Frau Leonore Pfund

1971. A strong and elegant 93-year old. My cousin in Dresden in her apartment. Look at the old wind-up Victrola.

To Dresden or Not?

Yesterday while browsing the web I found the Facebook page for the Pfund Mōlkerei (that’s dairy) in Dresden. I’ve been there. The dairy belongs to German relatives of mine, another branch of my mother’s family. In 1971 I made my first grand tour of the continent. Near the end of my six-week journey I visited Dresden, which at the time was under Russian communist rule in East Germany. The reason for my visit was to meet and greet my elderly cousin Leonore Pfund, the 93- year old grand dame of the family. Her fortune had been plundered by the Russians. She lived in a small apartment in what had once been her entire house. Her husband had owned the famous dairy and they had been very prosperous before the war. My St. Louis aunts had sent many care packages to them during the war when provisions were hard to come by. In return Leonore sent gifts of many little wooden German figurines. The connection was made and our families kept the bond. I spoke almost no German at the time, and Leonore spoke no English. We still managed to communicate and she played the piano for me. She had been a well-known composer and pianist. I paid a visit to the dairy, which was very beautiful even under communist rule. I stayed at a hotel which seemed a trifle dilapidated, but which had obviously once been a fine and elegant establishment. They were very kind to me, sent flowers to my room, and I ate each night in the dining room listening to a live string quartet with piano. It seemed I had traveled back in time. Meanwhile going into the heart of the city was heartbreaking, because the bombed out damage from World War II was still very obvious everywhere. This city had once been a jewel on the Elbe and was known as the Florence of Germany because of the omnipresence of art in the city. I did visit The Zwinger Museum which had been partially restored. However, it felt very strange and vulnerable to be a single woman alone in communist East Germany. Leonore and her friends did their best to make me feel at home and welcome. The following year Leonore died. (She was the mother of Peter and grandmother of Hannes in Konstanz from an earlier post). I am so glad I had the honor to meet her. So…here I come to another decision, not immediate, but will I make the journey northward from Munich to see Dresden all dressed up and looking beautiful again? I could visit the famous dairy and possibly hunt up Leonore’s children there. The other reason to go would be to visit my roots, because my great grandparents came to America from their home in Saxony where Dresden is located. Well, I have time to think about it. There is such joy in the planning and the possibilities.

Englischer Garten, Munich

A beautiful green jewel in Munich. It lies so close to the heart of the city. In this photo you can see the double domes of the Dom just off center and the fanciful spires of the Theatinerkirche to the right beyond the trees. The Rathaus and Marienplatz would be on the left. In 1972 I spent a lot of time in Munich and even had the opportunity to apartment sit in the young and with-it area called Schwabing just off the Englischer Garten near Leopoldstraße. I was in an ideal spot. I lived above a poster store and just down the block was a movie theater where Barbarella with Jane Fonda was currently showing. I almost felt like a local. It was great having college friends like Barton and Lucy who had made Munich their home. I admired their sense of adventure, living life in a strange country where they had to speak another language. I still envy that path. I got decent with German, but then life happened and more than thirty years went by. I’d like to get that fluency back. There were so many Americans traveling around Europe back then. I didn’t want to look like one of them. I hid it pretty well, because most people thought I was French. I taught myself to eat the European way with the fork in the left hand and knife in the right. That way I would not be pegged as an American in a restaurant. I also did this because I wanted people to speak German to me and not just automatically switch to English.

The Happy Wanderer

This is going to be my theme song this summer. I love to go a-wandering along the mountain track. Valderi! Valdera! My knapsack on my back.  Hey!  Dolomites!  Here I come!

My Switzerland (website)

My Switzerland (website)

Grüezi. Bon jour. Buon giorno. Allegra.  This website has EVERYTHING you want or need to know about Switzerland.

My port of entry this summer will be Zurich seen below in a winter scene.

My plan is to spend several days in Luzern on the Vierwaldstättersee.  Luzern is a quintessential Swiss city popular with tourists because of its proximity to mountains and lakes with all the activities those can offer. Below is a view of Luzern in winter.

I want to relax in Luzern.  I want that to be me resting in the afternoon without a care.

However, I also want to experience the mountains and lakes, so I will probably take a steamer on the lake to Mt. Pilatus or Mt. Rigi.  Doesn’t that look like fun?

Johannisbeerkuchen

Spending some time in Germany in the 1970’s afforded me the opportunity to learn about Konditorei, the wonderful bakery/cafes where you could enjoy delicious pastries with Tee oder Kaffee. One of my favorites was the simple Johannisbeerkuchen, which I enjoyed on many occasions. There was a second floor cafe at the Marienplatz in Munich where I loved to spend time watching the famous Glockenspiel performance in the Rathaus tower, writing in my journal, or studying Level 1 German. There will be changes this next trip. Now I have to eat gluten free. I’m not sure that I will be able to find pastries in a gluten free version. But I still remember and savor the sweet and tart flavor of Johannisbeerkuchen and recall how I could convince myself that it had fewer calories because it wasn’t chocolate.

Mirabell Garten

Near my old stomping grounds at the Mozarteum where I took classes in the summer of 1973. So many times I walked through these beautiful gardens. There across the river stands the fortress Hohensalzburg, a sentinel over the poetic and musical town. The many church steeples provide a counterpoint to the Salzburg skyline. The sky is cloudy and threatening rain, which happens daily in the summertime, the so-called Schnurlregen. I just want to walk again through these narrow historic streets and absorb the charm that enthralled me that summer long ago.

The Lion of Luzern

The Lion Monument (German: Löwendenkmal) commemorates the Swiss Guards, mercenaries, who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. It was designed by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and carved out of the limestone cliff by stone mason Lukas Ahorn of Konstanz in 1821. Missourian Mark Twain praised this sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as “the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.”  He continued: “The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies. Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Luzern would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.”— Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880. The inscription above the lion reads “Helvetiorum fedei ac Virtuti.” (To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss). See you soon, noble Lion!

Seenachtsfest in Konstanz

Well…I won’t be there to see this in August this year, but I did get to experience this festival is years past. Konstanz is situated right on the Bodensee near the Swiss border. The lake is a big attraction for the area and boating is very popular. My cousin Hannes has a boat. It is a fantastical sight to see the fireworks go off over the lake dotted with anchored sailboats.

Swiss Air

I made my first trip to Europe on Swiss Air, flying from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Lisbon, Portugal in 1971. I am happy to make my return trip to Europe, to Zurich, this summer once again on Swiss Air enjoying the hospitality for which the Swiss are famous.