In which Sid and Doris walk in the hills and learn about ice holes.
We linked two walks to go down to St Michael before joining the climb to Kalvarienberg (Calvary Hill) and the Gleif church. In chapels along the way are the stations of the cross with much painted statuary. We are in Catholic country here.
Part of the walk is laid out to remember Edith Stein who was born a Jew in Breslau in 1891, was an atheist by the time she went to study philosophy, gaining her PhD in 1916.
She subsequently became a Catholic nun working in the Netherlands. In 1942 she was arrested and was killed with her sister in Auschwitz. As a philosopher her work includes a paper ‘On the Problem of Empathy’. Sometimes you do not need a finely honed sense of irony. She is now beatified and one of six patron saints of Europe.
The next element of the walk takes us on a rocky path through woods where there are suddenly cold drafts. The air falls through damp porphyry rubble and comes out as an icy blast. Plants grow here at 500 metres that are normally found above 1200 metres, and the area is thronged with keen photographers taking pictures of tiny little alpine plants with large cameras. By “thronged” we mean that we see two of them.
[I originally took this photo just to illustrate that point, but looking at it again I notice that our friend has another fabulous piece of technical equipment – a replacement right leg. What a great tribute to the prothsetist’s art – D.]
Pausing briefly for Sid’s glasses to unsteam as we move back into normal temperatures, on the walk back we find a charmingly decorated junior school, a middle school and marvelous playgrounds and climbing frames. Sid has loved making dams since school days. And here there are rills and sluices for children to play with. To be born in post war North Western Europe is so lucky. Just one small instance: in 1955 Renault employees were granted three weeks’ paid leave, put up to four weeks in 1962. And hardly any fighting. To what institutions shall we award the Kindness and Ingenuity Prize.
Sid and Doris will search on.