February 14, 2021 – Wine, crazy dogs from the neighborhood and airplane

 Today my mistress took Mogli and me for a walk up the hill. It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining, and it was still a little chilly. Perfect day for a senior dog to walk uphill.

 

It’s a nice walk up there, a small path through the trees. This used to be vineyards. Viniculture at the Lahn has a more than 800 years history and tradition. The Romans brought the wine to Mosel, Rhine and Donau. They found proof for this close to where we are. There is written evidence that there were vitaceous along in Nassau/Lahn in 1159. Nassau is just around the corner. They started growing grapes here in Fachbach around 1385.

Wine was more than a beverage, in the medieval times it was a staff of life, a payment and exchange object and was used in worship. Vineyards belonged to churches, monasteries, noble lords of the manor, rich burgess and farmers.

The late 16^th century and early 17^th century was the prime age of the wine culture at the Lahn.

During the 30 Year’s War wine lost its importance due to the declining population and the competition from overseas of so far unknown goods as tea, coffee or cacao. Also, the taste of people changed, and they preferred beer or other beverages over wine.

The winemakers produced very good red wines in the valley of the Lahn (Lahntal).

In 1972 the vitaceous were replaced by mixed forest here in Fachbach.

You can still see the walls that were built for the terrace cultivation.

 The rain that caused the flooding of the Lahn made some damage in the former vineyards too, but it didn’t stop us from walking up the hill to the little plateau. On our way we met one of the dogs from the neighborhood. This stupid little Pomeranian dog from across the street. He barks at Mogli and me when we pass him. His owners tie him to the door almost every day, probably to get him out of the way. But there he sits and is angry and frustrated and barks and growls at every dog that comes by.

Today we came to a point on the path where there is a hairpin bend, and you can’t see who is coming from the other side. My mistress heard people talking and took us aside to let people pass. And this little piece of …. came running down the path, barking and approaching Mogli and me. He growled at us and attacked us. There was no way we could go because the slope was behind us. My mistress called the owners and asked them to take care of their dog. These people didn’t care and strolled down the hill. When the mistress of this dog got to us, she seized him on his neck and pulled him into her arms. Mogli was very angry to be attacked like that. This little dog was very aggressive. Shortly after this we reached the plateau and started to relax.

 While we were chilling and reading the local paper an airplane flew over us. Not a big one far, far away in the sky. It was a little airplane with propellers. Mogli stood paralyzed and looked at it not knowing what it was.

I explained to him that this was something like a flying bus. Lots of people sitting in it or in this case just a few and it flies like a bird. When it comes to flying in an airplane I’m an expert, I’ve done this a lot of times, traveled like almost 40.000 km / 25,000 miles in an airplane. Mogli was impressed and now he wants to fly in an airplane too. I am sure my humans will take him sometimes. If it would be for me, I would fly to Canada to visit our friend Tim and run free.