It was an early start the next morning, for everyone but the slacker visitor who slept in until 9:00. The Rhein’s and their neighbors were draining the pond to clean it out before the winter, and I was more than happy to help (although I feel I was more in the way, so sometimes it is better to sit back, drink a beer, and let those in the know go at it). The work entailed draining the existing water out to the adjacent field; catching all of the Karp, Whitefish, Goldfish and Koi; store the fish in bins and take an inventory; clean out all of the mussels; fill the pond and put the fish back. While I drained more beer than pond, I can now say that I have caught a fish with my bare hands. It was an unfair fight with the fish trying to elude me through one inch of water, but I don’t care, that is what I am going to tell people. After a nap I joined Henry taking Prince, their big old black bear of a dog, for a walk through the woods. Henry found Prince deep in the woods about ten years ago while out mountain biking and brought him home. We strolled through the woods to the spring of the Salle River and then back to the car. We took it pretty easy that night and then next morning (Sunday) went for an early morning road trip, but I’ve already posted about that during the trip out to Modlareuth.

Sunday afternoon we saw Daniel and Lisa off, Daniel back to Giessen for school and Lisa to Weisbaden, and I joined Gihta walking Prince through the woods while Henry got some work done. We went to the old castle up on the ridge in Waldstein. We wandered the woods with Prince to the old bear trap, built in the 1600’s. A really impressive long stone structure with a tunnel running through it. Bears would come in, take the food, and trigger tall timber doors on either side of the structure to close shut. The bears no longer live wildly in the area, having been trapped out many many years ago. I think the last bear captured in the trap was in the mid 1700’s. We put Prince in the car and went up to the ruins of the Red Castle, named so for it’s red ceramic tile roof, burned out many years ago. (There were a lot of steps getting up to the castle that were too much for Prince’s old bones). My dates are a little fuzzy, but the castle was inhabited by the Lord of Sparneck. These nobles had fallen on tough times while the merchant class had become very prosperous, bringing goods to trade back from the far east. From the hilltop castle the Lord’s overlooked the trade route below that passed through Weisenstadt on the way to Nuremburg from the east. For money, the Lord’s had taken to kidnapping the wealthy merchants and ransoming them back. One of the merchants managed to escape after a year or so, then came back with reinforcements burning the Red Castle to the ground. Good for him!

The last few days have been cold but nice, but it is getting on winter now... I am sitting in the kitchen drinking tea while Henry and Gihta are at work and Daniel back in Giessen. There is a cold rain falling and a steady wind with colorful leaves blowing past the window. I was going to go in to the stone shop with Henry today, but thought it might make more sense to do it tomorrow morning before heading off for Prague. I am very happy sitting here, writing about my wonderful time here in Weiherhofen, working in the warm house. Soon enough though I will need to get out and take Prince for a walk through the woods, but that is something to look forward to... It’s been nice to have a temporary reality with these wonderful people. Henry, Gihta, Daniel and Lisa have been so welcoming, and I hope I am able to return the favor some day.