T R AV E L
The Charm of a Small German Village by DAVID & KAY SCOTT
M
U.S. travelers to Germany tend to spend the majority of their time in the country’s larger and well-known cities such as Berlin, Dresden, Cologne, Heidelberg, and, especially, Munich, an American favorite, and for good reason. The remainder of their time is devoted to smaller touristy towns made popular by guidebooks and tours. This latter group includes Bamberg, Garmish, Passau, Regensburg, Rothenburg, and Trier (Germany is home to many bergs and burgs, but few villes). These are all great destinations that offer museums, cathedrals, upscale restaurants, theaters, and uncountable historic buildings and cultural events, plus plenty of beer and wurst. Still, they lack much of what might be considered the real personality of Germany. To understand, imagine foreign visitors to America who experience only New York City, San Francisco, Orlando, and Washington, D.C. These travelers take in the places they have heard and read about including our museums, fancy restaurants, theaters, theme parks, historic buildings, and cultural events. Unfortunately, they miss the heartland of America; its small towns of residents offering an entirely different side of our culture.
20
ValdostaScene | AUGUST 2013
Our current visit to Germany included a return to a small town we discovered on an earlier trip. Erpel (pronounced as Apple), a village of about 2,500 citizens, is situated on the east bank of the Rhine River between Cologne and Koblenz. The town is home to four small restaurants, no hotels (hotels are a short distance away on a road that follows the river), and a number of small shops (including, of course, a wonderful bakery) along what is essentially a pedestrian street. There are no traffic lights and virtually no tourists. What few tourists we encountered were German. Few residents, including the kind woman in whose guesthouse we stayed, speak English. Erpel is not geared toward tourism, the major factor that caused us to want to return. In addition, the town serves as an excellent place to rest and recharge following a tiring flight from the U.S.
The Rhine River, bordered with towns both big and small along its meandering path north, serves as the highway for some of the most popular river cruises in Europe. It is also a major thoroughfare for specialized barges and trains loaded with coal, petroleum, grain, and containers. A trip along the Rhine, whether via boat, train, bus, or rental vehicle is one of the most scenic and popular journeys in all of Europe. Erpel is best known, if it is known at all, as one terminus of the Ludendorff Bridge, a once-impressive steel suspension span for trains built during World War I so Germany could more easily supply its troops on the Western Front. Better known today as the Bridge at Remagen, the bridge was captured by American soldiers on May 7, 1945 during the Allies drive to Berlin. The bridge collapsed a little more than a week after being cap-