Welcomed by Hans and Brunhilde Into Their Windmill Home International Living Postcards--your daily escape Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007
Linda, Germany Midnight, and I'm still awake in the small bed chamber of the old mill, happily listening to the beams and rafters creak gently as the wind sweeps against the 140-year-old walls. We arrived in the small village of Linda near Neustadt on the River Orla in the morning. Hans Knapp and his wife, Brunhilde, gave us a warm welcome and ushered us into their windmill. Next to the entrance, a pair of scales used for weighing sacks of flour before delivery to the local baker and farmers of the region. Dominating the ground floor, the main shaft measures almost two feet in diameter, a 40-foot fir trunk dating back to 1867 when the windmill was rebuilt after a fire. "Though the shaft shows some cracks and tiny woodworm holes, it's as solid as it was in those days," Hans tells us. A steep flight of well-trodden stairs leads us to the upper floor, where grain once ran through a funnel on the millstones. Our small bedroom lies beyond a shaft of the windmill's steering device, over which we must climb to get to bed. Perfect--I didn't sign us up for five-star luxury; I wanted the atmosphere of an old mill, a real working part of the German countryside (until the 1970s). I want the children to feel the history and enjoy it. (But we're not entirely roughing it--we have shower facilities, and a simple kitchen where we can prepare supper after our hiking and cycling tours to the beautiful lakes in the area). Under the windmill cap, which can be turned by a roller and rail system to catch the wind in any direction, the children listened to Hans explain the principle of grinding grain. They're fascinated, watching the big cogwheels turning and transforming the energy of wind into the vertical rotation of the main shaft that drives the millstones. Later, they help Hans pull the rope to apply the wooden brakes for stopping the vanes. At the weekend the windmill becomes a café, Brunhilde serving her home-made cakes and fruit flans to the visitors. They all come to see the five-storey, slate-covered windmill, which displays hundreds of different flour sacks, old tools, and equipment used by former millers. When the mood takes him, Hans turns the floor where grain sacks were once stored into a cabaret. Hans is more musician than miller, and he's built a small stage on which he entertains his guests with sayings, songs, and poems about a miller's life. Jörg M. Unger
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