Mikes Blog

Last Day in Eisenharz
Thursday 3rd May

Each morning at Gebhards the pattern is the same. I head off on the bike at about 7.30 am to the local Grocery which also has a Backerei. It's only 5 minutes. I buy fresh bread for breakfast and what ever else we might need.

Gruss Gott.

Guten Morgen.

Zwei Sechkorn Brotchen bitte, und eine Seele.

Tchuss und eine Schonen Tag.

There is now alot of modern music on local radio which has words in english and many people tend to say "Hallo" rather than the more traditional "Gruss Gott". I stick with the later.

I ride home and set up breakfast for Zita and me. Gebhard would have started work in his machining factory, which is attached to the house by 7am. He would often continue work till 9 pm. He can make thousands of copies of almost any small item made of metal that might be used in machinary of any kind. He is very busy.

Today after breakfast Zita and I head to Isny to organise large prints of photos from our joint family cycle trip as presents for Gebhard and Hubert and family.

Zita drives on Leutkirk, a neighbouring town about 20 kms away and then on to Eichstetten to meet with Elizabeth and Beate and to go swimming for the afternoon.

I had ridden by bike from Eisenharz to Isny so I would be independent. It is a great little ride taking about 25 minutes. Eisenharz is a compact little town, population about 1500, altitude 650 metres above sea level (uber dem Meeres Spiegel in German – meaning – over the sea mirror). It is surrounded by pasture farmland, forest and moors. The Allgau Alps start about 20 kms south and are easily seen.

Just out of town I turn off the road, ride between two barns, complete with wintering cows, and then onto unsealed (shotter) paths tat lead through fields then forest. This is also a Nature Protection Area. A few days earlier I came across a fox (Fux) hunting something in the long grass. I stopped for a while to watch and photograph it, hoping it was not crazy with “Tolwut” (rabies)and would have a go at me. In my early days in the South German Mountains I used to be concerned at the warning signs saying to watch out for foxes that might be carrying Tolwut. My doctor friend, Ernst, has told me that in recent years, in an attempt to control the problem, chicken heads containing Tolwut vaccine, have been placed in the forests to attempt to control this disease amongst foxes. He also told me that, even if you do get bitten by an infected animal, as long as you start the course of injections quickly, you normally recover easily. However if you are not treated soon and start to develop symptoms, you will experience a very nasty death.

I bike on further, through forest. It is a type of pine, a monoculture in this area about 20 metres high. I pass open grassy areas that will be grazed or mown for grass gathering in summer. It is very common to see ‘Hides” in this area. I wouldn’t have thought this was for hunting?

I now cycle through a more open “moor” area with browner grasses and stunted trees. In winter of course, all through here can be covered in snow bringing its own charm. After a further section of forest I emerge to cross a small country road. On the other side I pass between a farm house and several farm buildings, someone’s back yard, and then cross a bridge over a major stream which drains the large area of moor land ahead.

I can now see Isny in the distance, with the characteristic twin church towers topped with the ‘Onion Domes’ so common on churches here and further east. This section of the trail is passes across what has been moor but has been drained over the centuries so quite a lot of it is now pasture land. In 10 minutes I arrive on the outskirts of Isny and ride into town and the Fussgangerzone (pedestrian shopping area) where I meet Zita to organise getting out photos copied onto CD.

I then go off by my self to the local internet Café. I am keen to keep my Blog going and to try and improve it. The poor presentation is really frustrating me but I think it is really only designed to take one photo per posting? I spend several hours beavering away and probably pay about E8. At the end of the session, about 5 pm, I knock my camera onto the tile floor of the Café. It seems undamaged, but a day later I find that the battery door has lost part of its closing mechanism and so was not closing fully. I will need to tape it until I get it fixed.

My ride back home to Eisenharz from Isny was in rain and a strong cool easterly headwind.. This was pretty uncomfortable in the open areas. I was only wearing a light shirt and shorts.
This evening we went to have dinner with Markus and Anna in Lindenburg. When I lived in Isny 9 years earlier, Markus and I played classical guitar duets together quite a bit, played in some concerts including playing a full evening concert in a small hall above a music shop in Ravensburg. This was to a packed and enthusiastic audience. We also made a CD around that time called “Musik fur den Sudan” with the aim of raising some money for the suffering in the Sudan at the time.
These days we keep a ‘once a year’ letter/ Christmas card contact, and I always like to visit Markus when we come to Germany. This evening we play a few duets. Then Anna had cooked white ‘Spargel’ – asparagus. I sensed that Anna was not sure of the English for Spargel so I told her ‘Rhinonocerous’. I think she didn’t believe me.

Because these days there is a lot of music with lyrics in English on the radio, much of the evening conversation was punctuated by English song lyrics – sung.
Markus is such a versatile musician. He also plays in a rock band and sings classical music. He has a concert the day after we have had dinner together – for voice and organ at Neutrauchberg – a favourite modern church of Zita and mine just outside of Isny. We used to love going to church there. The Priest, Stephan Cipulka, had previously been a protestant minister and so had brought a wife and children to his new Catholic vocation. He was also a trained psychotherapist. I was first alerted to him in 1996 when I saw in the local paper that he was running support groups for people who felt they had been badly affected by their church upbringing. His sermons were wonderful. When he preached the church was generally overflowing. I would often feel tearful at what I experienced – as did many others obviously.