The generosity of Karin and Joachim continued this morning with them inviting us to join them at their house for breakfast. And what a breakfast it was! Karin said that it was a typical Thuringian breakfast: slices of bread, 2 types of brötchen (buns), cheese, Thuringian wurst of several sorts plus other cold meat options, boiled eggs, a savoury spread, honey and homemade strawberry conserve, plus coffee or, for me, hot water.
It was a very leisurely breakfast and we spoke about so many things, always with the help of Google Translate. They spoke about living in East Germany before the reunification. They said that life was much better then and that the cost of living rose sharply from 1990. I asked what, if any, improvements were there after the reunification, and Karin said that being able to travel was one and being able to buy a dishwasher was the other.
Neither Karin nor Joachim could think of any other improvements, only negatives. I asked what improvements do they think the former West Germany gained and they both laughed when they decided that the West can now buy Thuringian wurst, the best wurst in Germany.
When breakfast was finished Karin insisted that we make up a packed lunch for ourselves.
When we thanked them for their generosity and hospitality Karin said that is what Thuringian people are known for. We can only agree.
And we are the recipients of Thuringian generosity again tonight. Karin arranged for us to stay with a friend of hers, here in Kirchheilingen. When I asked Karin last night about making contact with her friend Karin told me that she, Helga Dietrich, would be away from home but we could still stay in her house.
Arrangements were made for us to go to her brother's house, not far from Helga's, and for him to show us through her house and give us the key. So here we are, in some very generous and trusting woman's home. Not only has she left beds made up for us, she left a note telling us to help ourselves to the fruit, vegetables and eggs she had left out on her kitchen table. Her note also wished us a good night at her place, and as payment, she would like a postcard from somewhere along the way and another from New Zealand.
Karin's helpfulness continued this morning by driving us to Ebeleben, the next town on what would have been our walk for the day, where she showed us a small schloss and walked through the schloss gardens with us before driving us on a bit further along our day's walk and farewelling us.
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| Karin said to show our granddaughters this photo of their alpacas at Christmas time. |
Karin explained that the Palmenhaus, the small schloss, was the summer house of the Little King. She said that the Big King had a bigger schloss somewhere else. We presume that the Little King was the King's young son. The schloss was built in the 1800s, so not that old by German standards, but in another part of the schloss gardens are the remains of a schloss built in the 1200s.
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| The Little King's summer schloss. |
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| A statue of the Little King on his horse. |
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Karin adding a new Via Romea marker at the point where she dropped us off.
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| Off we go, on what ended up being a very walking short day. |
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| The longest slug we've ever seen. |
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| The whole of today's walk was among wind turbines. |
We stopped for lunch in Blankenberg, the only village on today's walk, another tidy, well presented village.
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| Blankenburg. |
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A mural on the fire station wall in Blankenburg.
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We've seen so many rose bushes but none in bloom, some hadn't even developed buds. This is the first time we've seen plants starting to flower.
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| A rose garden in Blankenburg. |
Then it was on to Kirchheilingen.
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| We've walked on many concrete slab roads in former East Germany. |
Our home for tonight in Kirchheilingen.
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| Helga Dietrich's house. |
Helga has a gorgeous rambly garden full of flowers and fruit trees plus a large vegetable garden. Home vegetable gardens have been very rare along our walk so far.
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| Just one of the many peony plants in Helga's garden. |
We couldn't find a supermarket or grocery store but we did find a treasure trove of meat at the Landfleischerei and Wurstkammer - Country Butchershop and Sausage Chamber. We bought bratwurst which we cooked for dinner, and a few smoked and dried wurst.
The shop sold several other items as well as the fabulous meat and wurst so were able to buy yoghurt and buns for tomorrow's supplies, to have with the dried wurst we bought.
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| St Bonifatius Kirche in Kirchheilingen. |
Kirchheilingen is a municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany.
Population 769
Source: Wikipedia
