I am a repeat offender. This evening the witches will be ritually burnt, it is the 30th. April. I am lying in the shepherd’s wagon in a game park near Cleebronn and am pretty well finished. It is cold, even very cold and it has been impossible without a cap in the last 2 days.

Last year I was also here.

Every morning the wolves, which lived only a few hundred metres away, woke me with their howling. This year they are as silent as mice and only the twittering of the birds and the bleating of the goats wake me in the morning. Before breakfast, while all are still asleep, I run up the path through the vineyard towards the peak to the small chapel. When I reach the top, I stop and feed on the view of the light green of the sprouting leaves. Breakfast is served in the inn “Wilde Sau”. It lies in the middle of the game park, where one can observe how the deer, the birds of prey, the horses and other animals wake up and also breakfast. The cheekiest are the small goats, which literally eat everything out of one’s hand, including the packing.

During breakfast I observe the holiday visitors. There’s no need to tell where a loving companionship and where a desert exists. It is obvious even without words.

We spend the day in the amusement park Tripsdrill and we are amused. We laugh a lot, try all the attractions, eat well, urge each other on. The youth fountain ride makes us wet but not younger – thank God. The marriage market provides suggestions and from the fountain we draw twins.

Our shepherd’s wagon has TV. That was also not necessary, not once did we switch it on. We had no cups, but five wine glasses and no toilet, which one misses even more when one has to walk through the forest in the middle of the night.

During these holidays my youngest’s school colleagues travelled in all the continents of the world. We were about three hours away from home. We watched how the storks build their nests and we fed the dwarf goats. No sign of the exotic, if one ignores the toilet in the forest. But nonetheless they are three absolutely unforgettable days. I missed only the howling of the wolves.