Bill Bryson, eat your heart out!
Some time ago there was a thread on Cats and the English language, which developed into a discussion on Germany.
Cats and the English language
In my post on the thread, I said that my school did exchange trips with a school in Kassel in Germany. I didn’t realise at the time that Kirsten lived very close to Kassel and I said to her that I would try to find my journal from the trip and tell her where I had been. I couldn’t remember whether we had visited Hann. Muenden, where Kirsten lives, or not. My recollections were a bit hazy.
Last week I found my trip diary and discovered that I had been in Hann. Muenden twice. The first time my diary records, “We went up a tower, then shopped. Really lovely little village. The shops were beautiful and I bought quite a lot.” Excuse me????? What was the tower for? How high was it? What could you see from it? How about a description of this lovely little village? What did you buy in these beautiful shops? I can however tell you that 13 June 1974 was “warm but dull” in that corner of Germany.
The entry for the second time I was there is slightly better, but still doesn’t give much detail. “We got on a wee ship to take us along the Wesser from 9.00 – 1.00. Got on a bus in Karlhafen for a trip through the Reinhardswald and to a fairy tale castle thing. Then the bus dropped us off at the school.” Leaving aside the appalling grammar, it doesn’t exactly make you feel as if you are there, does it? :rolleyes:
Strangely, both these days meticulously record what time I got up and what time all of our transport was. Of what interest is that to anybody?
I was never going to make a living as a travel writer, was I? :D
