h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you've read today's editorial in , you'll know that I went to a vinefest today.

We (my husband, my mother in law and me) left at shortly past ten this morning, and met at the Altes Zollhaus (a restaurant) with our friends from Bad Vilbel. We drove to Zwingenberg, a lovely town at the Bergstraße (a region with a very mild climate, so they grow vine there, amongst many other things) where we met our friend A who lives there.

First, we went to the crafts market, where there was a black smith (I didn't envy them their job next to the fire in the scorching heat), a wood turner and other crafts(wo)men.

As it was lunchtime by now, I had a bratwurst in a bun. We found a place in the shade where we could listen to an organ grinder.

Once we had finished, we went to explore the market. There were many stalls with all sorts of things: scarves, soaps, jewels and many other things.

On our way to the market place where I wanted to the the wine fountain (they have wine flow from it on opening day) we passed a stall selling straw hats and real panama hats.

Now I've wanted to buy a hat for ages, so I tried various hats on.

In the end, I went for a hat with a scarf round it, formed like a flower at one side. There was another hat (different form and colour style) which I really liked, but at €29 per hat, I left it). P's husband bought a Panama hat.

I put the hat straight on, to protect my face from the sun.

When we reached the market, I made my way to the fountain to take a photo. My appearance totally confused a man who leaned against the fountain. He said something (which I didn't understand due to a live band playing), then made a swift movement with his hand, knocking off his sunglasses in the process, which he then had to rescue from the fountain. I thought the hat was definitely worth the money I had spent.

We went and bought some wine, then even found some benches to sit on, so we were happy. At some point, I thought I had made a mistake not to buy both hats, so I went back to the stall and haggled. It was the first time in my life that I haggled for something I wanted to have - and I was even successful. Not as much as I'd have liked to, but I am now the proud owner of two new straw hats.

We had some more wine and something more to eat, then we eventually made our way back to A's house.

It was a good way uphill, so I was somehow 'échauffée' when we arrived.

We then sat outside in the shade with cake, and water and planned our next meet: a tour through the vineyards in a wagon like this:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.feierabend.de/images/channel/web/3/3/g.669183.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.feierabend.de/Darmstadt/02-Aktivitaeten-2009/26-06-2009-Eine-Planwagenfahrt-in-und-um-Zwingenberg-31399.htm&usg=__aT270365yA6ABuwSMf5XUrlbYjo=&h=398&w=530&sz=82&hl=de&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=3WiM3ZLa7yQtSM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplanwagenfahrt%2Bzwingenberg%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

That should be good fun, especially since some wine tasting is part of the parcel.

Seems like it was a very nice day indeed

It certainly does!

Can we nickname you 'Two hats' now?

What a great day. I'm jealous.

Maybe 'two straws' would be more appropriate? because I have more than two hats.

It really was a great day.

The next fixed date so far is the 'literature and Picnic' I attend most years. That will be great, too, no matter which weather we'll have.

I first thought Icy's suggestion was to nickname you "two bats"

That sounds interesting. How is that organized? Is it people reading or talking about books or acting them out or what?

Literature and picnic?

But I'm only as blind as *a* bat.

It's organised by the owner of our lcal bookstore.

I wrote a journal about it

F127730?thread=5596857

It's always a secret where we'll go. I've been taking part for many years, and it's always been fantastic.

Sounds like fun.

You certainly made good use of the holiday, Bel. I now feel guilty of not having done so much (just washing and housework).

If you came just a little further our way, you could enjoy the Straw Hat Festival http://www.frankenthal.de/?id=85

It's only 40 km further from you than Zwingenberg!

We went to a Garden Fair today, but there were so many exhibits and it was so full, we picked up a few brochures and came home none the wiser.

It certainly was fun, Dmitri.

TC, will you go to that festival?

No, probably not. That's the weekend my son gets married.

Then you have more important things to do.

I think I'll give it a miss in that case. It's only fun if you go with friends.

Bel, you and Trillian have both made me homesick. I guess it's a culmination of a number of factors:

1. My wife, A---, has been hounding me to continue work on a novel about my Oma and Opa, set in the WWII era. She's pushing me to finish it before my main source of info, meine Mutti, passes. She's in reasonable health, yet at seventy, she's starting to feel a bit dragged down. My wife wants to ensure the novel is published soon, so my Mom can have a tangible gift from me; something to put to rest a few ghosts from the past. In particular, the horrific times fleeing from Danzig, near catastrophe at almost boarding the Wilhelm Gustloff, and the fluchtlinger passage from Säßnitz/Rügen to Wiesbaden.

2. While doing research for the novel, I spent all of yesterday morning übersetzen (translating) a web page on the Alaris Schmetterlingspark (Butterfly House), just because I could. The Deutscher übersetzung nach English didn't read very well, grammatically or in form, so I took it in hand to help.

3. Several days ago, I spent an inordinate time on-line at work (because we had a dearth of jobs at the end of our Refuel Outage), and I used Google Earth to look up several places in Poland (nee East Prussia) for the novel, and in Germany, for the places I'd lived (Erbenheim, Wiesbaden, Prüm, Schönecken) as a youth and when stationed there during my military career. Some of the places I'd been have since fallen into disuse (decommissioned) and I wept to see photos of the remnants of the air base where I'd worked. My sadness was tempered, however, with thanksgiving for the vitality displayed by the towns where I'd lived, and how they'd grown a bit but not changed beyond recognition.

Your conversation here has stirred all those emotions once again. Not to worry; it's a good thing, to feel rather than to be numb to the world. Thanks.

B4iaskyouwhereyouresideorjustpopover2yourMySpacepage&readyourbioalloveragain

B4, the book is a great idea. You may know the German proverb:

"Wer schreibt der bleibt" (the one who writes will remain ie be remembered).

I think this is still true to some extent, even in our age of 'fast, fast, faster', with media and internet changing by the minute (or so it sometimes seems).

I've been to Wiesbaden a few times. It's a lovely town. I've never been to Erbenheim, though.

Have you ever been to Castle Freudenberg (A37301799)?

I got the invitation for the next Literature and Picnic event today.

It is always a secret where we'll be going, although the invite always contains a clue. This year's clue was a drawing (or old photograph).

I enlarged it, copied it, then searched for it with tiny eye - and now I know where we'll be going.

I really look forward to it, because although it is quite close to where I live, and although we used to go to a leisure park very close to Steinau when the boys were still small, and went for picnics in the nature reserve near there, I've never been to this particular place.

I've searched the web, and the following was the best info in English I could find:

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Germany/Land_Hessen/Steinau_an_der_Strasse-16887/Things_To_Do-Steinau_an_der_Strasse-BR-1.html

It sounds like great fun, Bel. I was hoping it was an idea I could steal for one of my library book clubs. Alas, there aren't any places close by that have literary ties.

My mustery book club mets at noon once a month and the members bring their lunch. That's as close as I'm going to get, it seems.