Mary’s New Year’s holiday

For latecomers, our daughter Mary has lived in Germany since 1984; she is a pianist who has worked for several opera houses but now is with the Mannheim Opera Company. She lives an interesting life, to say the least.

Although she and her Significant Other, Rainer, share a spacious apartment in the Ruhr Valley city, Gelsenkirchen, where he plays oboe in the orchestra, she has found herself a couple of rooms about a block from the theater in Mannheim. We haven’t seen it yet, but plan to go over this summer.

My first visit to Germany took place during Mary’s first year there. I was eager to spend time with her and experience Europe, not knowing that she would renew her Fulbright grant and continue to live in Germany for the next two decades.

I was working as office manager for a Fayetteville dentist, and the only way I could get enough time together to make the trip worthwhile was to save my two-week vacation from 1984, add the number of days the office closed for Christmas, then spend my 1985 vacation.

Need I tell you, it was the coldest few weeks of my life. We traveled quite a bit, by train and foot, and thanks to Mary’s planning and foresight, on a very tight budget. Among the highlights were Strasbourg, France (the capitol of the European Union), and the precious little town of Colmar, which I remember as clusters of houses with the upper stories all leaning toward the street, one beyond the other.

We were in Vienna, Austria, on New Year’s Eve. In hindsight I don’t know how we found a room, but I recall it was in a large old townhouse, third floor, toilet down the hall, yet with a shower stall and sink in the room.

We’d walked and walked, sightseeing after dark, since the sun went down about 4 o’clock. Mary wanted to find a restaurant where people would hang out to celebrate the New Year, but I was so tired we didn’t stay long. I’m sure she was disappointed. From our cozy room at midnight, however, we could see fireworks that appeared to be launched right behind the row of houses across the street.

They were fabulous even though I dragged myself away from the window and fell asleep long before they ended.

Several of Mary’s recent letters made me think of that trip, my first to the old country. She remembers it too (although she says it was the winter of ’85-’86.)

I was surprised she could get time off during the holidays; they are usually solidly packed with concerts.

She writes: Booked Strasbourg over New Year's Eve. (Considered Italy, because there are some new, cheap night trains, but Rainer didn't want to spend that much.) I got a three-star hotel with sauna and whirlpool; we'll be there from 29.12. to 01.01. Depending on whether we take the car (if the weather's good), or train, we'll check out the other towns on the Alsace wine route. Someday, maybe you'll be here for Christmas. As mild as it's been, it's easier to sight-see than it was that winter we had in 85-86.

Lovely time in Strasbourg. Rainer kept saying that we should come back when it's greener. Stopped in Walsenburg, right over the border, to look at a church and go shopping (on the 29th of Dec.). Ate choucroute and Flammkuchen and soup.

On the 30th, we went to Colmar, stopping in a wine town on the way. In Colmar, Rainer wanted to see the Issenheimer altar. There are special exhibitions in Karlsruhe and Colmar of Gruenewald, the painter. I think you and I also went to this museum, Mom, in an ex-convent. [We did, and I remember the most gruesome crucifixes I’ve ever seen.]

Visited two churches and the Christmas market, and then it got dark.

On the 30th, I started calling restaurants for a table for New Year's Eve, and the fourth try succeeded.

My guidebook says they “pay special attention to herbs and spices.” I was allowed to reserve a table by taking the menu sight unseen. [In Europe the special for the day is called “the menu” or “the pris fixé” and, while quite good, is usually cheaper than ordering off the main menu. For that matter, there are often two or three “menus” for you to choose from.]

Mary continues: Fortunately I liked everything on “the menu” – a salmon starter, balls of duck fois gras and winter spices to roll them in, veal with a potato crust on risotto, with mounds of cream. At midnight, everyone kissed everyone and wished Bonne année, and then everyone shot paper maché balls at each other, ’til we left so Rainer could take pictures of fireworks.

On the 31st, we hung around the cathedral in Strasbourg ’til the clock went off at 12:30, with its parade of figures and cock's crow. Came back on the first with a few stops, but nothing major – foggy – and got to the New Year's Concert in Mannheim.

[What a way to start a new year.]