July 9, 2023
Lovely old place, Germany
VOITZE - All countries have stereotypes. All stereotypes have a basis of truth but a selective truth and even one that has long disappeared. The British don't wear bowler hats, the French don't go for striped jerseys and berets and the Germans, I'm sad to report, don't wear leather trousers and slap their thighs as they drink.
They should, but they don't.
I thought of that as we turned into what's described as the country's oldest outdoor museum. It was mid-morning and it was only metres off our path and a glimpse into the past and the chance of cold drinks and gooey cakes just matched my level of culture and quest for knowledge.
If I spoke German, there's a chance that I could tell you whether this was a restored village or a collection of buildings brought in from elsewhere. But probably the pictures tell all the tale.
Don't look for pictures of the sticky cake, though. It was of the usual German dimensions, which is to say enormous, and I ate it all. Frankly, I'm not interested in your cakes and I doubt you want to see mine.
It's been a mixed day today, and very much in the past. A bumpy past, too, because we have had a bottom-bangingly unfair quantity of cobbles.
Why there should be quite so many cobbles in the Land of the Economic Miracle, I don't know. They must have been as unpopular there as anywhere else. And they were quick enough to do away with the past when it came to 40 years of separation and so you'd think that much earlier they'd have done away with centuries of tooth-shaking cobbles.
But, no. There are long stretches of them through villages, and clearly not to keep up house prices by emphasising the rural idyll. And there are long stretches everywhere else. Hitler may have created the autobahns but he never had the interests of touring cyclists at heart.
Of course, where the roads are old, so are the villages and their buildings. And many of those buildings have painted inscriptions in bygone lettering that I wish I could understand. They are, I imagine, invocations to God to provide good harvests and domestic harmony and to get rid of the cobbles.
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Und geht auf Gottes Wegen
Der wird vom Gott beschützt
Hat Nahrung, Glück und Segen
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Who loves diligence and order,
And walk in God's ways
He is protected by God
Has food, luck and blessings
9 months ago
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God bless us when we come and leave.
(The lower line in white on black)
9 months ago
You, no doubt, know the answer.
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