Ladenburg…Where My Heart Found a Home

This is a long time coming I believe.  I have hinted about and gave you some bits and pieces and ideas about my village, but I thought it deserved more.

This piece was written for JPG Magazine a few months back and now want to share it with you.

Here begins, “Ladenburg…Where my Heart Found a Home”:

What city do you live in?

I live in a 2000 year old Roman village in Germany, called Ladenburg….I say 2000 years, but I believe it was established long before perhaps as an encampment by the Celts.

The neighborhood I live in is reasonably new. What use to be fields surrounding the walls of the city have with time become neighborhoods. My location is a little special as it is on the walking street to the cemetery. In most countries this may not be a favorable location, but in Germany, visiting your family members who are no longer with us, is an important daily ritual….thus forcing the entire town to pass by my house at least once a day… giving me ample opportunities to make friends and know the many faces of my village.
What are some adjectives that describe your neighborhood?

Along the tree lined streets are tall multi-dwelling homes, like town houses, each with their own garden. It is reasonably quiet, as are most German neighborhoods. I guess most Americans would call it “overlooked”, as my husband does, but for me…I call it intimate. I love having my neighbors close by so everyone can interact daily.

How long have you lived there, and what brought you there?

I believe I have been here now about two and a half years. My husband’s job has kept us overseas for about 12 years now so we have been blessed to have lived in many wonderful towns and countries in Europe.

What is your favorite thing about this place? Your least favorite?

I LOVE living in a village. It is my first experience with it and the feeling of community even for me, an outsider, is wonderful. If I ever feel lonely or perhaps a bit blue I just wander into the Old City, (downtown) and there I find many smiling faces wishing me, “Good Day or Good morning”. How can I stay sad or lonely? My dog Clover and I make a daily wander to the local beach along the Neckar river which is filled with dogs from the village looking for a friend to have a play date. Us “parents” will sit and chat about our 4 legged children, (as if they were real children) and for me these moments are priceless. I get a feeling of community, I get a free German language course and I get to burn out some of that Terrier energy all in one fell swoop! There are so many wonderful things about my village that I could go on forever.

What I don’t like??!!! That I know I can not live here forever.
Do you feel that you belong there?

Yes, absolutely! It is strange as I honestly don’t really belong anywhere. I have been constantly on the move since I was a kid. First foreign exchange, then college, then I married a soldier moved to Germany and have not stopped wandering long enough to plant real deep roots, but the shallow roots I did cultivate in each place….each tiny root has been painful to remove. Here in Ladenburg…I have forced down the closest thing to tap roots yet, is it age that makes uprooting so much harder each time? I do not know, but here in Ladenburg…. when I walk through town, connecting with it’s people, answering questions about my dog or my camera…I feel those root tendrils grow, thrive and spread. I am proud to say that I have made many close friends with the residents. One life long resident recently said to me, “Laura you are more Ladenburger than most Ladenburger’s”. I was so honored to be told that and I wear that title with pride…. “LAURA the LADENBURGER”.
What is the most common misconception about where you live?

I hear lots of misconceptions about Europe and being an American living here…Some of it is true…that at times it is hard to break through and form a real connection. I have been told by people in many cultures that since they are not as transient as Americans and they tend to stay in the same towns all their lives, near their family units and friends….so for them it is hard to fit in an outsider. BUT once they do…once you learn the secret handshake and are invited into the inner sanctum…you build friendships that are for life. People ask me all the time what do the Europeans think of America…it’s people..it’s president….THE WAR….I try to say, that I have found…when it comes to meeting people….it seems to be understood that there are People…and then there is Politics…I prefer to connect with the people.
What is a special fact about your city that you have to live there to know?

Carl Benz, of the car company Mercedes Benz lived and died here. That one of the largest Roman Basilicas in Western Europe lies under it’s streets and houses. That we have the most amazing poppy displays each year around the village.
What aspect of your city do you secretly love?

I LOVE it’s location…in the valley between two hilly ranges covered with vineyards and castles. A stones throw from the national forest of the Odenwald. Farms and vineyards surround us providing us with an endless supply of fruits, vegetables and most importantly WINE! The river Neckar, which has always been of great importance to people as it connects with the busy Rhine, now also a magical guide through the landscape for walkers and cyclist alike.
Anything else you’d like to add?

If you get a chance….and are coming to Heidelberg…. mark little Ladenburg on your map and come for a cake and coffee…..wander her cobbled streets….and then come to the river and look for Clover and I…we will be the one’s with all the cameras.