We discovered this incredible nature program on Austrian Netflix, called Wildes Deutschland (you probably got that, Wild Germany). Each episode explores some beautiful out-of-the-way area of Germany, showing what life is like for the people who live there, as well as the many wildlife varieties. The cinematography is breathtaking, and the narrator enunciates well, so it's a good German exercise for us.
Last night we watched an episode about the Nordfriesland, which is all the way Northwest in Germany, almost in Denmark, on the North Sea coast. One village in the area, Bergenhusen, has become a home for countless storks, who fly there every spring, build nests on the rooftops, and hatch their baby storklings before flying south for the winter. It's considered good luck to have storks choose your roof for their nest (probably helps if it's a thatched roof, see above), and they even have a map showing where storks are currently nesting.
The town is so proud of the storks that they call Bergenhusen the Storchendorf (Stork Village).
STORCHENDORF.
Well, since watching that episode I have probably said the word Storchendorf at least a dozen times. I love it so much. Imagine my surprise when I searched a little (I may or may not have fallen down a major internet rabbit hole here...) and found out that Storchendorf is an official title granted to European towns with storks in residence. There are 13 (Bergenhusen isn't actually one of them), and there's one very close to Vienna! I'm sad we won't be here in the spring, because I'm dying to make a pilgrimage to a Storchendorf. And not only so that I have an excuse to say Storchendorf. Really.
STORCHENDORF. Okay, now I'm done.
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STORCHENDORF!
ReplyDeleteWe only qualify as an Eichhörnchendorf.
ReplyDeleteThat has a nice ring to it, too.
DeleteWell, it's official. We're on The List. I've never seen it, but evidently a lot of squirrels have.
Delete