And swearing to be vegitarian for a while till the sausage shakes wear off.
Despite having a degree in German, I haven’t spent a lot of time there before and I haven’t spoken the language for almost 20 years. Remarkable how much came back really, but it comes in odd ways. I could happily tell someone I was there to do research for an 18th century crime novel, but couldn’t remember the word for ‘knife’.
It was inspiring too, we were very active and travelled out from our main bases in Mainz and Karlsruhe to poke about in medieval towns and hang about in as many castles as we could find. Very impressed by the general kindness, and in particular by the kindness of the person in Karlsruhe who found my wallet and handed it into the police.
One of the highlights was at a concert in the Cathedral in Trier where a model of Pan stuck his head out of the body of the organ and played to us. It’s worth checking out the video someone helpfully posted here.
How much of the trip will end up in the book is hard to say, but it will be the small details of the buildings. I took a lot of photographs and a lot of notes, and the maps and pictures and museum guides will surround me until the book is done. I’ll only really be able to see what the importatn parts of the trip were when I’ve read through the manuscript for the 10th time, but I know they’ll be there.
Here are a couple of the pictures anyway.
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