifully memorialized with marble headstones and marble enclosures that were filled with potting soil and beautiful plantings and other features. There were also wooden crosses with wooden enclosures which were also beautifully decorated and perfectly kept. There were several things I wondered about. First, the graves were sometimes individual, but more often family plots. They were either single or double width, but didn't seem as long as they should be. I checked the backs of some of the family ones, and they had up to eight names on them. I wondered how they fit everyone in? Did they put them in vertically? Surely not.
Also, some enclosures had little metal boxes on them that contained small brushes like bottle brushes and a couple of inches of water. What was that for? Later I asked Trudi about it and she explained the little boxes were for Catholic graves and had holy water in them that visitors could shake out to the points of the cross over the grave. She said the Catholic graves were more likely to have candles as well. About the size and the number of buriels per plot, she explained that they don't embalm and bury in plain wooden boxes, so that when another burial is needed, the previous has deteriorated and they just bury on top of it. When I described our practices of not only embalming, but sealed vaults and sealed metal caskets, she was visible repelled by that idea. When she asked, "Why would they want to do that?" I could see from her view how almost morbid it is for us to try to preserve the body that way, and how unnatural it is. She said that when they did a burial the enclosures and plantings were removed and the site dug up, and that it was full length even though the enclosure was not. After the burial they would replace everything and plant again. I really appreciated getting those questions answered.
I noticed also how handy and nice everything was for tending to the gravesites,with multiple watering cans hung on racks and spigots for filling them and so on. A group of women came in as I was leaving and they really looked intently at me as I went out, which made me feel a little like I was trespassing.
I went around behind the cemetary then, along the wall that bordered it and down one of the roads out of town. I passed a large home that had a shop and an annex that seemed to have hardware, gardening and electronics for sale. There was a lovely stone arched highway overpass that I walked under as I headed out of town. I passed an auto repair and signs indicating the exit from town and the next towns down the roads from the intersection, as well as the sportplatz. I wanted to walk a 6 km walking loop through the next town. I had found a depiction of the walking route and another longer one on signs across from the graveyard. Six KM is well within my fitness level, but I wasn't up to so much this day, and wasn't sure of finding the route without a map with me. The road straight ahead led right into a little woods, and had a sign for the sportplatz, so I thought I would see if that was close enough for me to manage to walk to ok.
I enjoyed walking in the woods and seeing it close up. The trees were of various ages, but mostly pretty young. There was a pile of brush on the edge like I had seen so often from the highway, from clearing, and a stack of wood on the inside edge near the sportplatz. That gave me a chance to take pictures of those common features I saw so often there. The woods were lovely, but not teeming with small animals as much as I would see or hear in a walk in the woods at home. There was less foliage and underbrush for things to hide and live in. I could hear birds singing, though and that added a pleasantness to the experience.
When I got to the soccer venue, I found it to be top notch, especially for such a small community. There were several big fields and a club house, with men working at one corner on some kind of project. I felt like going on and seeing how far I could get, but was aware I was still not in good shape and needed to be careful I didn't get too far away and overdo, making it harder to get out and tour the next day.
I headed back to town the way I came, passed the back of the gasthaus and headed back up the street I went on Sunday when I found the little ancient church a Kilometer from town. This time I took a lot more pictures and investigated the school grounds, noticing with particular interest the grounds of the kindergarten, which was in a cozy little building separate from the rest of the school. It had a little garden and a wonderful playground. The school had lots of solar panels on the roof.
I went to the konditeri and cafe and bought half a dozen pastries and walked back to the gasthaus. Hans, the owner, who doesn't speak any english, commented enthusiastically when he saw me bringing in the pastries. "Ja, zer gut!" I responded. I couldn't resist trying at least a little of each of the three kinds when I got into the room again. There was a flat round kind of slivered almonds in a crisp caramel flavored candy matrix dipped half in dark chocolate, filo dough triangles with raspberry filling, drizzled with icing, and wreath shaped circles with a shortbread cookie base topped with a round dark chocolate shell filled with dense chocolate truffle filling and drizzled with light chocolate. Those last were the best, but insanely rich. I had one later from somewhere else that didn't come near the flavor and texture of these.
Our neighbors on either side had checked out. The maids had cleaned for hours and hours. In the sitting area they left the books that were left behind in the rooms. I scored a cheap German/English dictionary that I used all the time after that, but left an expensive guide to Berlin for someone else that might be going there.
Our plans for the evening were to go to a nearby town to 'Zur Post', a restaurant recommended by a couple of ex-pats Harry ran into at the Italian place. When Harry got in, we headed out and found it, but it was also closed for the Tuesday one day a week closure. We headed into Vilseck instead and ate at a nice Greek restaurant Harry had been to before. Once again, I'd been in country for days, but still had only had one traditional German dinner. It was fun seeing the greek menu in German and English, with napkins that had greek words translated into german. I had grilled chicken, pita, greek salad, lovely deep fried potato slices and a yogurt dill and garlic sauce with cucumbers called ziziki. Harry had steak. I enjoyed the food and the atmosphere and watching the American and German diners. We had Italian ice cream next door afterwards. I had one scoop each hazelnut and chocolate in a sugar cone. It was the most smooth, fine textured ice cream I've ever eaten.
My legs were feeling more rested and recovered by bedtime, though the redeness was not much better, it wasn't itching or burning so badly. I was anxious not to lose another day of touring, so I decided to go back to Nuremberg the next day and catch the museums I missed and take the right geocaching pages and see if I could fill the gaps on those hunts. It was supposed to be cooler, and I planned to take it a lot easier on the walking and rest as needed better.
Next Post: Day two in Nuremberg
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