What age are you supposed to be
before you can use the word reminisce? If I had to guess, I would say probably mid
to late-fifties would be a safe place to start. Early sixties might be better
if you want to really make good on your reminiscing. I haven’t attained the age
or the experience to start yet, that much I know.
Anyway, I was looking back at various
documents and ran across some stuff that I will reminisce about in another
forty years or so. Right now, they are just nice events to remember. According
to my calendar, the events were exactly two years two months and two days ago.
There were four of us guys, Titus,
Johannes, Caleb, and me. Probably four or five-ish in the afternoon we rolled
into a little town in the Alps of southeastern Germany, nearly on the Austrian
border. I don’t remember how long the train ride had been, but it had started
in France, we had spent the night in another German town, and as we got into
more and more desolate terrain, the train had gotten shorter until when we
finally arrived, it had only two passenger cars.
There is something about those high
mountain towns that is different than anywhere else. It’s almost like life
itself slows down a little bit in awe of the snowy peaks that soar into the sky
behind the buildings and streets that humans have dared to put on their slopes.
None the less, they provide some breathtaking scenery. The town itself,
Berchtesgaden, is fairly small. A train station, a few restaurants including a
Burger King, and of course a few churches.
One day of our stay there, we hiked
out of the town and took on the mountains. The trail we found took us about
three miles up in what I would describe as a wide canyon. Supposedly there was
an ice sculpture or something way back in there, but we never found it. While we
were walking we would intermittently hear a booming noise echoing through the
canyon. After an hour or two, we got to the end of the canyon and found out
what the sound was. It was a sunny day, and every so often, way high on the
mountain, snow would break loose and come crashing down. Probably the closest
thing to an avalanche this delta boy will ever see.
Anyway, that’s probably enough “remembering”
for now.
One more thing before I go, if you
get a chance to ride a train to a town in the mountains in Germany, take it. You’ll
be glad you did.