Daheim in Deutschland.... A tour around Unterkammlach!

     Whether I want to take a letter to the post box, buy something from the bakery, or go for a run, I always end up going for a ways around Unterkammlach, my temporary "hometown" here in Germany.  So yesterday, I decided to take my camera with me and take some pictures.  I guess I kinda thought you would want to see where I'm living!
     I'll be honest, I don't really know how I should narrate travelling around Unterkammlach... I guess I'll just put up pictures...  Though I'll tell you a bit of the observations I've made from living here.

     First and foremost, Germans don't have a plain old lawn.  Sure, they have a small patch of grass, but, for the most part, they pride themselves on having a beautiful flower garden and  vegetable garden.  And you know what?  I think they have a really good reason to laugh at Americans' yards, especially in comparison to theirs!  They have a wide variety of different flowers of all colors possible.  And they arrange them in a way that makes it look so professional!  But each yard is done by the owners of the house.  Sometimes I find that a bit hard to believe.

  When I was walking around, I noticed this house.  One glance at it, and I actually thought for a moment that I was in Frankenmuth, looking at the Bavariann Inn Restaurant!  Of course, it would've had to be some years ago for the trees to be as small as the one in this yard.  The way it looks, though, with the wood on the second floor, and the little flower bed in front of the window, is just exactly like the general decorating style of the Bavarian Inn!  I had always thought that they had over exaggerated when they got to decorating, because I hadn't seen any houses that looked like Frankenmuth, but now that I've seen this one, I'm starting to think they weren't so far off after all!

     This, of course, is the Maypole.  Each city/town/village has one.  I've seen ones that are, like this one, normal in diameter and relatively tall.  I've also seen others in small villages that are very thin in diameter, and only about 3/4 as tall, as though it is the sapling of the tree instead of a grown one.  And then, in large cities, there are always gigantic Maibaueme.  Every year in May, the craftsmen of a town make a new Maypole.  They carve designs with the bark, and will often write the year and town in it.  The shields on it are from different Vereine (clubs) that are in the town.  Not like in Frankenmuth, where we have a permanent pole and characters adorning it.

     These are a neighbor's draft horses.  I've seen him driving them into the woods to get a new load of timber, which he uses for firewood, I think.  He puts them out to pasture here, in a small meadow near my house.  It is a bit strange to be walking through town, and then all of a sudden come across a patch of grass and some horses grazing there.  I mean, this is right in the middle of town!  Houses all around it (even though you can't tell in this picture).  From what my family has told me, in the winter he has a sleigh that he hooks them up to.

     Here is the small wall around the church and cemetary.  From the picture, you'd think it's really tall, but that's just because I crouched down to get the roses in the picture.  It's actually only about 5 feet tall, I'd estimate.  Here you can see again how much the Germans like to have flowers all around them;  there are flowers here by the wall, and at each gravesite there is a flowerbed.  The family of the deceased is responsible for keeping their patch up.  Therefore, families who don't live nearby and can't come periodically to weed and water generally just plant a bush or something.  That is a rarity, however.  For the most part, the grave is covered with lush flowers.

     The church is Roman Catholic, the predominant religion in southern Germany.  However, due to the small size of congregations, the priest is here only on select Sundays for Mass.  The other times, the service is held at a neighboring town, in a different church.

     An Ausblick (view) towards the center of town from just a bit down the street from my house.  The center is on a hill, so all the houses and barns appear to be built right on each other.  In the left center, you can see the clock on the tower of the church.  All the churches here ring on the hour.  And every 15 minutes.  So, even if you don't have a clock and can't see the clock on the tower, you can still know what time it is!

     And, finally, the town center.  Sparkasse is actually just the name of a common bank, one location of which is here.  Immediately to the left, you can see the door for the Feuerwehr (fire department).  They have a grand total of one truck here in town, but nearly every town has one, so the next one is a mere 3K away.  So, if there is a serious fire, all the neighboring towns work together to put it out, much like in America.  If it's a small enough fire, though, then the department can handle it itself.  All firemen here are volunteer; so, there is an alarm in the town which will ring in case of a fire.


     Well, that's about all of Unterkammlach!  Of course, there is more, but this is just a general overview.  You didn't really want me to take a picture of every step I take, did you?