MY AMPLEFORTH YEARS 4: Germany – work, love and travel 

Last Saturday in Kochel.

Time has been moving very rapidly indeed in the course of the past three weeks. I have done a great many things, and enjoyed a wide variety of experiences, and suffered just as much.

Why suffered? Because I have had near-continuous hay-fever for ten days, and the skin is pealing off my chest and shoulders; too much sunburn. I am fairly brown in places, that thanks to one or two really violently hot days when I found myself more or less confined to the garden.

Oddly enough, when confined to the garden, it was not because I needed sleep, nor because I was ill. I was sent a French book and a Spanish book, the former by Zoé Oldenbourg, called Réveillés de la vie, and the latter by Alejo Carpentier, called Pasos perdidos. I had to read them in the original languages – and both books were almost four hundred pages long – and then summarise the themes, analyse the themes, and say whether or not these books would suit the German taste. So much for Piper & Co, the München publishers; an initial exam, I suppose this might be termed. This task took from last Saturday morning – when I missed work on purpose and with permission – until Tuesday night, eleven-fifteen for precision. I was reading the French book at about twenty pages an hour, and the Spanish at some thirty an hour, the pages being shorter. It was an interesting job, but my hay-fever put me at a tremendous disadvantage. I went in to München, hiking, on Wednesday morning with the work ready, handed it in, and then had lunch with Elfried in her room. At about two o’clock I began looking for a room in München; at four, thinking I had met with success, I left for home. Hiking today took two hours either way; excellent luck, even for a bad Catholic.

Last Friday we had a party, the whole Institut assembled together, in the Gasthof. There was coffee or chocolate or tea, and three very large cakes of our choice apiece. The tables had clean white tablecloths, and many of us were wearing our better clothes, if not suits; there were visitors from München. After eating and drinking our fill, we took it in turn to entertain the others, splitting up into national groups. With Bill and Mike, I sang ‘Tipperary’, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, ‘Alouette’, ‘Swing low’, ‘Dublin Fair City’; they went very well – though I really can not sing, and the English speaking songs were a success. We had practised them previously, once up at the Institut, and once out on the Lake. Today everyone was very cheerful, and when the entertainment came to an end, the whole Institut forced Mike to conduct another half hour’s singing of ‘Alouette’, song of the day. The Greeks’ singing was good, too, for theirs is the talent and the bass voices. The Turks had some singing and dancing, as had the Spaniards: Aparicio was ravishing in her dancing with Don Paco, gaunt-faced, small, with the perpetual cigarette drooping at a dangerous angle from the corner of his mouth.

I have learnt to appreciate Kochel more and more since my arrival. Even the weather has become definitely interesting. When it rains, it rains for two days. When it is fine, it can be fine for two days too; but, as often as not, towards the end of the first good day’s weather, along comes a Gewitter, and then two days rain. When it is fine, it is impossibly hot, and you are burnt within a matter of hours. I have been out on the Kochel See quite a lot recently; once, Mike and I were driven in by an imminent, but deceitful, weather disturbance in the form of the usual Gewitter.

In the sunshine, Kochel is a beautiful place, calm and peaceful; it is quite true that there is a lack of theatres and so on, but, if there were any, I am still not so sure that I would be able to afford them. As it is, my finances prosper daily more and more. I wash all my washing, do all the ironing alone, and everything is for the best. On Sunday I ate fruit and Pumpernikel, all sliced into immaculately tasty-looking designs, had some beer as presented by Herr Resenberger, the landlord, and my own, usual tea: and I was content. In the evening I had a chocolate at the Prince Ludwig, and in the afternoon made up on letters, long overdue: I also thanked Sir (Herbert) Read for rejecting the ‘Sixth Former’s Diary’!

German diary, vol.1                          German diary, vol.2

German diary, vol.3                          German diary, vol.4