Soulfood

So last year I wrote a bit about discovering something of my heritage: https://hungrysoul.blog/2024/05/14/paul-steltzenfuss/

My 77yo father decided we needed to take a trip to visit the old country, and since he was willing to fund it I did some planning. We left on September 24 and returned on September 30 – a short but eventful and memorable excursion!

We gathered at my home mid-day on September 24 and drove to the airport in Detroit for our 8PM flight. We were all in a row at the back of the Airbus 330 that carried us to Frankfurt. None of us slept particularly well but when we arrived in Frankfurt on Thursday morning we had plenty of energy! We picked up our rental car and drove to the old city after withdrawing some Euros from an ATM at the airport.

We walked to St. Paul’s Church to learn about the history of the German Republic. Then we needed a toilet but of course the public toilets require coins in Germany. So we took our paper Euros to a shop where we purchased socks and trinkets to get coins. Finally relieved, we continued on to the main pedestrian/market area (Fussgangerzone) and walked around taking in the city. We ended up at St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral and soaked in the beauty of a church whose earliest construction dated from the 680s. We climbed the 328 steps to the top of the bell tower (except for Dad, who stopped after 77 steps – 1 for each year of his life!) and took in the view of the city and the Main river. When we came back down we were all hungry so we headed back to the main square, with a detour through the excavation of Roman baths that were just west of the cathedral.

We went to a sausage vendor whose presence in the square dated to the 1400s and got Bockwurst, pretzels, and beer. Levi enjoyed his first legal beer very much! Then we did some more shopping, focusing on Apfelwein (local wine made from apples) before heading back to the car and heading west for our AirBNB in Boersborn, stopping only for groceries at a Lidl along the way. The AirBNB was excellent for us and we played cards after dinner (Euchre and O’Pshaw) until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. We slept tolerably well for our first night.

Friday morning (Sep 26) we had a typical continental breakfast consisting of cold cuts, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread, cheese, stuffed peppers, apples, and fruit juice (with coffee, of course!) supplemented by fried eggs for us Americans. We left the AirBNB around 9:15AM and headed for Bexbach. We had discovered while researching the trip that our hometown Goshen’s sister city of Bexbach lies only a few kilometers north of our primary destination, Zweibruecken, where Nicholas Stoltzfus lived and married Anna Bachmann before leaving for the New World. So my brother contacted a Bexbach resident he had friended on Facebook when the guy (Klaus) visited Goshen in 2018 and we set up a tour of Bexbach.

We met Klaus at his house at 10A and he invited us in for coffee. Since I lived in Stuttgart during college I have loosely followed the Bundesliga and rooted for VfB Stuttgart, but in the past few years during my increased interactions with Germany and Germans through work I have acquired some VfB apparel and when Asher and I were in Tuebingen in March he bought a scarf. He was wearing it when we met Klaus, and Klaus was extremely gratified to find some random Americans who supported his favorite team – VfB! So we had an instant connection besides our status as residents of sister-cities. After we chatted for a bit over coffee we went to the town hall (Rathaus) and delivered a letter from Goshen’s mayor Gina Liechty to the mayor of Bexbach (who was, unfortunately, not in the office that day) along with some chocolates and nuts from The Nut Shoppe in Goshen in a special tin. We got pictures next to the monument showing Bexbach’s partner cities (including Goshen) then went to the train station, which is the oldest in the state of Saarland.

Next we visited the Coal Mining Museum in the Hindenburg tower. The museum starts at the top of the tower and then you descend through history to the basement, which is made to look like a coal mine.

We found the hymn of Saarland on the wall in a middle level, with music helpfully included. Jesse sounded it out and then we all started singing it. Klaus made us sing it while he took video to post on Facebook. It was very popular!

The museum is surrounded by a botanical garden which we also enjoyed. Below the park there is a bicycle riding school to train toddlers and kindergartners cycling safety. So cute!

Next we drove up to Höchen in the mountains above Bexbach to eat at the Gasthaus Höcherberg. We had a lovely steak dinner with beer and complimentary marilla (apricot) schnapps at the end, then climbed the Höchturm (high tower) to take in the views.

We drove Klaus back to his house where he invited us in again for more coffee and beer. We met his wife Regina and chatted for another hour before taking our leave. Before we left they recommended to us to attend the farmer’s market in Homburg the next morning, which is held quarterly. On the way back to the AirBNB we stopped again at a grocery store (Aldi), found apricot schnapps (and cherry to restock my home cabinet – unfortunately, the apricot schnapps didn’t make it home with us!) and brought bread for the next day and sausages to last us the rest of the trip.

There is a wanderweg (hiking trail) that runs through Börsborn right past the front door of the AirBNB. So we decided to take it up the hill and enjoy the quiet evening.

We turned in around 10P for the evening, resting up for the next day’s adventure which would take us to the town where Nicholas Stoltzfus last lived before he left for Pennsylvania.