March 28 - Heide

Germany had shifted to daylight savings time overnight, and we found the “Funkuhr” (radio-set clock) had successfully caught the signal and reset itself one hour ahead but we had to set the other clocks and watches the old-fashioned way. Nevertheless, we used the alarms to get up by 7, have a hearty breakfast, and start walking downhill to the Reinbek station shortly after 8. The hearty breakfast included cereal, rolls, and soft-boiled eggs because we were not all that certain when we would be able to have lunch. From Reinbek we caught the chain of trains over to Altona on the other side of Hamburg and then took a regional train pretty much due north to the little town of Heide (Bahnhof at 54 degrees 11.675 minutes north, 9 degrees 5.906 minutes east).

There were no signs to the starting point, but we had checked the location using the Grosse Reiseplanner software the night before and knew we had to take Klein Bahnhof street to the right of the tracks pretty much due north until we intersected Waldschloesschen Street. Then all we had to do was find number 48, which turned out to be about 4 blocks to the northeast. The friendly folks in what appeared to be the school cafeteria there were glad to take our money (1.5 Euro each), and explain the turnoff for the 5-kilometer route that we thought might be better for Lois.

So we set off to the east and, going astray only one time, found our way out to the first checkpoint where the 5 kilometer route diverged from the 10 and 20 kilometer routes. It was amazing how quickly the town turned into farm fields as we walked out. We talked about many things, among which was the current state of music education in the U.S. versus Germany. From Monika’s experiences and Lois’s knowledge of elementary education, we concluded that music education was pretty basic in Germany but for the most part non-existent in the U.S. We branched off to the north thru the fields to rejoin the 10-kilometer trail on its return leg, and along the way we encountered a rather hopeful pony grazing by the fence. Without having something to feed it, however, we couldn’t hold its interest so it returned to grazing while we continued back to the start/finish point.

The friendly folks back at the cafeteria had a rich potato soup that combined with the wieners (long and thin) were sufficiently filling that we could face the walk back to the Heide train station and the 2½ hour trip back. We all really enjoyed riding on the train and found one of those 2 facing 2 sets of seats where we could converse easily, which made the time pass quickly by. We talked about our family, of course, but Lois also mentioned the fact that when she was young she could never have imagined being able to travel from Chicago and particularly not to Europe. In her worldview at that time, travel to Europe was only for “rich people”. Now she has traveled to England twice in the last two years and was now visiting Germany.

The only fly in the ointment during our trip back was a bunch of drunken Hamburg soccer fans heading for the game, but they were cheerful rather than obnoxious so that wasn’t so bad. On the S-Bahn heading from Altona back to Reinbek I also watched two couples laughing while trying to do chin-ups on the bars at the rear of the coach where the straps for standees were attached. The two men made it, crashing their heads into the ceiling and the two women didn’t, but I’m not sure whether that was being too weak or just being too sensible. In any case, who says the Germans are all sober and serious? These Germans certainly were not! The only explanation I could find for all this unusual behavior was either that someone had spiked the punch or maybe just having the previous two straight days of sunshine had disturbed their emotional equilibrium.

We were not lucky enough to catch one of the 236 buses—they only ran once an hour on Sundays—so we trudged back uphill to the house and settled in for Kaffeetrinken. While we waited for the evening news Monika built a fire, I wrote in the journal, and Lois did crossword puzzles. She didn’t want to fall asleep until later to try to reset the old body clocks, which was pretty wise. On the news broadcast “Welt Spiegel” (World Mirror) I learned that China was fining morbidly obese citizens to the tune of 600 Euro! That’s a hefty fine in a poor country. China also uses compulsory anti-fat indoctrination classes. We saw scenes from a fat reduction clinic where they used the ever-popular acupuncture with pins sticking out of a patient’s stomach (the more pins, the more placebo effect, I presume), but they also tried to help patients become active in sports and control their eating.