Familie

Wednesday morning bright and early it was off to Eisenach by train to visit more family, and to see the Wartburg.

Getting four adults and four kids, with all our gear, out the door and onto an 8:30 a.m. train at the main station in Berlin was no easy task!  But, we managed to make the train on time, and even had a few minutes leftover to find some tea and Mohnkuchen before embarking.

Traveling with a one-year-old and a precocious 4-year-old  makes me realise how “easy” life with nearly-9-year-olds is…  (And thank goodness for iPads!)

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The baby and his sister kept us hopping, the former climbing on tables and pulling at this and that while his sister nattered away and complained about not having the right paper to draw on, or wanting Trevor to help make pipe cleaner animals from the craft book that I wisely had purchased in advance for the long journey across the country.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the opportunity to spend some uninterrupted time with my "cousin" and her kids, getting to know them a little better. 

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In Naumburg, it was time to transfer trains; with four minutes between trains, we had to hustle, but luckily, it was just the next track over we had to get to.

My cousin's mother met us at the Eisenach train station to collect our bags, so that we could venture up to the Wartburg unencumbered.  We elected to send dad and their two kids along with them, as both baby and older sister desperately needed a nap, and we, a break!

So, Trevor, my cousin, the boys and I were supposed to throw our bags into her mother's car, and run off to catch a bus departing in 9 minutes, to the foot of the hill on which the Wartburg is built.  From there it was to be a bit of a long walk uphill in snow (without snow boots, we having prepared for European spring!)

Usually, one can go up to the castle by donkey, but no donkeys were traveling through 40 cm of snow!!!

But a wonderful and unexpected thing happened:  Another aunt, from a nearby village, was also there to meet us at the train station -- with flowers, no less! -- and insisted she drive us up to the Wartburg, and join us for our tour there. 

What a delightful surprise!

The Wartburg is famous primarily for housing Martin Luther after the publication of his 95 Thesis in 1517 for 10 months during which time he was widely believed dead, but during which time he actually was translating the New Testament of the Bible in a tiny room of the castle, now known as the “Luther Stube”.

The castle houses historical treasures from across the middle ages, and is now a UNESCO historical site, undergoing considerable renovations at any given time to preserve the heritage on display there.

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The young St Elizabeth (famed for the miracle of the bread and roses among other things) also lived there for a time, and a whole host of monuments to her now decorate the walls of several rooms in the castle.

After our walk through the old, unheated site, we were frozen stiff, and still had over an hour to kill before meeting the others for dinner, so off we went to enjoy some tea and cake at a nearby cafe to warm up. 

Then we bought Alex some shoes, as his feet were completely soaked, and his shoes, too, were at the end of their useful life.  (I must say the prices in Eisenach are considerably more reasonable than those in Berlin, where we bought Simon's shoes earlier in the week, and I would very much have liked to stay on a bit to do some shopping of my own!)

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After a brief stop at an impromptu "rummel" for a bumper car ride, we headed off to dinner, atop the "Storchenturm", a nearby restaurant with a private dining room on the top floor.

That's when things REALLY got fun!!!

Among those in attendance were my cousin's mom, as well as her aunt and uncle, and the uncle's daughter, too, who is suddenly a hip 24-year-old!  Even her dad showed up.

I hadn't seen most of these people in over ten years, before I became a mother!  And they had never met Alex and Simon, of course.

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Despite the fact that we were in some sense strangers, there was enough common history between us all that we enjoyed many laughs together, and a great number of stories, both mundane and fascinating.   The children were relatively well-behaved, too, so we were able to enjoy much uninterrupted adult conversation.

At one point, the uncle, a historian who has been researching in depth a branch of the family tree, came over to me to tell me personally how much he appreciated our having made this trip.  While researching family documents, he came across a collection of letters between my mother and his mother, who were cousins, as well as some letters written between my grandmother and his, who were sisters, and the only two of five siblings to have had children (which ultimately led to this evening's family feast).  Letters, he noted, provide an invaluable historical insight into relationships and times; he encouraged me to find my half of the letters, which I recall having tucked away in a box somewhere after my mother died -- I wonder, now, if that box survived unscathed from the water damage our storage locker endured some time ago... I immediately made a note to myself to check upon my return home to Toronto.

Sometime during the evening, we took a group photo, which did not turn out super well, due to crappy camera, lighting and not everyone smiling at the same time.  Nevertheless, it was neat to watch throughout the evening, as the boys got a sense of themselves within their larger German connection.

What a delightful gathering it was!