Tuesday is Valentine’s Day! Why not spend some quality time with your sweetheart on a volksmarch this weekend?
The list of walks is still pretty short, but certainly you can find one somewhere. Bob has a special Valentine’s gift in the works for Lorraine. The plan is to book a volksmarching trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, over a long weekend in April and have the itinerary and reservations finalized in time for Valentine’s Day.
After getting hit with about four inches of snow during our last trip to Edinburgh, we decided to plan it for a few weeks later this time around. We’ll let you know how that turns out.
Jan. 28-29 was a fun weekend for us. Saturday we drove to Mettlach, Germany, for some shopping. Most of our time was spent in the two Villeroy & Boch stores. The smaller store has Christmas items that we love. Tree ornaments, gingerbread houses and all kinds of table decorations abound.
After what seemed like only a few minutes, Bob had a lighter wallet and two big shopping bags to take out to the car.
After browsing through a couple more stores, we took a break for lunch. Then it was time to tackle the larger Villeroy & Boch store. This store features the company’s wide selection of place settings, glasses and stemware, as well as silverware.
We saw one place setting pattern that we really liked, but even at outlet prices, we felt that “really liking” the pattern was not quite enough. We would have to “really love” the set before we would spend such a pretty penny on plates and such.
With a sigh of relief, we set off for our hotel in Saarbrücken. After a very nice dinner of mushroom-filled ravioli at the hotel restaurant, we decided to get to bed early because we wanted to get up and out the door early for the next morning’s walk.
Just as we turned out the lights, we heard a series of explosions that seemed very close by.
We opened our curtains to see a fireworks display coming from a castle about a quarter-mile away. We had an excellent view of the fireworks and could not have had better seats if we had planned it. This was a very pleasant surprise.
The next morning found us on the road to Grosbliederstroff, France, well before sunrise. We had skipped the expensive hotel breakfast because we heard from Tim and Luchi Lynch that there was a bakery very close to the start hall in Grosbliederstroff. In fact, there were two bakeries very close by, but we only visited one.
As we finished the shorter route and got our IVV stamps, we saw several members from the Heidelberg International Wandering Club enter the start hall. We chatted with Mike and Sue Capp, Don Casper and a few others. We would have liked to have talked more, but we were looking at a four-hour return trip, so we had to hit the road.
We’re glad we left when we did because we hear it started to snow a little after we left. We are sorry that we missed the Lynches, but we’ll see them and a lot of other enthusiastic walkers in a few weeks (Feb. 25-26) in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, one of the most enchanting cities in Germany. We can’t wait!
With the Grosbliederstroff, France, event behind us, we now have IVV stamps from four countries in our Europa Cup I booklets. That’s four down — the easiest ones — and 12 to go. Wish us luck!
Email volksmarch information to two.walkers@yahoo.com. Mail brochures to Bob and Lorraine Huffaker, CMR 460, Box 278, APO AE 09752.
