This time I was hosted by the lovely Cornelli family and
couldn’t have wished for a more wonderful time. We all did our best with each
other’s language in daily communication and the beer flowed each night and they
were fantastic hosts. Nothing was too much trouble and they took myself and another
English couple, Doreen and Fred, out to dinner on the Thursday night and we were joined by
their daughter Meike. I had the zander (caught locally) cooked in butter and
served with broccoli and new potatoes. Yum. Every day I had a very generous
breakfast of various sorts of bread and grapefruit and cooked meats and cheese
and Italian coffee. There was a local smoked ham which I particularly liked but
cannot remember the name of. Perhaps Waitrose will stock it. Some days I had a
boiled egg or two and this came from learning the Badisch phrase, ‘zwoi woiche Oier in oinerer Roi’ which means: Two
soft eggs in a row. A tremendous amount of fun was had that week repeating this
phrase (and others) to the amusement of our German friends.
There were three plays performed in Karlsruhe, Hedda Gabler at the Jakobus theatre and my play, A Chip In The Sugar and The Typists were performed at the Die Käuze theatre in Waldstadt. Each theatre provided food all week long and we (at Die Käuze) were treated to some wonderful food, including käsespätzle and salad on the first day. On the last night we had a fun party and some fantastic food laid on by the theatre.
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| Gordon and the explosiv curry sausage |
It was very important to try out the local brews so a small group of us, Natalia, Fraser, Michael, Graeme, Richard and myself found ourselves at the Hoepfner brewery close to city and indulged in a few beers and some chips. The waitress was a real character. After one and a half litres I had to go back and get changed and showered ready to perform my forty-five minute monologue. I think the beer gave the performance an edge it never had before. We had a lot of laughs that afternoon. I'm still laughing at Michael's impersonation of a person at the Lace Market. Sadly we weren’t around for the Burgfest.
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| Thorsten |
Another day, my friend Markus and I, plus a group English
and German friends took the tram out to Ettlingen, had a wander round the
pretty town, indulged in some coffee and ice cream and went for lunch at the
popular Vogel café, founded by Rudi Vogel and where I had two beautifully clear
beers (unfiltered) and some Baurenbratwurst in biersoβ und frites, farmer’s
sausage and chips with beer gravy. It was delicious and the company at our
table made it even more so. Much laughter, much fun and some very nice food and
beer. My friend Emma tested her strength by lifting up three steins of lager
beer and posed for the camera.
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Markus and me on the tram  |
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| English Emma as German barmaid |
On the Friday we all took a trip out on the coach to the
Black Forest where we visited the open air Schwarzwalder Freilichtmuseum –
Vogtsbauernhof. We had a fantastic tour round the reconstructed farmhouses and
I thought our guide Elvira was super. Lots of info about how farmers and their families
formerly lived in the houses and worked their land throughout the ages and not
too bogged down in historical dates. During our tour we experienced the Vogtbauernhof
and the Hippenseppenhof dating from 1599. It was very interesting to hear all
about the traditions and wander around the farmhouses. I particularly liked the
kitchen areas that smelt strongly of woodsmoke. After the tour we went for a
platter style lunch at the Falkenhof. Lots of meat and farmer’s bread and a
scrumpy style cloudy apple drink called, Most.
After the meal some of went on the dry toboggan run and although I initially was going to sit this out (not fond of heights or fast moving things) I was encouraged by my friend Natalia to go on with her. Actually it was great fun and we reached the top speed!
On the last night in Karlsruhe we all gathered together,
Germans and English alike for a party at the Die Käuze theatre to celebrate the
twinning event and what a fantastic time we had had. The food was fabulous and
the atmosphere great. Each national group presented the other with a gift as is
traditional and we thanked our friends for a wonderful time and that we very much look forward to
seeing our German friends when they visit us in two years time in Nottingham.
We left Karlsruhe on the Saturday morning on our coach and
said a fond farewell to our German friends and I admit I got a bit weepy as I
do on these fond goodbyes. I simply don’t want to leave and the people are so
so friendly and welcoming to us. I even have tears running down my face as I
type this up. What am I like?
The sixteen hour journey home went very quickly and the bus
was buzzing with chat about what a great time we’d had and when a group of went
up to the brasserie for a quiet pleasant (away from the crowds downstairs) meal
the ferry crossing time just flew by and … the staff forgot to charge for my
lovely meal! Bonus!
By the way I shall be writing about the theatre side of
things on my other blog at http://philloweactor.com soon. After all it was the reason we went there, to share
a love of theatre.
Many many thanks to Larissa and her team for their hospitality, likewise to Carsten and all at Jakobus and to Gill Scott and the LMT organisers back home. Here's to 2014! Prost! Hep's moll und net falle lasse!
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| one happy bunny |
