Wallhalben is, I have discovered, the German equivalent to Co. Down (where my Northern Irish family home is). Why? It’s beautifully green with gentle landscapes and a bit of rain (at least when I was there), it’s famed for potatoes and dairy farming and, most importantly, its inhabitants are warm and wonderful as toast and fond of good food and good drink. I felt very much at home. Ok – so maybe in Co. Down I don’t swim in a pool at the top of a hill like I did in Wallhalben…
The Maurer family have been in this tiny village (900 inhabitants) for generations. Hans and Gertrude (either end of the photo below) were born here, at home, after their parents came to the village as a young couple. Hans grew up with the village, its life and its ways. He briefly lived elsewhere but he and his wife Ulla (next to Hans in the same photo) came back when they had children. They built a house at the top of the hill, from where you can see all of the surrounding area.
Maybe the best thing about Wallhalben, is the fact that it is very much ‘alive’ unlike similar villages in the area and indeed in Europe. There are working farms, shops, community; it isn’t merely a commuter nest. Oh, that and the amazing dialect, which of course I learned. Almost all the Germans I met had no idea where Wallhalben is. Those that know it told me I would have a hard time understanding anything. I had a crash course in Wallhalbenisch and will demonstrate this to anyone who cares to hear (and probably those who don’t as well). I think if it were English it would be a bit like Yorkshire or rural Northern Irish, fittingly.
What to tell about my visit? It was basically one big party. We ate: amazing slow cooked beef, dumplings, bratkartoffeln (like sautéed potatoes), four kinds of cake, ten kinds of cooked meats, cheeses, pickles, breads. We drank: Prosecco, beer, wine, whiskey - we had an amazing blind whisky tasting, that I and Christina (second from right at the back) won. 
There was music - Christina is a friend of the Maurers’ and a soprano who sings classical and gospel music in choirs and with a group. We played together; German songs, English songs and American songs. (I forgot my music stand - of course - but our human music stand did a great job). I played solo also and then somehow ended up doing an acapella performance of Irish folk. Like I said, it really was like being at home. Little Wallhalben tales
Ulla took me on a wonderful walk, on which I found this little slow worm and sent him on his way with a cheery 'auf wiedersehen'.
Wallhalben Area Emergencies
In Zweibrucken (the next town), on the morning I was in Wallhalben, the entire town was evacuated by the fire service because an unexploded WW2 bomb was found near the foundations of a school that was being built.
The fire service were also called to evacuate a street last year, not for a bomb, but for fruitflies. For an as yet unknown reason, a plague of the flies swarmed along just one street to the extent where it was unpassable. It didn't happen anywhere else, has never happened before or since. Scientists are apparently writing reports, humming and hahing about it. The fruit flies are long gone.
In Zweibrucken (the next town), on the morning I was in Wallhalben, the entire town was evacuated by the fire service because an unexploded WW2 bomb was found near the foundations of a school that was being built.
The fire service were also called to evacuate a street last year, not for a bomb, but for fruitflies. For an as yet unknown reason, a plague of the flies swarmed along just one street to the extent where it was unpassable. It didn't happen anywhere else, has never happened before or since. Scientists are apparently writing reports, humming and hahing about it. The fruit flies are long gone.
