Only two and a half weeks to go now. The car is ready, though the ferry isn't yet booked. My German is brushed up, or at least a little less scruffy than it was a month ago. The cottage is reserved and thanks to the marvels of Google Earth you can even see it on a satellite photo:
The cottage is in the hamlet in the middle of the picture, called Friedrichsaue; the small town at bottom right is Zierenberg. This next picture is looking from the hills on the far side of Zierenberg towards Friedrichsaue:
Incidentally, the two forested peaks in the centre of the horizon are Groß-Gudenberg and Klein-Gudenberg - Big and Little Wodan's Hill, Wodan being the ancient pagan god known to the Vikings as Odin.
I'll be spending a lot of time from June to September wandering around such hills with their weird pagan names. Hessia is chock full of springs, forests and peaks whose names recall an entire landscape of pre-Christian mythology that was otherwise wiped out by missionaries from the eighth century. It's my mission this summer to rediscover it...
It looks beautiful and is *probably* a good deal less hot and snake-filled than the Mixtequilla...
ReplyDeleteThis looks like tons of fun! I wish I could join you. I did take two years of German in college and one year of old norse, not that I recall that much of either.