November 24, 2007
Burscheid
Today I decided to go in to work with Steve for the afternoon. He suggested that it might be fun for me to walk around downtown Burscheid and check things out. Though I feared traveling on the "Autobahn" again (that's right...I spelled it wrong on my last journal entry), I decided that there was no way it could be any worse than it was before. Aside from how fast we were going (100 mph), it wasn't nearly as bad as my last experience was (thank goodness!).
Once we got to Burscheid, I had lunch with Steve at JCI and then I drove a couple of miles down the street into the center of town. Afraid that I wouldn't find parking (like we have such a problem with in Cologne), I drove a few streets past the main street to look for parking place. Somehow I made a wrong turn onto a one-way street taking me away from town. Before I knew it, I was in a "Swiss Miss" commercial staring at hillsides of green pastures and village type houses. It was beautiful! If the road wasn't as skinny as it was and the cows weren't as close as they were, I would have stopped to take pictures!
Once I found my way back into town, I decided to drive down the main street to see if maybe I could get lucky enough to find an open parking place somewhere. The road was empty. There were open spots everywhere! I thought this to be very strange until I remembered that one of the ladies Steve works with told me I could expect to see everything Burscheid has to offer in less than an hour. I didn't believe her at first, but perhaps maybe she was right...
My first impression of Burscheid was that it seemed to be very much like Zeeland, maybe even smaller. There weren't very many shops and aside from the half dozen bakeries I saw, most of the stores were very small and rather odd. When I say odd, I mean not the type of stores you would expect to find in a German town. Just a few of the stores I encountered were a key shop, a perfume store, a fruit stand, and a tanning salon. I also saw four barber shops within two blocks. It was very strange. At least I thought so anyway.
Once I walked through downtown Burscheid, I meandered down a side street and saw a little park. It was quite pretty and it reminded me of Centennial Park in Holland (only on a much smaller scale). There was a tall church tower in the distance and when the bell rang it made the most beautiful sound.
Near the park, I came across a gentleman with two dogs. They were both German Shepherds, one of them just a puppy. Of the hundred dogs we've seen since we've been here, no one has ever been friendly enough to let us pet one. Well, this guy wasn't friendly either but he was too busy chatting with his friends to notice me.
So, I quietly walked over to the dogs, squatted down, and started petting them. The puppy wagged his tail immediately, but the larger dog seemed disinterested and walked away. Thrilled that at least the puppy was enjoying my attention, I started talking to him like I talk to our dogs at home (those of you who have dogs will understand this, those of you who don't, please try not to laugh). I started out by saying, "Good morning, how are you?" Then I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, maybe he only understands German". So I said, "Guten Morgan" next. He must have understood one or the other because he licked my face. So then I said, "Oh...are you giving me kisses? Thank you for the kisses!" (this time without translation). And once again he must have understood because he cuddled up to me and put his paw on one of my arms. Believe it or not, I got tears in my eyes. I was so thankful that I was finally able to connect with a dog, any dog, after not having seen Morgan and Jack for almost a month. I miss them so much!
Lost in the moment of my one-sided conversation with the puppy, I didn't realize how much attention I was drawing upon myself. Though the owner of the dogs still did not know I was there, all of his friends were now watching me. I noticed this when I looked up and saw all of them laughing and pointing, speaking in German amongst themselves. It became very obvious that in Germany people DO NOT talk to dogs. When the owner noticed all of his friends laughing, he turned around and saw me there. He shot me a dirty look as if to say, "What in the world are you doing talking to my dog?" Rather than try to explain myself (which would have been nearly impossible), I quickly stood up, smiled, and said "Danke Shoen" (Thank You!) and then I ran away before he had a chance to yell at me.
Once I escaped from the crabby German, I decided to go back to the Main Street and hide. Rather than turning to go back the way I came, I decided to head a little farther down the street. This ended up being a wise decision because the further down I walked, the more interesting the sights became. The less than exciting street I started on suddenly became a near replica of Dutch Village in Holland. The shops no longer appeared as just boring storefronts, they now had character.
The stores themselves never became more exciting than hat shops (a small improvement over the perfume shop I had already seen). But they were so much fun to look at. Most of them had different colored tile roofs and shudders, some of them were green, some were blue, and I even saw a few red ones too. I came across a few pubs along my walk as well and I could see the dimly lit candlestick chandeliers glowing from inside.
Even the street itself began to change. What started as a busy street had now turned into a cobblestone road lined with tall lantern lampposts. It was almost as if I had just walked into a completely different town. Maybe I had. All I know is that the more I walked, the more interesting things became. It was a long walk...probably a mile away from where I parked but it was well worth it.
In summary, Burscheid is certainly not a place to go if you want to shop (unless you want to buy keys, fruit, or perfume). But if you want to take a romantic stroll along a cobblestone road and see some unique buildings, you will certainly find it here. Who knows, you may even get to pet a dog or two if you're lucky! One thing I know for sure is this...if you ever do go to Burscheid, don't worry about parking, because you'll never have to worry about finding a spot!
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