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Idar-Oberstein-- well. We managed to park upon my direction almost immediately, and cross the street to the square at the foot of the mountain. I won't say the streets are paved with gems, but they are certainly lined with shops proclaiming Edelstein-Schmuck from their sigs and advertisements. There were indeed many gems and jewelry displayed on the sidewalk, and we made our easily-distracted way through them to the foot for the mountain up which rose a zillion stairs through a drippy cave to the Felsenkirche. It was carved from the side of the mountain as an atonement for fratricide by some man whose name has a W and a Y in it, and contains several interesting crystal objects, including a natural agate cross. There's a viewing platform through a cave with a spectacular panorama of the town.
However, the fun part I find was yet to come. Eric misbehaved and Gail took him back to the car after the Feslenkirche, and Mama was not up for climbing more steps, so it was just Wendy, Michael, Gene and me hiking up the switchback asphalt paths following the signs that said Schloss. After awhile the signs disappeared, so we picked a random path at a four-way crossroads. It ended up being about a mile of superfluous nature hike ending on a paved road with no signs, so we went back to the crossroads and picked left instead of straight. My calves had started burning about halfway up the last path, so it was slow going as I stopped every so often to wait for little kids, but eventually the trees thinned and a huge oak in the middle of a golden meadow gave way to a comfortingly round gray end of a castle. A lady greeted us with friendly enthusiasm as we crossed the courtyard to the happy-looking stone walls. We explored as far around it as we could without trying the ominously closed-looking door, which indeed turned out to be locked. There was one open door, but it went to a balcony which, while providing another splendid view, was not where we'd have liked to go.
I bit the bullet and went into the lady's souvenir shop to ask her "Kann man ins Schloss nicht gehen?" Apparently not. I understood everything she said as she explained about its being open on Sundays only and about its functions and then struck up a conversation with me about where I was from and where I was staying and were these my sister and brothers, no, where do my cousins live... She kindly made me feel moderately competent before asking if I spoke English and offering me an English-language brochure. She was very helpful, and gave each of the little kids a hard candy before convincing me I should have one, too. It was good; I'm glad I did.
On the way back down there was much kicking of dandelions and finding of inchworms and running down paths; Michael fell down once and I decided the running was not such a good idea, but we did go down a couple unpaved shortcuts. Mama met us where we left her, and we made it back to the car in the parking garage with no mishaps. I navigated us to the other side of town, where the jewel mines and museums were, but it was late enough that we could only do one thing. I'm glad the museum was first on the way.
There's no way to describe the multitude of amazing rocks they had in that place; I'll try anyway. There were loose stones and carven stones and faceted stones and vessels made of stone; the stones were of all kinds, from all inhabited continents, in all colors. It was Cullen hall at HMNS, times nine, plus tiny rocks demonstrating the cutting techniques and bigger rocks demonstrating the carving techniques, and little models of the mines and the cutting workshops. Fortunately for all involved, gemstone names in German are mostly similar to those in English, and those that aren't I could translate for the rest of the party. I picked Wendy up to see the higher cases; I remember being that size, and how cousins would help me.
There was a section at the end of the museum that was for sale; having translated during ticket difficulties at the beginning of the tour, I was addressed most of the time with information about how the nice little old guy could open the cases if we wanted to look at something. He had no English at all, so when mama wanted to buy a rotating rock light and couldn't tell if it was 110 or 220 and so wanted to see the box, and I couldn't think of a word for box, he got the other guy. All the language was untangled, and the box found, and the light bought, and the kids herded back to the car. I gave Wendy a shoulder ride back, and though my calves protested mightily, I, a denizen of a horizontally oriented land, made it up four flights of stairs and two stories of parking garage car ramps with an extra 50 pounds.
It was a highly enjoyable town, but I'm beat. Physically, I'm not at my best. I've eaten basically nothing but Burger King on-base since that first Doener-Kebap, and I eat the fries out of a sense of obligation--we even use the coupons, so it hardly costs anything. So I'm either patiently starving while climbing all over a castle, or stuffed to the gills on the way home and sitting trying to plan the next day.
Speaking of which, we should try to plan the next day. I think we're going to visit Virgilio, my former first-grade games teacher who moved to Germany, got married, has two kids and is expecting another on Tuesday. It'll be good to see him. I expect he'll be surprised at how big I am.
I'm not staying up late again tonight. We keep getting sidetracked by funny videos or theologico-political arguments (last night's was particularly intense). I'm going to sleep and let them plan tomorrow by themselves so they can wake me up and we can leave before noon.
However, the fun part I find was yet to come. Eric misbehaved and Gail took him back to the car after the Feslenkirche, and Mama was not up for climbing more steps, so it was just Wendy, Michael, Gene and me hiking up the switchback asphalt paths following the signs that said Schloss. After awhile the signs disappeared, so we picked a random path at a four-way crossroads. It ended up being about a mile of superfluous nature hike ending on a paved road with no signs, so we went back to the crossroads and picked left instead of straight. My calves had started burning about halfway up the last path, so it was slow going as I stopped every so often to wait for little kids, but eventually the trees thinned and a huge oak in the middle of a golden meadow gave way to a comfortingly round gray end of a castle. A lady greeted us with friendly enthusiasm as we crossed the courtyard to the happy-looking stone walls. We explored as far around it as we could without trying the ominously closed-looking door, which indeed turned out to be locked. There was one open door, but it went to a balcony which, while providing another splendid view, was not where we'd have liked to go.
I bit the bullet and went into the lady's souvenir shop to ask her "Kann man ins Schloss nicht gehen?" Apparently not. I understood everything she said as she explained about its being open on Sundays only and about its functions and then struck up a conversation with me about where I was from and where I was staying and were these my sister and brothers, no, where do my cousins live... She kindly made me feel moderately competent before asking if I spoke English and offering me an English-language brochure. She was very helpful, and gave each of the little kids a hard candy before convincing me I should have one, too. It was good; I'm glad I did.
On the way back down there was much kicking of dandelions and finding of inchworms and running down paths; Michael fell down once and I decided the running was not such a good idea, but we did go down a couple unpaved shortcuts. Mama met us where we left her, and we made it back to the car in the parking garage with no mishaps. I navigated us to the other side of town, where the jewel mines and museums were, but it was late enough that we could only do one thing. I'm glad the museum was first on the way.
There's no way to describe the multitude of amazing rocks they had in that place; I'll try anyway. There were loose stones and carven stones and faceted stones and vessels made of stone; the stones were of all kinds, from all inhabited continents, in all colors. It was Cullen hall at HMNS, times nine, plus tiny rocks demonstrating the cutting techniques and bigger rocks demonstrating the carving techniques, and little models of the mines and the cutting workshops. Fortunately for all involved, gemstone names in German are mostly similar to those in English, and those that aren't I could translate for the rest of the party. I picked Wendy up to see the higher cases; I remember being that size, and how cousins would help me.
There was a section at the end of the museum that was for sale; having translated during ticket difficulties at the beginning of the tour, I was addressed most of the time with information about how the nice little old guy could open the cases if we wanted to look at something. He had no English at all, so when mama wanted to buy a rotating rock light and couldn't tell if it was 110 or 220 and so wanted to see the box, and I couldn't think of a word for box, he got the other guy. All the language was untangled, and the box found, and the light bought, and the kids herded back to the car. I gave Wendy a shoulder ride back, and though my calves protested mightily, I, a denizen of a horizontally oriented land, made it up four flights of stairs and two stories of parking garage car ramps with an extra 50 pounds.
It was a highly enjoyable town, but I'm beat. Physically, I'm not at my best. I've eaten basically nothing but Burger King on-base since that first Doener-Kebap, and I eat the fries out of a sense of obligation--we even use the coupons, so it hardly costs anything. So I'm either patiently starving while climbing all over a castle, or stuffed to the gills on the way home and sitting trying to plan the next day.
Speaking of which, we should try to plan the next day. I think we're going to visit Virgilio, my former first-grade games teacher who moved to Germany, got married, has two kids and is expecting another on Tuesday. It'll be good to see him. I expect he'll be surprised at how big I am.
I'm not staying up late again tonight. We keep getting sidetracked by funny videos or theologico-political arguments (last night's was particularly intense). I'm going to sleep and let them plan tomorrow by themselves so they can wake me up and we can leave before noon.
