Pentecost — Vacation Time
Pentecost is a two-day holiday in Germany and connected with two-weeks school vacation. Tired of the long cold winter in the northern hemisphere, many people are heading south to the Alps and the Mediterranean. Pentecost starts the summer travelling season. In the Alps the cows are brought up to the alms for summer grazing and the mountain restaurants get ready for the hikers and mountain climbers.
At the Mediterranean beaches and restaurants open and sailors are coming to the marinas to get their boats ready for the summer season. At the days before Pentecost there are huge traffic jams known as “Stau” at the “Autobahns” leading south. ”Stau”-warnings are out all the time, but people travel anyway.
We decided to do the opposite. As we could not travel during the pandemic we discovered how pretty our neighborhood is. We have a city surrounding chestnut ring alley with a pond where a black swan couple lives. This year they had a little cygnet, the first time ever, people told us.
In walking distance is a park area around a river with hiking and biking trails which lead to a nearby lake. This area is home for many birds, ducks, geese, herons, but also of a colony of rabbits. To our, and many other people’s delight, there lives a white swan couple. Every year we get excited when the mother swan sits on their eggs and we wonder when and how many little cygnets are arriving. Some people come along every day to check on the swans and the little ones.
For the Pentecost weekend, the weather-gods sent us brilliant sunshine and warmth and we were out at our beloved Rott River Park. This time the frog colony greeted us with a busy welcome concert. The swans and their 4 cygnets were happily swimming around looking for food. We are happy to have this park nearby and enjoy our walks, lunches on our favorite bench, and watching nature.
