Holiday - Ascension Day

I think myself pretty adept at computer. Here, for instance, you're reading my blog with a header I created myself of blended photos and all the other personalized elements.  I've done other blogs for the grandkids.  Et cetera.

But all the work I had put into writing the previous post was erased in one mal-typed keystroke. Where did it go??? I have no idea what I did or how I did it.  Too bad, since I would like to not do that again.

So, start again.

It's a holiday, a Thursday. And wouldn't you know, nice weather!!!  Not incredibly warm, but sunny.  We're game for a trip - put the bikes on the car and go someplace.

It's Himmelfahrt in German.  In English, it's Ascension Day. Though few Germans actually celebrate the religious-ness of the holiday, it has become a federal holiday.  And somewhere in the last 150 years or so, it has become Vatertag, or Father's Day.  That translates to: go out with the guys and get drunk as a skunk.  I exaggerate a bit, but only a bit.  The younger, not-yet-father guys do tend to get together and do bike tours and drink too much.

In order to avoid those types, we chose a path in the boonies.

 

What fun!  Where we parked the car was directly across from the local May Pole.

And we weren't 100 meters along the bike path before we saw the first sign for the drink-till-you-can't party. Father Party, or Fati-Pati to transliterate.

I thought I'd take pictures of all the signs at the town borders and count all the distinct villages and towns we went through.  I couldn't keep up - but here's the first, Essen with a backdrop of blooming fields of canola. 

Really, the fields were so YELLOW!  How spring!  I does lift the spirits and helps a bit when the legs want to quit.

So, the road ended. Really.  Roadworks, surface and foundation gone.  Can we go further?  Ask the local potato farmer, ready with TONS of potatoes to plant.  On a holiday.  No holiday for farmers.

Yes, he said, soldier on and push your bikes for a kilometer or so.  And we did and then came to Bücken.  A village, small, but with a significant church.

Two spires.  Founded in the 9th c, the current church is from the 14th c.  Really.  It's approaching 600 years old.

In the 19th c it was in disrepair, and desperately so.  A local activist gathered sponsors to restore the church.  Thank you, Adalbert Hotzen.

The altar piece is a wonder.

And other elements in the church are wonderful too.  Here, a baptismal font.

This I want to know more about. Which saint or prophet holds such a load on his shoulders?

Hoya was the next stop. We've been there several times and it's charming.  But confusing!!  And not unusual with us, we get lost.  How in the world do we get out of this place?  Back and forth we went, looking for the way out.  Though others may object (Lee? Michelle? Crissy? Joey?) we CAN read a map. Turns out the road changed names, very common here, so we trusted our instincts and found the way.

Pedal, pedal, pedal. Along the side of the county road:  fruit trees!  Pear, cherry, apple, plum.  The locals can enjoy the free fruit later in the season.  But in fact the fruit belongs to the community, and sometimes you can't just pick up the fruit.  Seems strange to me....

We're hungry. It's coffee and cake time.  What to do?  Well, there's a café in the middle of nowhere in the minuscule village of Reithausen.  

Once again, I have to say, how charming is that???  A little farmhouse with tables and umbrellas outside, seating inside (but who would confine themselves there on such a beautiful day???) and a selection of home-made pastries that makes you want to say "One of each, please!"

After that pleasant pause, we were on our way again and passed an asparagus field.  Not the first.  It doesn't look very appealing -- all these little hills covered with plastic (some even have heating!!!!) to serve our national appetite for Spargel.  It is so labor-intensive and there are few Germans willing to do the labor that harvesting these delicacies requires.  Here, we import eastern Europeans; there you import South Americans.  

It was an incredible day.  Not such a long tour, only 33K, and we took our time.  But what a nice beginning to what we hope will be  a fun bike season.