Three Stooges Go to Germany

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: What was your first big trip? I suppose that my first trip to Germany was my first big trip, but I mentioned that in my story A Blind Date with Destiny. So this is about the second time that I went to Germany.

When our daughter Roxanna was getting ready to graduate from high school, she told me that there was a program called the Congress-Bundestag Fellowship program that she wanted to try out for. If she was chosen to participate, she would live with a host family in Germany for a year.

Roxanna had taken German for four years in high school. She has always been a talker and she would learn a second language if necessary so she could talk even more with even more people. She did well in German. Going to Germany for a year would certainly be a wonderful opportunity to really learn the language.

I told Roxanna that I really did not think that her father would allow her to go to a different country for an entire year. Up until that point, he had been hesitant to even let her spend the night with anyone except for family. I told her that it was probably a long shot for him to agree to a year abroad but she should ask.

Well, she asked and he agreed; almost without hesitation, he agreed. After picking up my jaw from the floor, I smiled and hugged Roxanna.

So, Roxanna went to a small town in Germany called Troisdorf and lived with a couple who had a daughter a little younger than Roxanna.

I remember when I first talked to Roxanna on the phone after she had been in Germany for a while, she told me something that I had already surmised. “Momma, I thought that I knew how to speak German, but I really don’t know how to at all!” That would soon change because nothing stands between Roxanna and her talking!

So Roxanna was away from home for a year. Although she had graduated from high school, she would attend a final year in a gymnasium in Troisdorf Germany just like a German student. She made many friends and enjoyed submersing herself into all that was German. She loved to travel around visiting local landmarks. One of her favorite spots to visit was the Dome Cathedral in Cologne.

In spite of enjoying her experience, everything was not rosy. Roxanna was homesick and she did not seem to be a good fit with the host family. She asked me to send her pictures of her room and our house which I did. Her dad decided that I needed to go visit her while she was in Germany to help ease her homesickness.

Well, I was not keen on traveling to Germany by myself. I was shocked when Mom said that she would go with me. When Mom talked with her sister Fanny and told her what we were planning on doing, Aunt Fanny decided that she wanted to go too. My eight-year-old cousin Chase’s class had read Flat Stanley, so Flat Chase would also accompany us to Germany.

And THAT is the story behind “the three stooges’” visit to Germany!

So, Mom, Fanny and I got everything in order and were on our way to Germany! Flat Chase was with us too.

Of course, we had a couple of transfers during our flight from Nashville to Germany. First, we stopped in either New York or DC; I cannot really recall which. We made the next leg of our trip without incident but our next transfer was in London.

Now, I knew that we didn’t have much time to make it to our gate in London and I had no way of knowing how long it would take to get there. This made me a bit anxious.

Now Aunt Fanny is a smoker. Even back in 2005 when we made our trip, smoking was becoming a more and more restricted activity. There were designated smoking areas and they were not around every corner.

As we hurried through the airport, hopefully toward our gate, Aunt Fanny began to need a cigarette and began searching for a smoking area. I told her that we didn’t have time to find one. We progressed a bit further and she said that she thought that there was a smoking area “over there” and she needed to go smoke a cigarette. I told her that we had to make it to our gate. She said that she thought we had time for her to smoke a cigarette. I told her that she could find a smoking area after we got to our gate but we didn’t have time before.

Finally, we made it to our gate and they were already boarding the flight. Aunt Fanny looked surprised and said, “Wow, we really didn’t have time!” I hope that she didn’t think that I was just trying to torture her, but I didn’t want to be stranded in London after missing our flight.

Somehow the three stooges made it to Germany. Roxanna had reserved us a room in the little hotel there in Troisdorf. We met Roxanna’s host family and shared a typical German meal with them of sausages, boiled potatoes, and kohlrabi. For one meal, we ate supper at a nice German restaurant that served authentic German food.

 

                                                           The Troisdorf Hotel.

I looked forward to trying the sauerkraut at this German restaurant. I imagined that it might be even better than Aunt Alta’s had been and I hadn’t had Aunt Alta’s kraut since she had passed away. Alas, it was not at all what I expected; it had cloves in it! Aunt Alta made stand-alone sauerkraut. It certainly didn’t need cloves or any other addition to make a shiver go up your spine. So, even after trying sauerkraut in Germany, Aunt Alta’s kraut still reigns supreme!

Most of the time, it was Roxanna and the three stooges galavanting around Germany. We got to sample a bit of life in a place where mass transit is the main method of travel. There were very few cars driving around Troisdorf. Often when a car was seen, it was one of those tiny electric cars that resemble a sardine can on wheels; tiny wheels. Folks utilized travel by bus or train. Shorter trips were taken by walking or bicycling. Perhaps in part due to this, it seemed that everything looked so neat and clean. Litter was rare. Colorful flowers were in window boxes, planters, everywhere! I had been struck by the apparent age of buildings in Germany. Many of them had been around centuries before our nation was even a nation. That age was not evident through the accumulation of years of grime as everything seemed almost pristine.

 

 

Roxanna was a wonderful tour guide. She walked fast and Mom, Aunt Fanny and I were like three ducklings following a few steps behind Momma Duck. Occasionally, Roxanna would look back to make sure that her ducklings were still in tow but she had us on a tight schedule and she didn’t let us lollygag. She kept her ducks a’runnin’! We rode buses, we rode multiple trains, and of course, we walked…we walked fast in order to keep up with Momma Duck!

 

                                            Flat Chase with Roxanna at the train station.

One of Roxanna’s favorite places that she had visited was the Dome Cathedral in Cologne. She had visited there multiple times and she had to take us there. It was certainly an impressive place. It had beautiful stained glass windows, ornately carved woodwork and stonework, and many holy relics. I can’t remember exactly, but I think that they had a splinter of Christ’s cross, some bones of a saint or two, a shrine holding the Magi…

 

The Shrine of the Magi

It was a place full of beauty but somehow, I personally feel that such wealth does not belong in a house of God. I believe that all of the money that goes into those stained glass windows, all of that ornately carved wood, all of that ostentation could be better spent providing for folks who are unable to independently meet even their basic needs. The Dome of Cologne, Notre-Dame of Paris, Washington National Cathedral in DC, are all beautiful to behold but they bring to my mind the Tower of Babel.

So we visited museums. We walked by the home of Beethoven. We three stooges would follow Momma Duck around all day and then return to the little hotel in Troisdorf for the evening, Just around the corner from the hotel was a little restaurant, the Adria. There we would enjoy supper before returning to our room to turn in for the night.

And we did enjoy our suppers! We could sit, relax, and just enjoy each other’s company without worrying about getting separated from Momma Duck. Aunt Fanny was delighted to discover that this little restaurant in the small German town of Troisdorf actually had escargot. I believe that every night that we ate at the Adria, Aunt Fanny ordered escargot and she washed those snails down with chardonnay.

 

                                                                The Adria Restaurant.

So we lingered over our supper just happy to be able to sit and not run after Momma Duck. The little restaurant must have played music because I recall Aunt Fanny and I singing B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets more than once. I also recall tapping on the table to the music and claiming that we could be the Beatles. Of course, I would be Ringo since I could obviously play “drums”!

After enjoying a relaxing and entertaining supper, we would make it back around the corner to our hotel. We would be laughing, singing, cutting up like kids. I am pretty sure that the hotel staff thought that we had all been drinking even though only Aunt Fanny had had wine.

Aside from those relaxing suppers with good company at the Adria each evening, my favorite part of our trip was taking a boat down the Rhine River. The river had narrow bands of river bottomland lined with small towns along the banks. There were terraced fields that I believe held vineyards. Ancient castles, some in ruins, at least one converted into a hotel, stood on bluffs above the river. While witnessing these structures, I found myself trying to imagine all of the changes that those ancient castles had “witnessed” from their lofty perches over the Rhine. If only those walls could talk, what stories they might tell!

  

 

 

 

So, when our time was up, the Three Stooges and Flat Chase returned home. I am sure that Flat Chase had some wonderful tales to tell Chase’s class. I just hope that Flat Chase knew that in some instances, what happened in Troisdorf, stayed in Troisdorf!