An “Ausflug” is a German word meaning to fly out or away for brief time. For us, an Ausflug is a weekend trip on which we see the country around our home and take as many Volksmarch walks as we can.

Our third Ausflug started on Friday afternoon because we were unable to reserve hotel rooms for Saturday night in Williamsburg, Virginia, for a night Volksmarch. But since the club also offered the night Volksmarch on Friday, we settled on making reservations for Friday night. Since the drive to Williamsburg took around 3 hours and we didn’t want to be walking in the pitch dark, we had to leave Fairfax about 1 p.m. to get to Williamsburg about 4 p.m. That way our walk would be mostly in the early evening dusk.

We had to take the afternoon off work, which was difficult, but we both arranged it. I drove to Monika’s workplace in Newington and we shifted over to the Buick for the drive to Williamsburg. Fortunately, traffic on I-95 was light, so the drive to Richmond went quickly. While taking the bypass around Richmond, we stopped at our favorite Arby’s for lunch and still managed to get to the Ramada Inn in Williamsburg, our starting point, around 4 p.m. When we arrived we asked if we could stay another night at the special rate ($45/night), and much to our surprise they agreed. Apparently some group had cancelled and they now had 10 rooms to spare for Saturday evening. We threw our stuff into the room, signed in for the VM, and walked over to the historic district.

The historic district is the preserved and reconstructed colonial-era buildings and businesses that Williamsburg had when it was the capital of the Virginia colony. The “main street” is the Duke of Gloucester Street, and the trail ran the length of this street before looping around side streets. The houses were all decorated with colonial-era Christmas decorations, consisting mainly of wreaths decorated with fruit and the occasional ribbon. Compared to our current Christmas decorations with multi-colored flashing lights, Santas, and reindeer, it was very low-key. I found it refreshingly natural.

The first loop had a checkpoint promising hot cider, which we were anticipating because it was becoming quite cold as the sun went down. But the Boy Scouts at the checkpoint hadn’t yet warmed the cider, so we settled for having our start cards stamped and continued walking. We passed by the College of William and Mary campus, which is right next to the historic district, and then curled back along side streets to traverse the historic again. Our second checkpoint was a Baskin-Robbins, and I found low-fat yogurt, so we each had an ice-cream cone. I had a chocolate-something with pieces of brownie thrown in, which tasted great but just made me colder!.

By the time we reached the Governor’s Palace, it was quite dark. The trail routed us down an unlit street just North of Duke of Gloucester Street, but we noticed that the latter was reasonably well-lit and decided to take that as the alternate course. Part of the reason was the horse droppings left by horse-drawn buggies hauling tourists around the historic district. Stepping into horse hockey in the dark was something I preferred to avoid. So we returned to Duke of Gloucester, which had fires going outside some of the buildings for illumination as well as a regular sprinkling of electric street lights. It was pretty, if somewhat spooky, in the dark as we passed the House of Burgesses and left the historic district.

Retracing our steps to the hotel, we had our books stamped, drove out to find dinner, and returned to change into bathing suits and jump into the jacuzzi. We warmed up thoroughly that way, and it also felt good for the aching muscles we had from hurrying our walk along. The indoor pool there was also quite warm, so we both oscillated from the jacuzzi to the pool depending on how hot or cold we were. That was a really relaxing way to get ready for bed, and we got to sleep rather quickly.

The next morning had a scheduled day walk, which we had also pre-registered for, so we had a quick breakfast at a pancake house (huge pancakes—I couldn’t even finish mine) and returned to the hotel to register at 8 a.m. sharp. I had had a couple of cups of coffee, so I started singing away while we walked a different route over to the historic district. This route took us out onto a nature trail South of town and then into the golf course there before returning to the Boy Scout checkpoint we had been at the previous night. The wooded area we traversed was quite nice and a little hilly for variety. The trees were quite bare, of course, but on the plus side there was a nice layer of leaves underfoot to cushion the walking. Monika and I find we can walk a lot farther on a natural surface like that without bruising the bottoms of our feet, so we prefer natural trails.

When we arrived at the Boy Scout checkpoint, they had the hot apple cider ready (plus a lot of things I’m not supposed to eat!). Hurrah! We both had a steaming hot cup of it and for the next leg of the walk we were trying to walk without spilling the cider and drink it without burning our mouths. I didn’t do too well, both scalding my mouth at one point and spilling cider on my jacket at another. But to walk along the historic district and looking at the beautiful colonial buildings while drinking hot cider was certainly one of life’s more pleasant moments.

We returned to our start point using pretty much the same path we had the previous evening, so we got to see the historic district both by night and by day. It made for an interesting contrast, and we got some nice pictures of the buildings by daylight. Back at the hotel, we had our books stamped and returned to our rooms. Since we had the hotel room for another night, we decided to do some of the year-round events (YREs) that the Peninsula Pathfinders have located in the area. First, though, we both changed into our new American Volksmarch Association socks (embroidered right on the top of the sock!) before setting off to the YRE in Yorktown.

The drive was quick, and we arrived at the Visitor’s Center at the Yorktown Battlefield National Park around 11. The self-service boxes for the 10 km and 15 km walks were in the gift shop, so we took them both and carefully considered how tired and footsore we were before decided on the 10 km version. The last time we were her we had taken the 15 km version and we remembered how tired we were at the end of that one. We signed in for the 10 km, took the map, returned both the boxes, and started off toward the town of Yorktown which is directly adjacent to the National Park.

Our path lead over a ravine and down the hill to the beach where we saw the cave that Cornwallis had sheltered in during the bombardment from Washington and the French at the Battle of Yorktown. Then the path zigzagged up and down the hill, which was strenuous but a great way to see all the houses in the little town, 6 of which were over 200 years old.

Leaving the town, we walked back out of town into the National Park, making one big loop along the siege lines where the French and American forces had been stationed. I enjoyed reading the roadside plaques which described different aspect of siege warfare of that period—it also gave us a short break in the walk and we were starting to get tired by then. The British fortifications near the visitor’s center were either well-preserved or reconstructed, so that gave us a little better idea of what Washington was facing during the battle.

I found it interesting that Alexander Hamilton lead the American charge to capture a key British redoubt during the last days of the siege. The Americans charged at night with unloaded guns and fixed bayonets against an armed enemy behind fortifications. For Hamilton to lead such a charge must have taken a measure of courage which would be lacking in most of our current political leaders.

Concluding our walk, we stamped our books and bought some books and things at the gift shop. We returned along the Colonial Parkway that connects Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Jamestown because I like driving at moderate speeds along a wide street with light traffic. That way I got to see the scenery also, which is quite interesting along the route. We drove all the way to Jamestown because we wanted to get the map for the walk in case we were early enough to start early on Sunday morning—we both agreed we were too tired to do another one that afternoon.

For one thing, I was hungry, and for another Monika wanted to shop at the Williamsburg Pottery in Lightfoot, Virginia. We drove up to Lightfoot on the side roads, catching a light lunch at a Hardees and still arriving before dark. The “pottery” is a ramshackle, tacky assemblage of buildings with a truly curious assortment of odds and ends, including some pottery. Except for certain items, the prices are not really that low, but the curiosity value is high. So we rambled around and I bought some plaques for decorating my office while Monika searched for poinsettias, not finding any. In compensation we did find a wooden tricycle in 1/12 doll-scale which we bought for her doll collection, and a few other knick-knacks and odds and ends.

They closed up between 6 and 7 p.m., and we drove to some of the outlet strip malls that are in the same area. I did find some nice seat cushions for my office rocking chair for $10, but it was dark and starting to rain and our hearts really weren’t in it. We were so tired of walking and standing by then that we were glad to call it quits and crawl into the car. We trundled off for dinner at a Denny’s before returning to the hotel for another session in the jacuzzi. Ah, bliss!

The next morning, the rain was really coming down. Not a downpour exactly, but a moderately heavy, soaking rain. We got quite wet just crossing the parking lot to Martha’s Plantation for breakfast. There were a gaggle of Volksmarchers already there before us, but they mostly attacked the breakfast buffet so we and one other pair had the other half of the restaurant to ourselves. Monika wasn’t altogether too keen on taking the Jamestown YRE in the driving rain, and it required all my positive, jollying efforts to keep her morale high enough to try it. At one point I generously offered to skip this walk if she didn’t really feel like it, but she accused me of being insincere and refused to take me up on it.

So we checked out and drove along the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown, stopping to read all the signs on the way, which I thought was fun. The rained continued as we obtained the start box from the Visitor’s Center gift shop, so we carefully scanned ahead on the map and instructions for the first checkpoint and then secreted the map in an inside pocket. We should have brought a plastic bag to put the map in like we have seen other Volksmarchers do, but of course we didn’t have one with us.

The path for the walk first looped around the historic section, which is mostly ruins with just the foundation outlines of the original houses showing. We got the date from the plaque in the cemetery at one end of the town and then retraced our steps alongside the James River’s bank to the other end of the town.

Along the way we saw the archeological excavation of the old triangular fort from 1621. The excavation is still in progress but no one was working when we walked by and tarpaulins were covering the excavation pits. The archeology folks really have found a lot of exciting old stuff during the last few years of excavations.

After walking thru the remainder of the “citty”, we repassed the Visitor’s Center and ducked in to use the bathrooms and warm up before heading out toward the glass-blowing house near the park entrance. The cold rain kept falling steadily and the wind was in our faces. Monika couldn’t see and finally took off her glasses in exasperation, and I kept trying (unsuccessfully) to tie the drawstrings on my hood so that it would blow off my head. We were both soaked from the waist down, and the wind was just roaring down the river at us. My corduroy pants were acting just like a sponge for the cold water. Brrrr!

I tried to joke about having the wind at our backs on the way back, but I didn’t get any response—leading me to the epiphany that if things kept going like this I was going to incur one of those big marital IOUs. That’s the kind of experience that is so bad that you keep hearing about it for several years afterwards or until your spouse does something equally awful to you.

Fortunately, when we arrived the glass-blowing house was in operation, as it is almost every day of the year, and it was warm and dry inside. We tarried intentionally and watched them making heart-shaped pitchers while we dried off and warmed up. That took a while so we got to watch all steps in the process at least twice. Afterwards we delayed some more to buy one of those pitchers and some postcards—it was so wet I hadn’t even brought the camera.

As we were returning from the glass house, much to my surprise the rain let up. I was surprised because I had been saying exactly that all the way out to the glass house, just to keep our spirits up. But I knew all along it was a whopper because the rain showed absolutely no sign of decreasing. It was a pleasant surprise to have a whopper come true—I wonder if that ever happens to politicians? In any case it restored our spirits and saved my bacon by avoiding that big marital IOU.

As we started the second loop down the island, we started drying off, except for the sneakers which always act like a sponge once they are thoroughly soaked. The wind eased off, decreasing the wind chill so we even put back our hoods to look around and enjoy the walk. The pine forests are growing undisturbed on the island and might have looked somewhat the way they did when the Jamestown colonists arrived. The swamp areas, excuse me, “wetlands”, also probably look a lot like they did at that time. Not much you can do to a swamp.

While passing the swamp, we frightened a really large blue heron and it gave out a series of very piercing calls while flapping away from us in an agitated fashion. The curious thing was that cars were driving this loop quite regularly, but apparently since we were walking we were unexpected and frightened the bird. Monika also saw a deer jump across the road, but I was looking elsewhere and missed it.

By the time we got back to the Visitor’s Center we were dried off to merely damp, but still bone-cold. We stamped our books and bought a couple of things in the gift shop before departing for home but weren’t there long enough to warm up. We turned the heat in the care up full blast as we drove home, and we just kept it that way for over an hour. Ordinarily we don’t keep the heat on full-blast for more than a couple minutes, so we really must have been cold.

We stopped by the Arby’s on the Richmond bypass on the way back, but they were too crowded so we kept on driving. As soon as we arrived home, Monika reheated the roast beef from those cheap roast beef sandwiches in a potato hash for lunch. And to cap it all off, the Redskins won another football game (which is pretty special this year!).