Visit of the Worthing Twinning Association to the Elztal, its twin in Germany

April 19th to 23rd 2018

Getting up not long after 03.30 does not really bring out the best in anyone and it was not the most alert and zippy group that gathered at Worthing station to be taken up to Gatwick and an early morning Easyjet flight to Basel-Freiburg-Mulhouse airport. As usual it was amazing to see how many people there were at the north terminal at this somewhat un-Christian time of day and the cafés were buzzing. The flight left punctually and arrived on time and, though we inevitably lost an hour before arrival, we had still touched down before many of the good citizens of Worthing would have finished their breakfast!

The airport is a mildly confusing one for it serves three towns in three different countries and has separate exits depending upon the country in which you hope to end up. All very well if you are forewarned but there was a brief hiatus before we were all gathered at the Waldkirch coach ready to leave for Germany but via France…though the hold luggage arrived on a carrousel in the Swiss section. You have to be on your toes!

It is about a 90 minute journey from the airport to the Elztal, largely through France up to Freiburg but then Germany and the Black Forest. Four separate communities make up the area with which Worthing is twinned and our pause was in Waldkirch Buchholz where the hotel Loewen, where some of our group were to stay, is situated and where lunch was awaiting us. Not only lunch but also the majority of our twinning hosts of whom many had been associated with the twinning since its earliest days more than 20 years ago. It was a happy reunion and, for those new to the twinning, an indication of the warmth of welcome that we were to encounter throughout our stay.

There was then the opportunity for a wash and brush-up for those at the hotel whilst those in families repaired to their lodgings to unpack before meeting up again in Gutach shortly after 16.00 at the Weis distillery. The firm is a long-established major one in the area, the biggest of its kind in the province of Baden-Württemberg and one of the biggest in Germany.

We had an exensive tour of the distillery and saw the process of making spirits from all manner of fruits – not to mention whisky and rum! It was difficult to conceive of the amount of fruit needed to keep the firm turning over with its 500+ vast 10,000+ litre stainless steel tanks. After that it was back to their reception area for a Schwarzwälder Vesper which, though theoretically a snack, proved to be a wide range of canapés accompampied by a limitless sampling of Weis wares! Wine tasting is one thing but the tasting of a variety of spirits at anything between 20% and 60% proof is quite another… Warm words of welcome from the very generous management, thanks from our own Chairman, Val Bolt, and finally

some songs from a local adult choir and a gift of small bottles of Schwarzwald Teufel (Black Forest Devil) produced according to their own secret recipe but packing a far from secret punch. Then back either “home” or to the hotel and bed.

Friday dawned warm and blue-skied. This morning it was off to

another of the four communities making up Worthing’s twin – Elzach. It is a handful of miles from the central town Waldkirch but through delightful unspoiled scenery with a backdrop of mountains. Elzach might be a small town with some 7000 inhabitants but its welcome was second to none.We began with a full and detailed presentation of the town by its mayor Roland Tibi. But, I must be more exact – we began with a glass of German sparkling wine (or fruit juice for those who felt that 10.00 was a bit early to start the drinking day) and then went on to the Powerpoint presentation of the town before crossing the road, led by the mayor, to the Carnival Museum.

The Fasnet, a pre-Lenten carnival, is big business in Elzach and, over a period of days, appears to involve one way or another the vast majority of the population of the town not to mention the very many visitors. There is a wide range of intricately carved masks worn by its participants and examples of them are held in the museum. They are splendid, sometimes rather frightening creations – multi-coloured (though the devil is in black) and pretty heavy! Not only did we hear about the way in which it has developed over the years but we also saw video clips of the processions and jumped out of our skins when the inflated pig’s bladder (of which there are many hundreds during the processions) was crashed onto the floor! Though Fasnet in one form or another is widely celebrated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, its Elzach incarnation is particularly well-known and, having heard and seen all that it involved, we could quite see why!

We returned briefly to the Union Flag bedecked Town Hall and then were taken up the valley to the little village of Yach to visit a farmstead specialising in the rearing of Schwarzwälder Füchse which are not in fact foxes but a breed of horse mainly found in this region. There must have been a dozen or more in their stalls but in addition to that there were cows and goats all spread around a quite idyllically located farm with views down the rich green undulating hills. Then another “Vesper” in a welcoming dining room in the farm with ample room for 40 and where an immense spread of fresh Black Forest breads, sausage, salamis, cheese and fruit awaited us. Not just quantity – though when we had all eaten amply there still seemed as much on the tables – but high quality too for the meats were home produced, the bread came from a farm just across the way and the wine and beer were both local..

What was left of the afternoon was then spent in families or the hotel

or maybe assorted hostelries. Or, in some cases, walking off the effects of rather excessive food consumption!

Saturday was devoted to the town of Waldkirch. There was an attractive market, largely but not exclusively food oriented, in the centre but at 10.00 we gathered in the Town Hall together with representatives from the the Elztal’s other twinning visitors from Sélestat in France and splendidly costumed Swiss guests from the Liestal in Switzerland – and the now very familiar glass of sparkling wine. It was hosted by the Waldkirch mayor Roman Götzmann but accompanied by the mayors or representatives from all the other neighbouring communities and the twin towns. It was perhaps the one occasion when it was a clear advantage to understand German for, though Barbara Schindelhauer made a valiant effort to translate enough to keep us abreast of what was being said, inevitably a certain amount passed most of us by! It was the opportunity for the formal exchange of gifts in addition to formal congratulations on the continued success of the twinnings. It was also a time to express the hope that larger numbers of younger people could be attracted into the scheme.

We then walked down through town towards the river to the Europabrunnen where we were greeted by young musicians playing the ode to joy theme from Beethoven’s ninth symphony, listened to a further brief address by the mayor who unveiled a column celebrating the Waldkirch

twinnings whilst our own chairman recalled the longevity and strength of our relationship with the town.

It was then the brief return walk up through town to the Stadtrainsee,

a restaurant situated alongside the little Waldkirch lake and next to the famous Hirschenbräu brewery! Again the weather was smiling upon us for we were able to be outside in the extensive Biergarten where the only problem was trying to find shade under the parasols as the sun gradually moved round! Not the worst of problems. Again at the expense of the town where not only all food but all drinks were included.

Only a few hundred yards away was the S. Margarethen church, of which the earliest mention dates back to the tenth century though the current church is an eighteenth century baroque building. After an

introduction to its history in the sunny square outside we entered and were then entertained and were most impressed by a twenty minute organ recital illustrating the wide range of sound that the instrument could provide. Then, not having eaten for at least an hour or so and our hosts being anxious that we would not collapse through inanition, we moved across to the Museum in the basement of which a vast tea – and how insufficient a word is that – comprising elaborate cakes of all shapes, sizes and tastes was laid out for us.

The venue was a reminder too that Waldkirch is the organ-making centre of Germany - if not the world - and there are many examples in the Museum of remarkable organs from a variety of periods and places many of which can be played including the deafening multi-coloured specimen on the ground floor.

I have no insight into the way in which the remainder of the day was spent by the Worthing contingent but it probably involved a mixture of walking and sleeping. The weather remained on our side and, for our part, closing our eyes to the blandishments of Kaffee & Kuchen on the Marktplatz, we walked back to the Kollnau suburb where we were lodged through a very attractive though largely somnolent town.

A snack that evening with our wonderful hostess was more than

enough – though it did involve some excellent locally produced asparagus – then a little DVD entertainment and bed!

Sunday was the day of the last of the villages involved in our twinning – Simonswald - and we were taken out beyond the village itself up into the hills and to an old and traditional sawmill powered by a rather picturesque bubbling stream.

Things cannot have changed there for years if not centuries and

something not very different could have been said about the splendid chaps operating it! While we were there the machinery cut through the whole length of a substantial tree with the vertically mounted saw going up and down like a mad thing!

There was a little chapel just opposite the sawmill, one of many scattered in the fields and all equally well maintained and cared for. It all seemed a very long way from Worthing.

Down in Simonswald, where tourism and farming appear to be the major money-generating activities, lunch was awaiting us in the Krone-Post restaurant and it was very familiar in its copiousness and quality as was the Gemütlichkeit of the wood-framed restaurant itself.

The post-prandial gentle uphill walk to the church was a welcome one

and there we were told a little – in fact quite a lot – about the history and background of the church by one whose enthusiasm and knowledge seemed to know no bounds. Though I should perhaps not say it, the warmth of the day, the fullness of the stomach and the rather iff-ey acoustic of the church did lead to a certain number of closed eyes. Doubtless deep concentration.

From there it was back to cars for the short drive out of town to a traditional oil and cereal mill with a local costume museum attached. Unlike the sawmill this morning this was no longer a functioning mill though the stream still flowed through it and the wheels still turned. Everything however had been preserved, maintained and, when necessary, repaired and, even knowing very little of the mechanics of milling, one could not fail to be impressed by the solidity and intricacy of the mechanics. Constructed in the very early eighteenth century it had fallen into disrepair in the twentieth but was restored over many years from 1974 before being re-acquired by the village some thirty years later. Again it was a fascinating visit – and one preceded by tea, fresh bread and locally made honey. Lunch was by now nearly two hours in the past and we all tucked in as if food had been only a distant memory.

Back home or to the hotel for a freshening up and then shortly after 19.00 we were back in Buchholz, where we had started, in a restaurant only a minute’s walk away from the Loewen hotel. It was to be our final gathering together and it was a chance to express our gratitude for the warmth of the welcome that we had received – not to mention the almost constant supply of excellent food and drink. The two Barbaras – Schindelhauer and Thien - thanked us for receiving their generosity and we were able to raise our glasses to their health!

It was not a late night – there was no way in which it could have been really - for, though next day would not involve an early start, it would be quite a long day. And it dawned rather differently from all the previous ones with some grey skies and promise of possible rain. But our farewells were dry ones and the coach had its wheels turning towards Freiburg not long after 10.30. As we approached the town so the sky became greyer and, by the time we parked in the Karlplatz rain was imminent. Those who went to look at the market and the minster could do so in the dry but then it began to tip down. In the Karstadt and Galleria department stores the umbrellas were going like the proverbial hot cakes but aimless walking was not the pleasure it can be and we were not sorry to be back in the coach a little earlier than originally planned for our eminently pleasant driver had

proposed a drive up to and around the Kaiserstuhl. It was very attractive but not maybe what it might have been under blue skies and we continued to Staufen where the Decker Konditorei produced unrivalled Kaffee & Kuchen whether under blue sky or grey. It was, it must be readily confessed, an exercise in unmitigated and unforgiveable gourmandise. But it was very nice.

By the time we left again at 18.00 there was but an hour to reach the airport and it was an entirely eventless and rapid journey. We thanked our driver for his great friendliness and concern for our interests (though he was to be seen in the Konditorei and his recommendation may not have been entirely disinterested…) and headed in. There were no problems about baggage but, perhaps predictably at the end of the day, our Easyjet flight was delayed and we were in the air some 50 minutes later than should have been the case. We did however make Gatwick just before 23.00 which, we were informed, was a good thing as at 23.00 at this season the runway is closed for maintenance and there is an inevitable delay before alternative arrangements come into play.

It took a little while before the Worthing coach reached us – arrangements at Gatwick for coach parking are complex - but, once in, the trip back was a rapid one and most of us will have been back home by 01.30.

It will have been a thoroughly memorable visit and we could not have been made more welcome. Yet there is a “but” – though one which concerns us, the English, not the Germans. Most of us paid for our last meal, the farewell gathering, but that was virtually the only occasion on which any of us had to pay anything at all. Food and drink were generous almost beyond belief. Absolutely everything was done to make our stay as pleasurable as possible and that was in part thanks to the twinning association – the Partnerschaftsverein – but partly too to the town councils – that of Waldkirch, of Elzach, of Gutach and of Simonswald. Waldkirch is a town of some 20,000 but the four combined do not reach a third of the population of Worthing. Yet there is a budget in each of the towns/villages for hospitality towards twinning whilst Worthing does nothing. Not that Worthing is in any way unique – far from it – but it is an embarrassment when we feel ourselves to be so much the poor relations. Worthing does not have the budget to provide a single cup of tea for our twin town guests – let alone lunch and supper and sometimes morning coffee and afternoon cakes over four days. All four mayors welcomed us, opened their civic facilities to us and treated us as if we were in every way equals. Yet as long as we cannot – or do not choose to – reciprocate then that cannot be the case. Within a matter of weeks a comparable French contingent will descend upon us and we know that what we do will reflect upon the way in which we are seen abroad.

Members of the Twinning Association and their friends will of course make them welcome and contribute to the cost of their stay but, with no official support, our financial contribution can never seem or be anything other than parsimonious. It’s a shame.

Christopher Doidge