The German Countryside, Finally

The village where I stayed

This past weekend the owner of the company, and also my boss' boss, invited me to accompany him and his wife at their country home. Making a long weekend out of it, we left Hessen Thursday afternoon and arrived two hours later in the neighboring state of Rhineland-Pfalz. Until this point, the only countryside I'd seen in Germany was what I could squint at from inside on cross-country train rides. On this trip, however, there was no squinting involved. As we arrived I soaked in the natural beauty which surrounded us - I could see for kilometers around us in almost every direction. We settled in and had a (traditional) German dinner of bratwurst, bread, pork and veggies. Potatoes to come later. We spent the somewhat chilly evening relaxing in front of the fireplace.

It's like, a farm

The next day we were up early to have a light breakfast and visit with some local townsfolk. Herr Winkler introduced me to several people in the surrounding villages, who reminded me of the people one meets at Big Bear (although one must be able to understand a wicked dialect of German to speak with these people.) One owned and operated an eyeglasses business, and while we were visiting he showed me how the factory worked. He actually made the glasses from scratch - frames, lenses and all! We also went to a local pub owned by an 80-year-old lady who looked as if she rose from the grave everyday to serve beer. Later that afternoon Herr Winkler said we'd be going fishing. I'm a fan because you basically sit there and do nothing for five hours. Plus it's quiet, and you can reflect on the week as you stare at the beauty which surrounds you. And getting to play with worms and get dirty brings you back to childhood like nothing else. I was told that I better catch something, because our dinner depended on it! That was the way it worked in these parts - people did everything themselves. The nearest grocery store was 30 minutes away. To my surprise, I was able to pull in three decent-sized fish, enough for the three of us for dinner. We tried unsuccessfully to catch more with food and a net. That night after gutting and baking the fish, we ate them with potatoes. (told ya!)

View from the yard

Saturday we all got to sleep in, and once we were all up and ready we drove through the countryside visiting various people, an art sale, and even a pig roast by the lake. At the roast were people fishing, preparing food, and chatting. I had a few beers, relaxed, and took a turn turning the pig. These small, interconnected Dorfs are the German equivalent to Big Bear.
Herr Winkler explained to me that there, one doesn't have to put up a "front" and try to fit in. Everyone is simple, nice, and hardworking. They accept you as you are and are above all good-hearted. As I asked him later why he chose to live in Frankfurt and not elsewhere in Germany, he explained that in Frankfurt, like in Hamburg and Köln, one lives within their means. Thus, you don't see a lot of Bentleys and fabulous displays of wealth, like one sees in München and Düsseldorf. The Lebensqualität, or quality of life, is high in Frankfurt, supported by the vast array of possibilities in parks, museums, and the river. You also have a good infrastructure in the international airport and train station, which are both central hubs in Europe, and a high concentration of banks and finance companies. I'll keep these things in mind as I ponder how life here could be better than that in Berlin.