Golden Dome

Today

We've made the decision to spend this New Year in Wiesbaden. We'd toyed with going back to Madeira or Burgh Island, but, when I was playing around finding out how I could use my airmiles, I said to Paul "there's always Frankfurt." "Ah," he said "You know how much I've been wanting to go to Germany." So the deed was done.

"It's just round the corner from Wiesbaden", I said "so we could go and visit my cousins. And Wiesbaden is a really lovely town."

In My Day

In redemption of a long held promise, Mamma took me to Wiesbaden as a reward for passing my 11+. She herself had not returned to Germany since first coming to England so I guess it was as big an adventure for her as for me. Her doctor sister was now living in Wiesbaden with her husband and three daughters, one of whom, like me, was named Julia after our grandmother.

We travelled via boat to Ostende and then train to Wiesbaden. We stayed at Aunt Maria's apartment on the Schiersteiner Strasse. The summer of 1959 was a hot one and I remember spending much time out of doors in this elegant spa town. There were beautiful gardens in which red squirrels played, churches that looked like Disney fantasies and a building with golden domes that gleamed in the sun.

We visited the spa swimming pool where we frolicked in the foaming and spurting hot spa water and took a boat trip along the Rhine, marvelling at the fantastic castles and seeing the Lorelei rock with its siren connotations.

I remember tasting the wonderful German pastries and ice-creams (these were often forced upon us by the need to find a toilet; it's surprising how often you need to go, when there's a dish of mixed icecream ornamented with little parasols awaiting you). Culture wasn't neglected either; we went to hear the Vienna Boys' Choir, a peculiarly Teutonic treat, where I had my first taste of Pepsi-cola.

Mamma, Maria and Uncle Jochen are long since dead but it will be fun to see my cousins again. And I bet New Year celebrations are really beautiful in Wiesbaden. I wonder if we'll have snow?