TRAVEL REPORTS :: REISEBERICHTE

Celebration Dance Plön 2004

Yes, Linda Kendall, Ben Rubright and I had the honor of calling the week-long dance (December 27, 2004-January 1, 2005) in a little town in northern Germany, Plon. It is a quaint little town of about 1,000 residents, where square dance weekends are held on a regular basis. We called C-1 through C-3B to a whole bunch of enthusiastic dancers from eight countries (Britain, Denmark, Belgium, America, Sweden, France, Canada and Germany). Many of the dancers are old friends we see several times a year, and many others became new friends. As one dancer/caller said, it was the Linda Ben Ett dance! More on that later.

Linda and I started our trip on December 24th, arriving from an overnight flight from the States. We rested up, and had a very nice Christmas Eve dinner at our hotel. It turns out that Christmas is actually celebrated on the 24th in Germany, so many places were closed for the holiday, but we enjoyed the sights anyway. Christmas day dawned gray and overcast, but we ventured out to see the ruins of the Heidelberg castle. We enjoyed walking the grounds. In its day, the castle served as a protective fortress for the town of Heidelberg. Shown here is part of the ruins of the castle, where the wall has fallen off due to erosion. This provided us a glimpse into the interior and allows us to imagine life in the castle as it was for the residents of the time.

On the day after Christmas, we ventured out by train to the old medieval town of Rothenburg, at the northern edge of Bavaria. This town is purported to be “the best preserved medieval town in Europe” and a gem of the medieval age. Today, it is a leader of German sight-seeing along what is known as the Romantic Road. The Romantic Road runs from the vineyard-hung slopes of the Main River valley at Warburg to the snow-covered mountains overlooking Fusser in the Allayer Alps. The sights we saw along the countryside, from our train window, add up to a pageant of marvels of history, art, and architecture, providing an essence of Germany at its most picturesque and romantic.

The medieval cities in Europe sprang up from the Rathaus (City Hall) square and protected the citizens from the external enemy by high walls and deep moats. While there, we saw the Rathaus (City Hall). Interestingly, half of the city hall is Gothic, begun in 1240; the other half is neoclassical, started in 1572. A fire in 1501 destroyed the part of the structure that is now the Renaissance section, which faces the main square. We learned that if you climb to the 80m tower of the Rathaus, you can enjoy the amazing views over the jumble of Rothenburg's rooftops and walls. On the north side of the main square is a fine clock, placed there 50 years after the Mayor's feat. A mechanical figure acts out the epic, Master Drink.

As we walked along, we discovered the Puppen und Spielzeugmuseum (Doll and Toy Museum). This 15th-century building houses 300 dolls, the oldest dating from 1780, the newest from 1940. There were many displays showing the lives and times of this district in the Middle Ages. It was fascinating to see all the different dolls made out of every kind of material imaginable. At the end of that street, we found another interesting site of the town, the Mittelalterliches Kriminalmuseum (Medieval Criminal Museum) where we saw the gruesome medieval implements of torture used throughout the Middle Ages. It was not for the faint-hearted. The museum also soberly documents the history of German legal processes in the middle ages.

Whether Rothenburg is at its most appealing in summer, when the balconies of its ancient houses are festooned with flowers, or in winter, when snow lies on its steep gables and narrow streets, is a matter of taste. We were fortunate to see it at Christmastime. In fact, typical of the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in Germany are the open air market stalls serving hot spiced wine, or “Glühwein.” For an American, it was a bit shocking to see alcohol openly sold and consumed on the streets, but that didn’t stop us! While the markets in town were closed, we could “window shop” and see many interesting ornaments, advent calendars, springerle molds and other Christmas items. Every city and town has a Weinachtsmarkt. We ran across an open pastry shop selling a favorite local specialty, “schneeballen,” in this quaint town Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria Germany.

On Friday December 27th, we headed north with Kerstin to Plon, to the dance hall. Dancers from many different countries were there, and Ben and we called from December 27th through January 1st, C-1 – C-3B. We were joined by fellow Americans Hal and Rod from California, Barry from Connecticut, Danny (currently living in Denmark, originally from Illinois) and Carol Rubright from Florida. During the day, we had full time C-1, C-2 and C-3A and then every evening, all the dancers and callers came together for a common hour of C-1. The C-3 dancers then split off for an hour of C-3. This group of dancers was enthusiastic and genuinely interested in their dancing. At 9:30pm, we all joined together for an afterparty paralleled by none! The highlight of the week was the New Years Eve party put on by Steffen Mauring and the Percolators. We shared traditions with the Brits, who celebrated their New Years Eve an hour later, at 1am German time! We threatened to get everyone up at 6am for the American New Years Eve (they’re 6 hours ahead of the east coast time over there in Germany) but needless to say, we didn’t. Elsewhere in this issue is the song done by Barbara Brooks of South Devon, England… “Oh Square Dancing!” Look it up, it was fun. Earlier in the evening we saw Steffen Mauring’s video relating his trip to the Japanese National Square Dance convention in November 2004. It looked like lots of fun. We shared a traditional German treat at New Years, the “Berliner” or fresh donuts. They were hot off the presses and delicious. We all sang songs both old and new, with our international friends from seven other countries.

One favorite activity was to sing and dance the “Hokey Cokey” - better known in America as the “hokey pokey.” Ever wonder why it’s called the “hokey pokey?” There are many theories - one is that it began in 17th century England, ridiculing the Roman Catholic mass, with the movements constituting a mimicry of the priest’s moves during the performance of Holy Communion. ‘Hokey-Cokey’ may be a corruption of the Latin words of consecration - Hoc est corpus: 'This is my body'. A further suggestion by the Oxford English Dictionary is that ‘Hokey-Cokey’ comes from ‘hocus-pocus’, which may in turn be a burlesque of ‘Hoc est corpus’. Hocus-pocus came to refer to the sleight of hand tricks used by magicians to create their illusions.

All in all, our week in Plon was a wonderful one. We shared lots of good times with old friends and new, and all three of us look forward to seeing everyone again in a square sometime soon! Many thanks to all of the Percolators square dancers, Steffen Mauring, Juergen Saeftel and the rest, who made all of us feel like royalty while there. Check here for upcoming events sponsored by the Percolators Square Dance club in Germany. http://www.percolators.de