My Ancestor's Path.

As I sat at an outdoor table in Saarburg's upper city, watching the quiet stream at my side, I also heard its noisy rush downward just a few meters away as it tumbled over the precipice and became a waterfall.  I imagined a time when the Leukbach had not shared the roar of its impressive descent with a babble of tourist voices.  I imagined my great-great grandmother Lena, a young and healthy woman, arriving from Irsch.  She crossed the river, ferried in a small boat (for no bridge was yet built) and once she reached the other side, she made her way to this place where I was sitting.   The warm sun shone down on her dark hair which was mostly covered by her bonnet.  She carried a handmade woven basket.  Often she turned her head to look from one side of the street to the other as she climbed the hill from the lower to the upper city, drinking in the sights of the largest city in the Kreis.  I think she might have seen something like this:

Crossing the Saar to Saarburg's lower city

From the shore of the Saar into an archway to the street called Staden

Beginning the climb up the hill to the upper city

The roar of the Leukbach waterfall 

Just a little way farther to climb to reach the upper city

Photos by Offshoot Kathy

Saarburg 2 - The Leukbach

The Saar River was the focus of the old city; a gift of God for the sailing families, the tanneries, and the barges with their goods coming to and sailing from Saarburg over the centuries.  But the "new city," built on the hill above the Saar, had its own gift of God - a flowing stream which was engineered to produce a waterfall and the power that came from it.  The Leukbach turned the magnificent waterwheel that milled the grain and sawed the logs needed for everyday life in the city and countryside.

The Leukbach waterfall tumbles from the upper city

The waterwheel still works today although the mill is now a museum

The water flowing and dropping from one height to another brings a special sound to the upper city

How old are these buildings?  They have been modernized but their bones seem to come from long ago

The "New" upper city has become a part of the 21st century, with lovely places to have an ice cream, a pizza, or a full meal - then wander back and forth across the little bridges for some shopping

Views of the Saarburg of Yesterday, pt. 1

Saarburg, a small thriving city today, is the equivalent of a county seat in America.  Its strategic location on the Saar River made it a bustling place, the heart of the Kreis or county, during the past thousand some years.  Many of its old buildings survived WWII; the atmosphere of long ago remains, even as Saarburg has made its way into the 21st century.

The ruins of the Alte Burg (Old Castle) from the 9th century.  It stands high above the Saar River

The scenic ruins close up

A view to the high Warsburg hill which towers over Saarburg and the Alte Burg

A hotel today, this was a part of a large tanning mill in Beurig on the east bank of the Saar and now a part of Saarburg 

An old doorway lintel, one of many that testify to the age of Saarburg

 Pictures by Kathy

A Mausoleum for Blind King John

After writing about the creation of a monument to Blind King John of Bohemia, I thought I understood the pomp and circumstance that had transferred his mortal remains from Mettlach to Kastel, across the Saar River from Serrig.  I wrote about it in my book.  Than, in 2004, I had a chance to take another look - a good look.  Now I understood why it took ten young men who alternated the carrying of a small box containing King John's bones from the Saar River to the magnificent mausoleum that had been built to house them.  The bluff was magnificent in autumn and much higher than I had imagined.  See for yourself.

The Klause rests high above the Saar River

The rock ledge near the Klause looking toward the small church at Taben Rodt 

A side view of the Klause Mausoleum

The windows are an architectural artwork

The sarcophagus without King John's bones, which are now in Luxembourg

Looking down from the Klause to the Saar and the village of Serrig

Steep vineyards below the Klause

Forest flowers in Mid-May

What a variety of flowering plants spring up in the forests of my Heimatland. Josiane has sent her latest offering. Each one shows a beauty that often goes unnoticed. One flower in particular has a well-known fairy tale connection.

According to legend, it was the plant "Phyteuma spicatum" that led, in the classic German fairy tale, to Rapunzel's imprisonment. It was the obsession of Rapunzel's mother-to-be with the rampions in the garden of an old enchantress that led her husband to steal some spikes of the plant. His wife made them into a salad and asked her husband to bring more. Eventually he came face to face with the old enchantress who made a bargain with the couple. They would be spared her punishing wrath, but the unborn child would be taken by the enchantress. So at the age of 12 years, Rapunzel was locked in a tower and we all know the rest of the story. In Germany this plant is called Rapunseln, in English speaking countries it is called a spiked rampion.

Wild Rose called a Heckenrose in German

Honeysuckle known as Geißblatt in Germany

Oxeye Daisies

Cephalanthera Also Known as Helleborine

Trees Surrounded by Spring Flowers

"Flowers" of the Maple Tree

Horse Chestnut Tree Flowers

Blue-Spiked Rampion Also Known As Rapunzel

The Fields of Oberzerf

Oberzerf is the birthplace of my great-great grandmother, today a village not much bigger than it was at the end of 1827 when she was born there.  It is about 8 miles from the city of Saarburg and 5 and one half miles from Irsch, the village of the man she would marry.  Thick forest land lies to the east and south, mostly out of my camera range as we drove along the highway.  Coming into town, there is a flowing stream and a small church, almost a chapel, at the top of a little hill.  The church built in the 1950s, the paved highway, and the automobiles parked here and there - these are a minor distraction from the setting of a village that is more than 1,000 years old.

Thickets still separate the tillable land.

The fields at the end of the harvest time

Catching a glimpse of the forest

The water of the Grossbach stream once powered the village mill

The main road to the small Catholic church

A remodeled barn house on the Hauptstrasse dates from 1848

"Already it is Green Behind the Fence." Poet Ernst Thrasolt

In late spring, the forest land is a place of color and growth as more and more plants struggle out from winter rest into the sunlight and vegetation becomes lush and tall.  The pictures that follow remind me of the lines by the poet, Ernst Thrasolt, who lived in Beurig, across the Saar from Saarburg and only a little over a mile from Irsch.  He simply called his poem "Spring" and wrote "Already it is green behind the fence and soon also im the meadow..."  Josiane has been out taking more pictures as she walks and has shared her knowledge and thoughts about them, backing up Thrasolt's lines about the coming of the spring season.

One of the first aquilegia (columbines) of the year

beauties on the old wall

Chelidonia on the old wall ; the juice treats warts

First Flowers of the Broom Shrubbery 

Daphne has its fruit

Wild daisies known as Gänseblümchen - used for children's flower crowns

Orchids in the grass

Ernst Thrasolt, "Already it is green behind the fence and soon also im the meadow..."