‘A small town in Germany’
Babel had some last minute lecture preparation to do the next morning, so rather than sitting around and moping I decided to go out and explore the town. By 10am I had already finished breakfast and was strolling along a small road which I later ascertained to be the main street of the town. Having now spent a week there, I would have been more inclined to call Biedenkopf a village, but I have been reliably informed by two Germans that it has more than 10,000 inhabitants, thus fulfilling the legal requirements to be able to call itself a town 
In any case, it’s a pretty little place, albeit rather sleepy. That first Sunday morning I hardly saw another living creature as I wandered up and down the backstreets. Admittedly Sundays are generally quite sleepy in Germany with all the shops being closed, but even so… Almost the first building which I came across when I left the youth hostel and crossed the train line was the catholic church, and there was a big sign outside proclaiming that Mass would take place at 11. Now normally I would have no interest in attending Mass, rather the reverse in fact, but in this instance it struck me as a good idea; it would keep me busy for an hour, and it would also be somewhere nice and warm to sit, because it was becoming bitterly cold outside.
That left me with an hour to explore, so I needed to walk at a fairly swift pace. I had my sights set on the little castle which towers high above Biedenkopf, situated on a steep hill. I had no idea how to get to it but began walking in the general direction, and soon I was confronted with a plethora of signs pointing uphill to the ‘Schloss’. It was by no means a gentle stroll to the castle actually…. or perhaps I’m just terribly unfit, because I must say that I found it quite exhausting 
The path was really quite steep, and in some places cobbled which made it especially difficult to walk on, particularly when it was quite an icy morning. Happily there was a helpful rail affixed to the side in most places, and the closer I got to the top, the more I have to confess that I was hanging onto this and drawing myself up panting 
It was well worth it in the end The view from the top is quite spectacular, taking in the whole of Biedenkopf as well as much of the surrounding area. I was pleasantly surprised by how hilly the whole area was, and one of my regrets for the week is that I wasn’t brave enough/didn’t find the time to go off exploring in the countryside. No sooner had I reached the summit, however, I had to think about returning downwards because it was already twenty five to eleven and it was going to be a struggle to make it back to the vicinity of the youth hostel on time for Mass. Fortunately the way down was an awful lot quicker than the way up, and the rail once again really came into it’s own, providing me with something to hang onto as I scurried downhill as fast as my little legs would carry me.
Miraculously, I made it to the church by 10 to 11, but wasted a good few minutes outside trying to work out where the door was (no, really, it wasn’t obvious!). I eventually succeeded, acquired a missal for myself and chose an unobtrusive seat sufficiently close to the back. It was a fairly modern church but a pretty one nevertheless, one entire side wall being covered by interesting stained glass. I was expecting the service to be a rather sombre affair as the congregation looked distinctly elderly, but when the priest came onto the altar I was in for a shock. With no warning at all, he walked towards a microphone, picked up a guitar, and started to play and sing 
He was very good and definitely succeeded in livening up what could otherwise have been dull proceedings, but I must confess there were a few minutes when I wondered whether I was actually in a catholic church at all
Halfway through the service I noticed that there was a bunch of other Esperantists on the far side of the church. That was rather a fortunate occurrance, because when I exited the church I could no longer remember which direction the youth hostel was in We all walked back together, taking a slightly illegal route across a school playground, and were back just in time for dinner.
In the afternoon Babel still had work to do on his powerpoint presentation, so I decided to participate in the organised excursion to the town castle. Yes, I had admittedly already seen it once today, but I figured it would keep me out of mischief, and anyway I thought there might be more to the town than I had managed to discover on my morning sortie. It turned out that there actually wasn’t and I began to despair as to how on earth I was ever going to survive a week in this place, but nevertheless it was nice to have another walk in the fresh air and we were treated to a commentary about the architecture of the town which was very interesting
Fortunately the excursion didn’t take too long, and I was back just on time to sit in on Babel’s lecture about child labour. There was a good attendance, and the powerpoint presentation he had been busy finalising all day looked very professional Some of the statistics and viewpoints he presented were very interesting, and whilst other people got involved in the debate, I concentrated on trying to get some decent photos for La Brita Esperantisto
I can’t remember Sunday evening terribly well. I suspect that I may have sat in the trinkejo, which was fairly empty, for a bit and attempted to drink a bottle of beer. I still didn’t feel confident enough to be able to sit there and even watch other people having a conversation if I was stone cold sober, so I did my best to become inebriated, even stretching to a second bottle. It was a rather painful experience though, all the more painful when I realised I hadn’t even been managing to swallow “real” beer, only Radler – a mixture of beer and lemonade
Tags: biedenkopf, Esperanto, internacia seminario