After my day in Dusseldorf I had
decided to have the Friday at home resting and trying to work out what my next
move was going to be. The weather was fantastic; brilliantly sunny and warm,
and so I figured why not be “lazy for a day?” and just catch up on some blogs
and do some much needed planning (this was the day from which my self-portrait
came from in one of my previous blogs). My travels are now holiday time, so in beautiful weather and surrounds I find this perfectly acceptable *giggles*.
Needless to say I awoke late, had a lovely breakfast and
then went back to sleep for a while. In the afternoon I moved out onto the back
patio with some food and my computer and got down to business. After sitting in
the sun for a while, my attitude was less than motivated and as such I found
concentrating to be rather difficult. However, I managed to finish one blog and
look up more train timetables for Brussels and Bruges, which I had decided
would be my next stop.
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| Parade horses! |
I knew that the evening would get interesting; Matthew was
having friends over for beers and a “barbeque” so I was planning to be done and
back upstairs before then so I wouldn’t a) interrupt and become a feature of
conversation and b) get dragged into anything. My plan=major failure.
At about 8:30 or so I got a knock on my door. It was someone
I’d never actually met before; one of Matthew’s friends, and he invited me to
join them for a few beers. “A few” in this instance meaning four cases between
8 or so people over 4 hours. We ended up going out later than night to a club
but heading home at around 2 as the club was empty and neither Matthew or I
fancied going to Dusseldorf to continue to party until the wee hours of the morning.
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| Cutest. Kids. Ever. |
Needless to say Saturday was labelled my “hang-over
recovery” day, and I was feeling very fragile for a good 24 hours. I had
planned to leave the next day for Bruges, however after that night I changed my
plans and decided to leave on the Monday (a German public holiday) instead. I
spoke with Ron and Elisabeth and it was decided that as I was leaving on the
Monday, we would go on the Sunday to Shutzenfest, a traditional German festival
of marching, music, costume, carnival and of course, beer, in Neusser Furth (the town to the north of Neuss).
As such, on the Sunday morning I awoke relatively early to
go with Ron and Elisabeth and find a park so that we could be in
prime position for the parade and marching. It was fantastic. The parade
consisted of mainly men (some women were in the marching bands but they were a
very small number) marching in small “platoons” in traditional costume
holding ceremonial rifles (sometimes swords), up and down the main street to be
inspected by “the King”. “The King” was a man chosen to be the best marksman in
the village. He held the title for (I think) as long as he was able to/wanted
to, as to hold the position meant spending a fair amount of money on ceremonial
badges and (for his wife) clothes, so that she never wore the same dress twice.
The day went splendidly; we sat at a little Italian Ice-cream store and watched
the platoons go by to marching bands before wandering through the carnival/fun
fair on the other side of the street and eating some Kartoffelpuffer; after a while heading home to a large Sunday lunch, my last with the family.
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| A platoon. Apparently this one is exclusive. |
After an amazing big, family lunch, I spent the afternoon
packing whilst listening to pop music and dancing around my room (you know, as you do...). Later that evening I
was once again invited to go and join Matthew and friends for beers; after hearing some of their opinions on politics and historical events I had to excuse myself. It's not about being "a left-wing girl" (yes, I was thoroughly impressed when I was called that *glares*), it's about being able to have a reasoned discussion where points are substantiated rather than being just open opinion.
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| This photo is deliberate-I wanted a picture of a ceremonial glockenspiel. |
The next morning I awoke saddened to be leaving the
Geisler’s as I had thoroughly enjoyed my time with them and they had been so
lovely and hospitable; incredibly kind, welcoming and generous to a young woman
who was travelling on her own. I would like to reiterate how grateful I am to
them for having me for so long and being such amazing people. Thankyou so, so
much. You really enriched my time in Germany and made my travels all the more
enjoyable! Hopefully I will see you all again soon whether that be in Germany or Australia!
So, as I set off on the next part of my solo travels I was
both excited and saddened. Goodbyes are a n inescapable fact when you are travelling but that
doesn’t make them at all enjoyable! I hopped on the ICE train (fast trains-they
just make so much sense!) to Brussels, with another train lined up afterwards
to take me to my next stop, Bruges. As such and, like always, I will leave this
post here before the continuation of my journey in my next posting!
Until next time,
Love Love,
Clem xx
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