Once upon a time….
by Mama Bear
Oberammergau, Germany
…there were eleven bears; you may well remember eight of them were children and one was a Grandpa Bear. Of course there were also a Papa Bear and Mama Bear. While their porridge was cooling they went for a walk in the forest. Actually, on this particular day, it was after they had finished their porridge that they went for the walk. And while there *was* a forest nearby, this time they headed into town….
where
they met
Hansel and Gretel
and Little Red Riding Hood
and the Bremen Town Musicians as well.
The name of the town was Oberammergau, and it was full of beautifully painted buildings, and lots of carved wooden figurines for sale. This made the bears think of another book they love; “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey”. There was even a bearded man, who just might have been Mr Gloomy Toomey himself!
On the way home along a path winding beside the stream they had bathed in just yesterday (and would bathe in again today, proving to the Mama Bear that they really are all mad – because today they would know how cold it would be), they looked up to the meadows on the side of the mountain and imagined Heidi could have been in one of the wooden huts (even though they knew they weren’t quite in Switzerland).
It was also easy to see how Jack and the Beanstalk could be a believable story here – there are so many bean poles that are easily eight metres tall. Finally, trip trap trip trap trip trap – “Who’s that tripping over my bridge?” roared the troll. It was only us bears and trolls are scared of bears and so we got past.
This is storybook country.
PS I really should mention this being the place where the Passion Play is performed once every ten years, shouldn’t I? Next year is the next time and they are gearing up for it already. Can’t imagine we’d find a spot in our wee parking place when that’s on.
PPS Father Bear’s take on the day.
Grandpa Bear and I tried to fix this:
Tags: book, children, postcard: Germany, postcard: Rhein Road Trip, recreation
rayres
wow! how fascinating 🙂 good for the tourists anyway.. i think i might go a bit nutty with fairy tale characters on the side of my house lol.. (and sneak out in the middle of the night with a roller & can of exterior acrylic!)
i think you’ve officially convinced me to add germany to my (huge) list of places to visit! 😀
In ’84 Oberammergau was just as beautiful but the play (50th or 100th anniversary so they did it at a 5 year interval) took all day. We appreciated the hard work of seemingly all the community but it was a little long.