The days flew by…

Many of us had attended such a course before but in one of the two groups there were two beginners in German. Some of the lessons gave us an introduction to the various afternoon visits and also to our weekend destination, Augsburg. The theme of the local visits was food and drink.

At nine o’clock on the first morning, Wednesday, we were at our first lesson. Then in the afternoon our first visit was to Wild & Co., a company that grows, distributes and processes potatoes, and Herr Wild told us a lot about the firm. As well as supplying potatoes to supermarkets and selling peeled potatoes to restaurants, the company also makes potato salad which is a popular German dish. Their main concern now is energy conservation – they are using solar power and biogas, and developing potatoes that require less irrigation.

Hi vis jackets were de rigueur at the potato factory

That evening we enjoyed a barbecue at the Ottilienberg (St Odile’s Hill), a local beauty spot which is described in our ‘Eppingen’ page.

The Thursday lessons taught us about German wine, and also included a look at the new Epping-Eppingen website with Ruth Schildhauer who was responsible for the design.

That day’s visit was to an organic wine producer at Schwaigern, 14 km east of Eppingen. This included a tractor-trailer ride through the vineyards, with beautiful views over the surrounding countryside. The visit naturally included a wine tasting.

…there was an on-board wine tasting

Our lessons on Friday prepared us for our visit to Augsburg. Situated on the River Lech, this was originally a Roman town. In the Middle Ages Augsburg was on the trade route from Venice to Antwerp, and many of its citizens became wealthy. In 1521 Jakob Fugger founded the Fuggerei, which was the world’s first social housing. This is a town within a town, with 140 apartments in 67 houses. Some of Jakob’s descendants are still involved in the Fugger foundation today. Augsburg is also known for its ingenious mediaeval water management system, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. This led to the development of a lot of industry including the MAN organisation, makers of industrial machinery, armaments and commercial vehicles.

No visit to Germany is complete without ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ and on the Friday afternoon this took place at the large Kolb bakery some kilometres from Eppingen, where we also explored the theme of German bread. At the bakery we were treated to a performance on Veeh harps (a kind of autoharp) by Edeltraud Fick and Kira Wilkens.

The ‘Golden Hall’ in Augsburg was well worth a visit

The ‘Fuggerei’ in Augsburg

We had wonderful weather for the first few days. The weekend started off well as we set off on the three-hour bus trip to Augsburg. Three more Epping people had joined us, and with several Eppingen members we were 29 in all. We had lunch near the main square while we waited for our guides to arrive. We were then in for two surprises. The first was the Augsburg Gay Pride march with an accompanying police escort, which meant we had difficulty finding our guides. The second was heavy rain which lasted for the rest of the afternoon. Nevertheless, the guided tour was very successful. The town hall is a magnificent building with a room on the third floor decorated in gold leaf, demonstrating spectacularly the town’s wealth in the sixteenth century. The following day we visited the Fuggerei, and then saw the Augsburg puppets which are well known throughout Germany. An enjoyable weekend concluded with a delicious supper at an inn near Eppingen during the return journey.

Monday was our last day for tuition. We learned about the German painter Caspar David Friedrich (around the 250th anniversary of his birth), and Goethe’s well-known poem Erl King. We also talked about German beer to prepare us for our afternoon tour of the Palmbräu brewery in Eppingen.

Our final evening was spent in the brewery cellar, where we had a beer tasting accompanied by a three-course meal. It made a special end to a most enjoyable week. Certificates were presented to those who had passed the taught part of the course, which we are pleased to say was all of us. We were able to thank those who had made it possible. Heike Lachowitzer and her committee had organised the week. Our hosts had offered us accommodation and many of them also came on the outings with us. Ruth Schildhauer, Dr Rainer Köthe, Eva Mairhofer and Pia Eggensperger had all done some teaching. Rainer had also given commentaries on some visits, and Eva had translated the speeches.

On the Tuesday morning we said our goodbyes and headed back to the airport for the homeward flight. It had been a splendid week and we hope to encourage more people to come in two years’ time. Next year we will have an English language course in Epping and we look forward to seeing some of our Eppingen friends again then.

Farewell meal in the Palmbräu ‘Ahnenkeller’