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- 4 -

It is the 29th May 1824 and still early in the morning. Balthasar and Simon are sitting in the Landau carriage on the way to the stagecoach stop in Mainz along with all their luggage and a few sample bottles of wine. They want to board the stagecoach to Koblenz there.
On May 22nd, his birthday, Josephine had announced to her Simon at the breakfast table, that his father would take him along on his trip to England in two days’ time. The boy was beside himself with joy the whole day – the afternoon coffee with relatives didn’t particularly interest him – he could only think about England. The following day also went by awfully slowly. Only while packing his suitcases was Simon distracted for a short time.
Saying goodbye to his mother this morning was not easy for Simon though. He could not hold back the tears although London excites him so much. Josephine, too, had tears in her eyes – it is the first time that she has to get by without her youngest child for three or four weeks. As Joseph finally drove the Landau carriage out of the yard, the mother, Christoph, Josephine, Mr. Vonecken and Rosi stood before the front gate and waved at the two wayfarers.

With his mind on the farewell, the time in the coach flies by and they have already arrived at the coach station in Mainz. Joseph and Simon unload the luggage from the Landau carriage while Balthasar is in the coach station paying the fares for two places on the next coach to Koblenz. Eyes wide, Simon stands next to the luggage and watches the goings on at the stagecoach station. Many people are shuffling around in an apparently aimless manner; coaches arrive, are unloaded and then loaded before setting off again to an unknown destination. Simon takes in the images and situations while quiet and loud and sometimes strange sounds ring in his ears. Overwhelmed, he does not notice that his father is now standing next to him again and is speaking to him. Joseph places his left hand on Simon’s shoulder and leans down towards him. “Goodbye Simon!”
“Oh, Joseph, sorry! I was lost in thought.”
Balthasar smiles at Simon. “Indeed. I’ve just been telling you that we have to board the yellow coach over there, and that we will drive for about ten hours to Koblenz. Then turning to his coachman, he says, “Thank-you Joseph. Have a safe trip home.”
“Yes Mr. Braun. I hope you have a pleasant trip, and good luck.” Joseph climbs to the Landau carriage’s driver’s seat, releases the brake, and with a precise flick of the reins, the two Trakehner horses spring into action. Simon watches them leave and is only torn from his thoughts by the movement of the luggage cart. A man wearing a smock and a blue peaked cap has collected the luggage and taken it to the yellow stagecoach. Following his father, Simon looks on as a rider arrives at the stagecoach station at full gallop, jumps from his horse, and unfastens his saddlebags.
“Dad, look. The rider in front of the coach station, why is he in such a hurry?”
“That’s a post rider, a so-called courier. He takes letters and documents from one station to the next and passes them onto another man with a new horse. That’s how the mail gets quickly from the sender to the receiver.”
Travellers stand in front of the shiny, yellow coach and wait for all the pieces of luggage to be strapped onto the roof racks. The Brauns' suitcases are also properly loaded and strapped down. Simon counts six other passengers aside from the coachmen. Two young men sit right at the back of the coach. Under the extended black folding roof, they are protected from strong sunlight and rain. Two couples board the front of the coach. Simon then follows and sits with his back to the front across from a slightly plump-looking fine lady. Finally, his father boards the coach and sits next to Simon while pulling the wagon door shut behind him.
“We are leaving now, ladies and gentlemen!” announces one of the coachmen through a small window above Simon’s head. With a short jolt, the four-horse yellow stagecoach sets off. The wheels roll evenly over the cobbled road. In the coach, their rattling is heard only quietly.
Simon sinks back into the dark, worn leather-upholstered bench. The man sitting to his left converses animatedly with the lady sitting opposite. He has hung his suit jacket on a hook behind him, in the corner of the coach. The conversation is about fashion. The elegantly dressed lady looks at Simon for a moment, smiles at him, and then continues speaking about the empire style. Simon doesn’t understand a word. The word ‘empire’ makes him think of the British Empire, which is his travel destination.

“Excuse me Mr. Braun, could you please hang my jacket on the hook with yours?” asks the other gentleman, holding out his suit jacket in front of Balthasar. The man makes a stern impression on Simon, and is of a slender build. Simon now looks out the window to the right and sees buildings, people and vehicles pass by. After a while there is more and more green to be seen: trees, bushes, grass and flowers. They leave Mainz behind them.
Simon closes his eyes, the even rolling of the wagon wheels helps him drift into daydreams. He thinks about London, the biggest city in the world, the capital of the empire.
“Are you travelling with your dad?” The woman sitting opposite interrupts his daydreams. Simon looks at her. “Yes, I am.”
“What’s your name, then?” asks the lady, smiling.
“Simon, Simon Braun from Mainz.”
“My name is Amelie Konrath and this is my husband Theodor.”
Nice smile, thinks Simon, and she’s actually not at all chubby , she just appears to be. He has been comparing her with the lady sitting to her right, who is very thin. Aside from this, the woman opposite him is wearing one of the latest dresses, which, thanks to its little puffed sleeves on the upper arms, makes the neckline appear very broad.
“Do you have a long trip ahead of you, or are you only going to Koblenz, like us?” asks Mrs. Konrath.
“We’re going to London to visit Grandpa and Grandma.”
“Your grandparents live in England?”
“My grandparents are English. My mother too. I mean, she was. Now she’s German.”
The coach brakes and Simon sees through the window that they’ve stopped in front of a building with the words POST STATION written on it in big letters. The little window above him opens. “Ladies and gentlemen, we will take a short break of twenty minutes here to change horses. You may drink coffee or make other purchases in the coach station”.
Balthasar places a hand on Simon’s shoulder. “Come on Simon, get out! We should stretch our legs.”
Everyone leaves the coach. The coachmen have jumped down from their box and two men from the station bring four new horses over. Balthasar and Simon stand in front of the station with the two young men who have been sitting on the back of the coach and watch how nimbly and swiftly the changeover takes place.
A few minutes later they are all sitting in their places again and the coach starts moving once more. Balthasar turns to Simon. “Koblenz is a very old city. The area here has been settled since the Stone Age because the land is very fertile.”
“Yes dad, and near Koblenz, the Mosel flows into the Rhine”.
“Exactly. And at the moment there is a gigantic building site in Koblenz. Right now, the city’s fortress Ehrenbreitstein fortification is being renovated and extended by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. The building works began nine years ago, but when will they be finished?”
The gentleman sitting opposite Balthasar, Theodor Konrath, raises his right index finger. "Sorry for interfering, but I can offer more information on the subject. I am a civil servant and am in charge of finances in Koblenz. The order to refortify the city and the Festung Ehrenbreitstein was enacted on the 11th March 1815, and it should be completed by 1832. Of course it could take one or two years longer. It is not possible to accurately predict the duration of such a large building operation."
These dates do not really interest Simon. He looks out the left-hand window, and sees only trees. They are driving through a forest. Balthasar and the civil servant are now discussing taxes and duties. How boring, thinks Simon to himself.
“How old are you?” asks Amalie Konrath suddenly from opposite. Simon eyes her carefully. Something looks different about her, he thinks. Her amber coloured hair is still pinned up and her dress is the same … the sleeves! The sleeves have been pushed up and the broad neckline is now narrow and plunging. He’s never seen such a thing!
“Twelve, I’m … twelve years old.” Simon has to concentrate. He looks deliberately at Amalie Konrath’s face. Just don’t do anything wrong, he thinks. “The day before yesterday … I had my birthday the day before yesterday.”
“The day before yesterday?!” Amalie Konrath places her right hand on his left knee, on his bare knee, since he’s wearing short pants. “Happy birthday Simon,” she says, as she rises from the bench, and bends down to kiss him on the left cheek. While she does this, Simon has a perfect view right into her cleavage, of two large, round breasts. After Amalie Konrath has taken her seat again, Simon realises that he is beginning to blush. For a couple of seconds, he had been able to see what his big brother Christoph already told him about a few weeks earlier. He had secretly watched Rosi getting changed, and had seen her bare breasts.
Amalie Konrath seems to be able to read Simon’s thoughts exactly and smiles flirtatiously straight into his face. Simon doesn’t know what to do. The situation is too embarrassing for him, so he looks back out the window.
Luckily, the civil servant now turns to him. “Simon,” he says, “as we are about to ride into Koblenz, we will cross the Mosel. Then we will drive over the Balduin Bridge, which was built in the 14th century by Balduin of Luxemburg. It took 85 years to complete.”
Some time later, the coach stops in front of the Koblenz coach station. All passengers alight and after the coachmen have unloaded the luggage from the roof, they say goodbye. Simon waits by the luggage as his father asks about the next coach from Koblenz to Cologne in the coach station. On returning, he says to Simon with a smile: “The coach to Cologne leaves from here tomorrow morning at half past seven. I’ve already bought tickets for us.”
“Where will we sleep tonight?”
„At the inn called ‘Zum vollen Fass’ (‘The Full Barrel’) across the road over there.”
The inn consists of a white, double-storey half-timbered house with a slate roof. The window frames are small and the windows are leadlight. Already from outside, the buzzing of many voices can be heard coming from the parlour, and as they step into the public bar, Simon gets the feeling he is standing in a market place. A jumble of voices and laughter, as well as smoke, fumes and the odours of wine, beer, fried potatoes and pork chops suddenly affront him. Under a roof with dark wooden beams, small yellowish glowing lamps hang over the tables, shrouding the room in a warm, inviting light. Men and women sit and laugh or are engaged intensely in conversation at the tables. Following his father, Simon weaves between the rows of tables while heading toward the bar. A big, bearded man stands behind it and is in the middle of twisting a corkscrew into a bottle.
“Good evening,” says Balthasar in a friendly voice. A stocky waitress squeezes past the two of them with a tray full of empty glasses on her way to the bar.
“My name is Braun, I …”
“Two natural Mosel Kabinett Rieslings, two Elblings and three beers”, yells the waitress over the bar, grinning.
“Sure. I’ll have the Mosel opened in a flash!”
“Oh I forgot, I also need two pork chops with potatoes!”
“Excuse me,” says Balthasar in the hope of interrupting, “I’d like a double room for the night.”
With obvious tension in his face, the bartender looks at Balthasar while strenuously pulling the corkscrew along with the cork out of the bottle. “Yes, I have one. Room Eleven.” He turns around and yells through a hatch into the kitchen: “Two pork chops with potatoes and, Margarethe, please come out and show Mr. Braun and his son to Room Eleven!” A few seconds later, a sliding door behind the bar is opened and a dark-haired young lady comes out. “Good evening, Mr. Braun. Would you please step this way?” She shows the Brauns a side door that leads to a separate hallway.
“Our luggage is still waiting in front of the inn.”
“No problem, the entrance to the inn is just here in front of us and your room is up the stairs there.”
Room Eleven is a double room with separate beds. It is very small, but clean and quiet. Even the noise from the pub does not reach all the way up here.
After having eaten and drunk well in the parlour, Simon is so tired that he barely remembers how he made it to bed. “That was a long day,” says Balthasar. But Simon does not answer him.

I can still remember that on this day, I fell asleep in no time, and immediately sunk into dreamland. I slept so soundly that my father had to vigorously shake me out of my slumber the next morning. You would like to know what I dreamt of? I don’t know any more, but it was most likely something along the lines of ‘hills and valleys’ – if you catch my drift.

 
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