MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

Meeting with the Burgermeister

Yesterday we had the privelege of meeting with the burgermeister of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, who just happens to be the father of our host. Herr and Frau G showed up on our doorstep last weekend, wanting to meet us and give us free ride tickets for the Volksfest that ended on Monday. The Volksfest seems to a regional fair that goes on for 10 days, one which the towns around here look forward to all year. The carnival itself is mainly rides, food and a beer garden, but they also seem to have events in conjunction with the festival, like a parade, horse show, things like that.

We did go to the Volksfest on its opening weekend, not spending a great amount of time there because our teens were being sulky and not wanting to go on any rides. Our 11 year old loved it. And we had gone to the big parade last Sunday, which was really quite a sight. It lasted more than 90 minutes and went on even though it rained for part of the time. It had all sorts of people and groups in different kinds of traditional German costume, lots of horses in the parade... it was a different kind of parade than you see in the States. You can see the pics on Bs Blog.

Herr and Frau G also brought us a gift of a special Volksfest Stein-- a special one is put out each year. How kind! And they invited us to meet them at the Rathaus, the city government building, during the week, so the Burgermeister could show us around.

So, on Monday we went back to the Volksfest with all the free ride tokens they gave us. This time sulky teens agreed to ride on rides, and they seemed to have much more fun (except when L rode one of the especially spinny-wavy rides and felt sick afterwards for the next hour. He just needed to lay down for awhile and then he felt better). We ate in the bier garten, and B was especially thrilled to have a giant pretzel fresh from the oven and bigger than his head and a huge stein of beer.

Yesterday we went to the Rathaus to see the Burgermeister. From what we can figure out, the Oberburgermeister is the real mayor of the town, but he has 2 burgermeisters that are assistants. We were escorted to a very large and fancy meeting room that seats about 40 at long gleaming oak tables. Herr Graf sat at the head table and with the help of his wife (who seems to speak English a little more comfortably) and a secretary, he showed us a presentation about the town of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz on a large screen, the history of the town and all the important parts of the town. The whole city was unfortunately bombed in 1945, just two weeks before the war ended. It was fascinating, and we all got Neumark souvenirs as well.

He toured us around the building, including the top floor where we got to see views of the entire city. We also got the see the inner workings of the large clock that is on the Rathaus exterior wall. After this, Herr and Frau G walked us over to the 2 churches in town and a musuem. We had seen some of these sights before, but the Gs were able to tell us about many details and history that we would never have gotten on our own.

Our visit ended with them inviting us to come to their home for coffee next week... really, so very kind of them.

We passed the afternoon shopping around Neumarkt and driving around to find a waterpark-swimming pool that they'd told us about. D is very excited to go swimming, and woke up this morning to put on his swim trunks right away!

Last night, B and I decided to go and visit some of the neighbors we'd met when our hosts were still here. August is prime vacation time here, so we knew that some of them had been gone on trips themselves, and the weather hasn't been nice enough for us to just sit outside and see neighborhs coming and going. (Really, it's been cool and rainy here the entire trip! And it is't usually this way, they tell us.) So we just knocked on doors and ended up having 2 neighbors join us at our place to look at pictures and share stories about our trips. One of them had been in Egypt, and that wa great to hear about.

Well, I'd better get going. D wants to swim! And luckily, they tell us that the outdoor swimming area is a heated pool, otherwise it would be too cold.

Posted by sapphire at August 23, 2006 03:17 AM