"Westerwald in My Heart" a Westerwald Travel Page by hunterV

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I was privileged to be here more than once...

Some Prehistory

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My acquaintance with Altenkirchen County and the Westerwald (WW for short) area began in March 1990 when a 28-memer group of young people from Altenkirchen County came top Luhansk through “OKTO Reisen”, Cologne, on a ten-day visit. I was a part-time interpreter of “Sputnik” Youth Travel Bureau of Luhansk. Sputnik was the receiving organization and I took part in many visits and meetings of the group. I even invited the group leader, Petra, and her friend Christoph to visit my family at our home.
The trip of the German group took place to Luhansk and not to any other Russuian or Ukrainian city only thanks to personal ties of Anatoly Kirpaty, the chief of Sputnik whose friend was the boss of the whole All-Union Sputnik in Moscow. Anatoly agreed to receive the German group in Luhansk region and to fulfill the group’s requirements of their stay in the country.
The trip was a discovery for many of its members who had never been to the Soviet Union before. There were full of impressions and wrote an article in their regional newspaper on returning home.
The County Council organized a charity concert “Rock Helps Ukraine” where they collected a five-digit sum of money and wanted to help the children of Luhansk region.
Since I was their contact person in Luhansk, Petra wrote to me asking for mediation, which I did, and our correspondence began. As a result, the hospital received a very necessary device for diagnosing the little patients – an “Olympus” bronchofiberscope. Although it was a used one, it was and still is a great help for the doctors.

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Altenkirchen is the only German town where I stayed six times within the ten years of my trips to Germany, among them four times as an interpreter. I have managed to see many of the splendid sights of this attracting tourist area called Westerwald: castles, old medieval houses, museums, churches and cathedrals, stores, restaurants and hotels, etc.
I was even privileged to stay at a real German castle that is now a higher educational establishment: Friedewald (Schloss Friedewald).
The castle used to belong to Sayn family. Earl von Sayn was a ruler of this area in the 13th-17th centuries.
Now the castle belongs to the Evangelical Academy.
Once during our youth exchange program when I was the Ukrainian group's interpreter we stayed in that castle for several days. One day we had our dinner at the famous Knights Hall (Rittersaal). It was marvelous!
I hope there will be many more visits to that town.

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We found Freusburg to be very impressive...

Discoveries Wherever You Go

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I have also visited several villages, towns and cities of Altenkirchen County:
Betzdorf, Wissen, Siegen, Ingelbach, Gebhardshain, Horhausen, Hachenburg, Kirchen, Katzwinkel and some others.
I am sorry I did not keep a travel diary then.
During my first visits I did not even have a color film and a decent camera to take pictures with, but the memories of different visits and meetings are still in my heart.
Once during a county tour we had lunch at the famous Freusburg – an old castle rebuilt and turned into a youth hostel. I remember a nice saying of the medieval German knights that I saw on the wall of the dining room,
“God save me from thunder, lightning and dull people”,
which made me think the medieval knights must have been very merry and optimistic people. The locals also showed us some places connected with the Middle Ages such as the old Tournament Field that is watered with knights’ blood well enough. “This is where the young knights chose to die in peaceful times, only for the sake of a show”, our young tour guide explained showing us the old Tournament Field.
Freusburg is a unique castle for it has a two-floor bay window - Eckerker. We call it ercker in Russian, too, like Germans. I have never seen a two-floor bay window before.
I also enjoyed observing the samples of the German architecture of different centuries. I saw a very nice old building in Wilhelm Strasse - the central street of Altenkirchen: Priviligierte Aphoteke (Privileged Pharmacy) dating back to the beginning of the 18th century. It is a typical Fachwerkhaus in the style of baroque.
It was great to attend a mass at the church there. My host family and I used to go to St.Paul’s Cathedral in Altenkirchen. I was also at Horhausen Cathedral dating back to 1902. Horhausen Cathedral is famous for its wall statues at the entrance: St.Mary Magdalena and Antonius Abbat.
Each cathedral or church, each café or restaurant we have visited are unique and special in their own way.
Let’s hope there will be more visits and more nice impressions of that place.

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