Category: 2017-2020 Rhineland
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STRANDED!
Padma, Joseph and I have something in common with 19,000 … or 100,000 depending on who is counting … Aussies. We can’t get home. Yet there are plenty of airlines eager to fly us to Australia and no shortage of hotels who will quarantine us and who are desperate to fill empty rooms. In July, the Australian Government capped the number of incoming passengers to 4,000 a week. Out of that pool, Western Australia can receive 575 a week and the airline we booked on, Qatar Airlines, can only take 30…
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THE RETURN TICKET
Three years ago today, I got a bit emotional as I bid farewell to the family home and friends of 22 years. Joseph and I were en route on an epic father/son adventure to the Georgian Caucasus Mountains and after that I was heading off to an even greater adventure – a new job in a new country, all sight unseen. If you gamble, you either win or lose. Three years ago, Padma, Joseph and I gambled everything we had. We sold our beloved home in the Adelaide Hills, packed everything…
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WE’RE NOT KARNEVAL PEOPLE
Karneval has once again arrived in Germany; and once again Padma and I have tried to avoid it. The partying, the drinking, the craziness, the costumes … it’s just not our scene. Maybe we’re just fuddy duddies. So when our neighbour sent a text and asked if we wanted to join them at a Karneval parade, Padma and I instantly went into ‘think up of a good excuse’ mode. Padma started typing our apologies and then abruptly deleted the message. ‘No,’ she said. ‘This year we’re going to make an effort.’…
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ON TOP OF THE (GERMAN) WORLD
Last Sunday was one of those frigid, yet super clear days that only seem to come around a few times each winter. We were showing Padma’s brother’s family around and were staying with our friends Karl-Heinz and Hiltrud Linke in their little village of Illerbachen. As the sun rose on a very frosty morning, Karl-Heinz pointed to Germany’s highest peak, Zugspitze, from his kitchen window. With visibility like that we just had to head for the summit. Upon arriving at the base of the mountain in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (the site of the…
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DROP IN IF YOU’RE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
Just a few weeks ago I received an email from a genealogist in Switzerland. He found a 1928 photo I posted online of some distant cousins in Wisconsin and wanted some details. I sorted out his enquiries and he was most grateful. He said ‘If you’re ever in the Bernese Alps, drop in.’ I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the ‘if you’re ever in XYZ drop in’ invitation or how many times I’ve said it. I rarely take up the offer and people rarely take up my offer. But…
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RESEMBLANCE AFTER 36 GENERATIONS?
Joseph, Padma and I travelled with our German friend, Volker, to pay our respects to our ancestor in Aachen, Germany. Charlemagne – or Charles I, the Emperor of the Romans, the King of the Lombards and the King of the Franks – was laid to rest in 814 in his imperial capital city of Aix-la-Chapell, now known as Aachen. Joseph is the 36th great grandson of Charles. It’s true. I can actually chart our ancestry to Charles via my grandmother. Charlemagne loved the spas of Aachen and spent his winters there.…
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TYROLEAN TREATS
You know, I’m not going to go into my usual long-winded essay with this post. Just going to share some pics of some of the most spectacular mountain scenery we’ve ever seen. Padma and I extended the German Reunification Day into a long weekend and set up camp at a guesthouse in the Austrian Tyrol village of Ehrwald, at the base of the Zugspitze. Some might say we had crappy weather as it rained a lot, but we thought the mountains looked even more majestic shrouded in low lying clouds.
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THE WUPPERTAL SCHWEBEBAHN
‘Whopper-what?’ I asked. My new German friend, Volker, tried to share his hometown with me. ‘Wupper-who?’ I just couldn’t pierce through his thick accent so I pulled out my phone and brought up Google Maps and let him zoom in. ‘Wuppertal!’ I finally realised. ‘Never heard of it.’ Volker explained it was one of the major cities of North Rhine Westphalia and near Düsseldorf. But I had to admit my knowledge of German geography was still limited. ‘It’s world famous for its upside down train,’ Volker said. ‘I will take you…
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WEBERT. OLBERODE. ANCESTRAL HOME.
‘What’s your mother’s maiden name’? How many times have I had to answer that question? ‘Webert,’ I answer. But for most of my life it was only a name. A name I knew nothing about. And a name my mother knew little about. A few years ago I got bitten by the genealogy bug and started researching the Weberts. I didn’t need to do much work because others – Ulrike, Dan, Lou, Jean, etc. – had already done it. I learned from them that the ancestral home of the Weberts is…
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