Day 15 - Bad Mergentheim - Rest Day

Today was our second 'Rest Day' in the beautiful village of Bad Mergentheim, in the district of Baden-Wurttenberg. It was another lazy start to the day. Our table was already prepared and waiting for us at breakfast, and Vanya (the owner's lovely wife) was already standing at our table ready to receive us. We were immediately presented with the large plate each of the selection of meats, cheeses, sliced tomato and cucumber, with a basket of lovely crisp rolls and croissants on the table. Vanya asked if we would like our boiled egg, and of course we obliged! The coffee was 'bottomless'. We will miss the breakfasts at the Hotel Alexander when we leave tomorrow.

Following breakfast, we packed our new backpack and went exploring the very large 'Schloss' park which dominates this side of the village just down the road from the Hotel. It was wonderful to basically lose ourselves in the park, with its massive trees which are now beginning to change colours with the on-set of autumn. Walking under these trees, they not only constantly drop their leaves, but very large acorns the size of golf balls! The walk was relaxing and quite invigorating as we enjoyed what is regarded as one of the outstanding parks in all of Germany.

While still in the park, we stumbled across this amazing bike riding school for kids which was supervised by a young female policewoman! The kids were about ten years of age. It was a specialised bike riding track for the purpose, and while some kids were riding around the winding circuit resembling actual street conditions, other children had responsibilities of 'traffic control', stepping out in front of occasional riders to point out something that the rider had performed incorrectly. The policewoman looked like she enjoyed her job. Bikes are as common as cars here in Germany, and even the very elderly still appear to get around the village on their bike. They also ride very fast.

The park was simply stunning, with bike/walking paths winding their way all through and over the park. There was no shortage of intersections, and options in terms of directions to take next. This photo captures the new backpack purchased here at the bike store in Bad Mergentheim, superbly modelled by its new owner!

We wandered away from the park and stumbled upon this amazing cemetery. We haven't seen cemeteries on our journey so far, and certainly not seen anything that resembled a cemetery for German war dead. This was the local cemetery for the village, but it contained a special section for the local boys from the village who did not return from World War 2. There were not that many graves, but they mostly told a very sad story. The majority of those in this section died in 1944, which was the year of the Normandy invasion which ultimately led to the invasion of Germany and the ending of the war.

This was probably the saddest grave in the military section. Oscar was 18 years of age, and was killed in 1944, like most of the others. There were a number of similar age. He was just a boy from the village who would have been conscripted into the German army, probably sent to be part of the defence of the Normandy front, and did not come back to his family. Despite what we may think about the causes for WW2, when we see the impact on the local family in just one of hundreds of small villages throughout Germany, we see the sheer futility of war.

A lovely feature of the cemetery were the many family garden plots so lovingly nurtured and maintained. This one was typical of the remainder of the cemetery, containing the remains of multiple members of one family.

Julie had her heart set on enjoying coffee in the sun at the Schloss Cafe. It was the perfect picture today. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. It was a lovely temperature and it was not hard to spend some lazy time in this most beautiful setting, just outside the former moat of the Schloss (castle) which was the residence and main administration centre including a magnificent Cathedral for the Deutschmeisters and the Hochmeisters of the Teutonic Order of Knights who ruled from Bad Mergentheim from 14th to 17th century.

As the afternoon progressed and while Julie read her new book, I took the bike out of town to test the new cycling shoes and especially to see if the cleats had been fixed in position correctly. It was also helpful to clarify the route out of town for our early departure tomorrow. I discovered this newly harvested corn field.

Julie and I have discovered a conspiracy. We have had our suspicians aroused for many days now. Almost since the day when we started our bike journey we have been riding past vast fields of corn. Sometimes we have cycled for kilometres with nothing else in view but large, open fields of corn. However, the 'penny' only dropped a few days ago. Despite all of the beautiful displays of farm vegetables we have seen on roadsides and in vegetable markets, we have never seen one cob of corn for sale. Even on menus in restaurants, we have been served all kinds of vegetables, but never corn. We have never seen corn for sale. The churches have lovely harvest festival displays now in their churches, but none include corn.

So where is the corn? What is the story? We are intrigued. Is there a black market for corn? Is it so precious that it cannot be wasted on the normal German diet? Our suspician is that it is used for 'bootlegging', illegal distillaries that are making huge profits from the distilling of corn! We feel that German children are being deprived of a natural healthy ingredient by the misappropriation of all the corn grown in Germany. Watch this space. This may go viral! 

And speaking of misappropriation, what a wast of a good bike! This would be the only wooden wagon in the world fitted with a bike roof rack! It is an advertisement for a local family Hotel/restaurant in town. We will pass it again on our way out tomorrow.

 In the few weeks we have had in Germany, we have seen hundreds of old buildings. Seeing this door today, which is on the edge of the central marketplatz in the village, it suddenly dawned on us just how old, not the buildings so much but the doors! This door has been opening and shutting and ushering people in and out of this building for nearly 350 years! What stories it could tell. What secrets it might be able to reveal. As we walked home to end our final day in Bad Mergentheim, I couldn't help but reflect on the old door, and many like it.

The Bible speaks about another door, one which is much older and yet still very contemporary. It was Jesus who said "I am the door" (John 10:9). Jesus was speaking of the enclosure where sheep are contained each night. There was only one entry, one 'door' through which the shepherd would lead his sheep every evening. Using the sheepfold as the analogy, He wants to show that when it comes to eternal life, He is the door through which we may have access. It is worth thinking about.

Tomorrow we ride to another beautiful village of Dinkelsburg, and cross into Bavaria. We look forward to that. Tonight we will celebrate our few days in Bad Mergentheim at Vanya's lovely Greek restaurant in this Hotel Alexander (named, we presume, in honour of Alexander the Great).

As the sun sets over this beautiful village of Bad Mergentheim, we send you our love. Kelvin & Julie