Old and new friends in Biblis, Germany – Europe Travels August 2022

Once upon a time, Cal and I crossed the English Channel on a ferry from the Dover coast of England to France for a very rough crossing. Let’s just say that it was not a good idea to dine on Indian cuisine before we left London. Fast forward to present day, in which we boarded a train in London for the ride to Brussels beneath the Channel. The train was fast and efficient, and electronic signs measured our speed and depth under the water as we rode. We were in Brussels after what seemed like a minute. That was not our final destination, though.

From Brussels, we caught another train to Germany. This train was not near as much fun.

Just as we were ordering lunch, the lights went out and the train came to a dead stop in a tunnel. We sat in that tunnel for two hours. No wurst was forthcoming, but the sodas and water were free. We had a lively conversation with our German seatmates who spoke English. One of them helped me compose conversations in German on What’s App with my friend Marlene in Biblis, who had been expecting us for dinner. The delay involved being towed back to the last town, Liege-Wilhelm, Belgium, and having to wait for the next train to Frankfurt.

Marlene and her partner Edmund were right there to meet us on the platform when our train pulled into Biblis. Marlene snapped this picture which captures our joy at finally arriving, albeit four hours late.

She is our former landlady, now our friend, of the house we lived in for the almost four years we resided in Biblis. We lived upstairs and she and her husband, who has since passed, lived downstairs in the house they built for children that never came. Our girls adored them, and they helped wrap our time in Biblis into some very happy memories.

We had never met Edmund before this visit. They both rolled out the hospitality for us. We spent a rainy morning looking at pictures and catching up on the years. We admired all the work that Edmund is doing to remodel their house which she grew up in. Outside, Marlene keeps a beautiful garden. Across a small walkway, she has her own home-based business, a footcare salon. It is in a building that was her father’s barn in the old days.

When it was time for lunch, we feasted on Marlene’s delayed but delicious meal from the night before. The rain hadn’t stopped, but we piled into their car anyway for a drive around town.

First on the agenda: a drive-by of the old house.

Ah, sweet memories. Our kitchen window was at top left, and the long window over the garage was in our eldest’s bedroom.

After tooling around town, Edmund headed out into the countryside of the Odenwald forests, to the town of Bensheim, for a visit to the ruins of Schloss (Castle) Auerbach. It was built in the 13th century. Had we ever been here? I really can’t remember; it was too long ago.

From the castle, we enjoyed a beautiful view of the Odenwald hills. The weather was starting to cheer up.

Back in the car, and Edmund was off again, this time to Heppenheim. I thought I had been here before. I know we never walked through the old part of this town. Why ever not? We’d had lots of company and this was close to Biblis. I guess we were busy doing other things.

Heppenheim Altstadt (old town) has the medieval buildings that I love and we spent time strolling through that part of the town. The town was almost destroyed twice by fire, both in 1369 and again in 1693. But it came through both world wars mostly unscathed.

Edmund wasn’t finished driving us around. The next stop was the Rhein River near Biblis, and this was very familiar. But the once-mighty Rhein was almost unrecognizable. I had never seen the water level so low; and in a first for us, we were able to walk right out onto it.

Barge traffic hadn’t completely ground to a halt, despite the low water level.

When our kids were teenagers, we brought them back to Biblis for a visit. The Biblis years were some of the best of our lives and they were sad when we moved away from here. At that time, the visit was full of nostalgia as we visited many places that we had loved. In the intervening years, the sentimental feelings have passed. What has remained is the friendship we feel with Marlene, and now with Edmund as well. With today’s social media and on-line translators it is a little easier to keep up.

The last stop of the day was to Marlene’s favorite chicken restaurant. She brought us here when we visited the last time, too, and we were a little shocked that we had not known about it while we lived here. It’s very simple: just a huge plate of pommes frites (french fries) to share, chicken, and a little piece of bread. Pommes frites in Germany tastes better than anywhere else, in my opinion. Washed down with a beer or a radler, the meal is so very delicious.

After more time that evening at their house, it was time to say our goodbyes. When the next morning came, we were back at the Biblis train station, ready to head southbound.

Next time – our visit to Bavaria