Bitburg-my Mom's home town

---

Aaahhh…it was so nice to wake up and not have anywhere to rush to today! I leisurely got up, went out to the kitchen got my 1st cup of coffee, and went back to bed to read for a little bit. The smell of the coffee eventually woke Kenya up, so started the day!! After taking a shower, we took Falco for a long walk and ate breakfast…you guessed right…fresh rolls!!!!



Our plan for the day, was to just explore Bitburg and get reacquainted with it. I had not been there for 25 years, and there were a few things that were familiar to me…the brewery of course!! But the town had expanded its’ brewing operations, so there were several new buildings and a new factory that you could see for miles! We walked into town, where it is pedestrian only, and explored all of the shops and bakeries. There was the Gäβestrepper Fountain…let me tell you that story!! It’s a good one from the town’s history!



A long, long time ago, there was a small town known as Beda, which today is called Bitburg. It was a very small, friendly place, in the middle of the region of Germany called “the Eifel”. About three hundred and fifty years ago, the terrible Thirty Years War devastated Europe. And so it came that one day soldiers of the Swedish king approached the city walls of Beda. The townspeople barred the city gates in order to keep the soldiers from ransacking their village. The Swedish soldiers decided to lay siege on the town in order to starve the townsfolk. Soon there was nothing left to eat in Beda. Hunger and sorrow spread through the town. The desperate people were about to give up. As a last resort, the mayor summoned the city council. There they sat, the stumped councilmen, unable to find a solution. But suddenly, after a long time, one of them had an idea…they called all of the children of Beda, took the skins of the butchered goats down from the drying line, dressed the children in the skin, and sent them to parade on the city wall. There, the children did their part by walking and jumping just like real goats. The Swedish commander, looking through his spyglass, couldn’t believe his eyes! He could only conclude that the besieged townfolk had plenty to eat for a long time to come. As it turned out, the Swedes decided not to wait for the city to fall. Discouraged, they lifted the siege and marched away. Through this trick, the children of Beda saved the townfolk. And to this day, Bitburgers are called “goatskinwearers”, or Gäβestrepper. My mom told me this story as a child, and now she told Kenya the story all over again! So the iron fountain was little children covered in goat skins, frolicking in the water.



I thought that was a great story! J Anyway, we continued through the town, where my mom showed us where she went to school, where my Opa was a professor, where she and my dad met, and you are never going to believe what she did next! Never in a million years did I expect this!!! We were walking down an alley, past an apartment complex, when she said to Kenya…”want to see what we did as kids for fun?” She then proceeded to push every single buzzer on the front door and ran!!! DING DONG DITCH!!! I was completely appalled!! Here we were, the ONLY people around, and she pulls a stunt like that? OMG!!! By the time we got through running around the corner, and laughing till pee was running down our legs (kidding…) I said…”what are you thinking, teaching my daughter something like that??!!” She just shrugged and said she wanted Kenya to know her Oma was adventurous and fun too! LOL So of course…everywhere we went after that, Kenya wanted to do the ding dong ditch game!! But I would NOT let her, and Oma said she had to be strategic about it…jeez… When we got home later that afternoon, I tattled on her to my uncle, who happens to be pretty high up in the police force!!! He had a good laugh about it too!!!



My aunt had been busy while we were gone. She had made my dad’s favorite meal…Rouladen! Rouladen is a meat dish, where you use really thin flank steak, and roll it up with spices, bacon and cabbage (I think) inside. You boil it in a broth, and later make gravy from the broth. She also made purple cabbage and potatoes with it. The potatoes in Germany are divine! They taste like butter even just plain! But add some rich sour cream and a little salt and pepper, and you are in heaven!! The cabbage was delish too!



The rest of the day was spent laying out in the yard, talking over an afternoon espresso, and climbing the trees…just what a vacation should entail!

---