Day 56 - Wired!

On the trail we talked about food. A lot. One topic of conversation was our ideal breakfast. I am a huge fan of the German breakfast - egg, bread, meats, cheeses, fruit, tomato...pretty much, if it's good to eat, you can find it at a German breakfast.

My family did not disapoint, and we spent a lazy (and late) morning munching and chatting and marveling that it was gaining on noon and we hadn't been kicked out.

In the afternoon, after we had proven ourselves properly gluttonous Americans, A and E (My aunt and Uncle) took us out to see Altena and The Wire Museum. I was a little skeptical - a Wire museum - how exciting could it be? But curious too. And it's true! Wire is totally exciting...or at least the wire museum was. There was a cross-section of the Golden Gate Bridge, exhibits of how everything from sewing needles and hinges to airplane parts are made, and all sorts of fun toys to play with. We pushed buttons to make a model water-powered wire drawing fctory run, tried drawing wire by hand (HARD), and made and conducted electricity all sorts of ways... Aparently Burt Reynolds had also enjoyed playing with the toys too, as proven by a photocopy of his signature in the guest book, shown us by the charming and enthusiastic docent who commented that Burt had been there with a new girlfriend and he just couldn't figure what such a nice young lady was doing with an old man.

Now for your fun facts of the day: Drawing wire is the means by which soft, fat wire becomes hard, thin wire. In the middle ages, this was done by hand, pulling the wire through cards with smaller and smaller holes. Later, the wire was drawn through similar cards by using energy generated by a water wheel. Altena was (and is) big in wire drawing due to the large amounts of rain and swiftly flowing rivers. Today the machines are motorized, but the process (fat wire traveling through holes to become skinny wire) is much the same, and still requires quite a bit of human attention and effort.

After the museum, we went to a little cafe for coffee and kuchen. In Germany, the afternoon snack has been elevated to an art form. No quickly stuffed candy bar or crackers here, but rather coffee, tea, and cake, properly served with dishes, silver and conversation. In this case, the conversation revolving around the cafe owner's lovely new grandbaby whose pictures made rounds at the table.

We were feeling pretty tired, so rather than visiting the castle today, we simply headed home for a nap. Properly refreshed, it was off to the egg farm.

I have already mentioned in an earlier post how happy chickens make the best tasting eggs. This is an international phenomenon, and A and E go to the neighboring town to get fresh eggs from happy chickens. The eggs are in crates in the garage of the farmhouse. Prices are posted on a cardboard sign, and a saucer is left out for payment. We selected twenty fine eggs, both brown and white, left our coins and started for the door. We were met by one of the owner who told the following joke. Apologies for any misspelling.

In German, the plural form is often made by adding "er" on the end of a word. The word for lots of work is "mooer".

Ein Ku Macht Moo (one cow says/ makes "moo")
Viele Ku machen Mooer (lots of cows say/make lots of work)

Chortle. I like puns...though you may think me COWardly for posting one out of swatting range.
Snerk.