As I mentioned in the last entry, Gerard's friend, Volker had today organised to the minute, so to be on schedule we had to arrive in Ennerpetal between 9am and 10am for a welcome, cuppa and chat. This meant leaving Cologne at about 8am as we were unsure how long it would take and we didn't want to blow the schedule staight away. Breakfast was whatever we had in the car, bananas, pastries etc and after last night's dinner we weren't all the eager to face food again yet.
We arrived on target in Ennerpetal at about 9.15am and Gerard and Volker were very happy to see each other again after 22 years. They had both gained aboutn 20kg but luckily were still recognisable. Volker had progressed in the Bilstein Company from Office boy to General Manager of Sales and held sufficient weight in the company to ply us with coffee and biscuits whilst Gerard and Volker caught up on old times and where people are now and who had died.
We were than taken down the hill and introduced to Elger, who took us on a tour of the factory where they make the shock absorbers. Now, it doesn't sound very interesting, but in fact it was great because the Bilstein factory is a working example of the Toyota Production System, which was what my old employer was involved in training in Australia, and so I could point out to the boys the Toyota processes and layout. In fact Bilstein had just had the Toyota people out to evaluate the factory and got a very good report on the less automated factory in comparison to the more technologically based one. After the tour we joined Volker to follow him to a restaurant for lunch.
The restaurant was in a small town nearby and was absolutely posh! Here we were Aussie tourists in jeans and cas wear, when we should have been all dolled up in formal attire. Even Queen Anne's throne was there in a glass case, with red velvet and gold everywhere. We were the only diners there and were joined by Volkers wife Andrea. We had three gigantic and most beautifule courses accompanied by wine. Gerard and I tried stag, which was very nice and I could cope with until I thought about it being Bambi's Dad. But it was delicious, just like fillet steak, beautiful and tneder, but a little stronger flavour. Bambi's Dad went down well. We staggered out unable to bend in the middle to get in the car. Andrea gave me a tip on where to go shopping and so we headed off to Wuppertal.
Fortunately we misjudged where the shopping mall was and walked a long way to find it, great, we could now bend a little more comfortably. The toy shop was at the far end of the mall, which was good, and we bought presents to bribe Volkers two littlies. Alittle girl, Anna, 1 and Juan, 3. We found a koala soft toy, albeit brown and a digger. Gerard found a menswear shop and we went in to buy him a jumper. Not much conversation was happening but the ladies managed to ask us where we came from. When we said Australia, they broke into rapid German with Australia peppered throughout the sentences and waved their arms around and Ooohed and Aahed. I don't think they get many Aussies in their shop. They then asked us why we were in Wuppertal and we said we had friends in Ennepertal, at which point the rapid German started again and they offered us coffee, biscuits and champagne, in a mens wear store! Unfortunately we couldn't fit a thing in and had to buy the jumper and say goodbye.
Wuppertal is the home of the world's oldest monorail and so we rode it back to the car. The carriages hang from the overhead rail and travel along the river. It's only crashed once a couple of years ago when the maintenance team forgot to take out a stop and didn;t do a trial run. I don't think anyone was seriously hurt. It was something else to put in the experiences had book.
Back at Ennepertal we booked into our quaint hotel "Haus Greta" which I don't think attracts many visitors and is stuck in the 70s. We were instructed to use the bell when we get back late and you wouldn't argue with the lady who ran the place. Breakfast would be at 9am and you felt like saluting. I am sure she spent time in the German Army. The little dog was cute though. It turned out there was only one other guest there besides us. It was clean and comfortable, though despite the time warp.
We headed out to Volker and Andreas home in the forest nearby and bribed the children with our gifts. They went down very well and two happy toddlers wandered off to play. They were a bit amazed at these people that didn't speak German and their parents were talking weird too. We managed to squeeze in another delicious meal and accompanying wine before returning to Haus Greta and ringing the bell to get in. Volker and Andrea were excellent hosts and kept inviting us and/or the boys to come back soon.
Next morning we made it to 9am breakfast of hard boiled egg, bread, meat and cheese, coffee and orange juice. Delicious!!! I could feel the pounds stacking straight on to the hips we had eaten so much over the last couple of days.
