Dettingen an der Erms, Baden-Württemberg, GermanyEASTER in the Ermsvalley
Welcomed by Martin
When we went to board our plane
in Lisbon, we got a message from Martin and Beate and they told us, they will
welcome us in Stuttgart. Paul first thought, that they are driving for 2 hours,
as he forgot that we fly into Stuttgart, this was a super nice welcome to
Germany when he came with the whole family.
With our new car
We went together to the car
rental area: the gentleman said to Paul you ordered a small car and Paul asked
“it’s a small Porsche right” the guy said, no it’s a bicycle with an engine. We
not only got a car but also some lindt little chocolate easter bunnies. And
then we went to find the car: because we were talking so much, we actually
walked to far and had to turn around and then we found the car, loaded and
thought we are ready to go. Problem #1 if you have such a brand-new electronic
automatic vehicle – you have to know on how to put it in drive, it said in
German which button to press, but Paul doesn’t speak German and Gine didn’t
know what they were talking about. Ok finally we are on the go. Gine said right
it says exit – only we ended up at a dead end??? And were confused as it said
exit, then Gine checked and this is when we realized you should also read the
German signs as we drove towards the “Ausgang” which is the exit for foot passengers
instead the “Ausfahrt” which is the exit for the cars… but we did made it out
and drove through beautiful sun shine and flowering spring trees to Dettingen.
And there welcome to Germany with nice supper outside in the sunshine on the
patio.
a sunny walk between
flowering trees
today it was nice and sunny, so
after coffee we decided to go for a nice walk up towards on the summer side to
walk in between the trees. Willi brought his trumpet along – that means once in
a while we also had a nice interruption with some music.
Easter morning & Easter
bunny
It’s easter – we heard already
at 07.30 the trumpets playing to welcome easter, today we also visited the
cemetery – so far we haven’t checked it out. Lots of green and flowers and lots
of empty spots – it is kind of totally different then when we were here years
before.
A busy lunch with the whole
family and then it was time to search for easter bunnies: Noah hit one for
everyone so we also had to go and search for the easter bunnies: it was a long
time ago when we did that the last time….
A level walk in the sun???
What to do: going for a walk?
Gine said sun and level and finally Uli came up with an option, except it was
up the hill and it was not sunny and not level. Through the Zillertal with some
glimpses through the spring forest we came to the old ski jumping area – ok I’m
not sure I would want to jump down there: it was a nice break and from there on
we went to the Wasserstein hoehle a tiny little cave: it went up steep up the
hill, and we were not really prepared for it, after checking the cave and
sitting on the bench we decided to head back the others continued on. Once back
we had coffee – also a bit a late coffee with the rest once they came back and
as they wanted to play a German game we decided to go to Metzingen. I think
they do not realize on how much they all speak and do all in German.
An evening with Martin &
Beate
It was super nice to have a nice
relaxing evening: no long hikes and not a lot of English, it was perfect to
relax. We love visiting with them.
Easter garden in Stuttgart
Today we had another outing, for
a supper yummy lunch we went to Martin and then went for a short sunny
after-lunch walk through some nice flowering trees behind their suburb and then
on we went to Stuttgart where there was an Easter garden. I don’t think we had
a clue what to expect, it was really amazing. here we met Esther Schaaf who
married us 19 years ago, she was also so happy to see us as well tat we are
still happily married. We met also friends of Martin and Beate, who both speak
English as well visited Canada before, so they even were once on Vancouver
Island
We went through different rooms
to “live” the easter story:
- On the Market in Jerusalem: we started out to visit a Market in Jerusalem, here we also learned about the controversy about Jesus
- The last supper: we sit down like in the orient and got some food and heard the story about the last supper
- Gethsemane: we were in the middle of some olive trees, when Jesus was praying and the evil and the good as dancers were around him as well Judas and the soldiers came
- In front of the judge: in the next room we saw on how people dishonored him and how the people had different views, as they want to cruzify him, from there into the next room was Pilatus sitting and making his decision
- The tunnel: from here we walked through a dark tunnel to live through the darkness and the via dolorosa
- The crosses: we were sitting in front of the stone hill with the crosses and heard the story on how Jesus died
- The big cross: in the next room was a huge cross on the floor: here we heard on how you can put your stone (the one we got at the entrance) down at the cross, we can write was makes it hard for us and through it away into the barrels – as well we can walk over the cross to the new beginning
- Through the grave: and through another dark tunnel into the grave – where there was no person only a sign “he is not here”
- The spring of Easter: out on the other side we came in a brightly lit area with lots of spring flowers, we heard about the new beginning, the cleaning water: as a fountain started and saw a beautiful Easter song with happy water bubbles: it is Easter – he is not here – he is risen
2025-05-22