Father's Day in Germany

Posted by James

Yesterday was Father's Day in Germany, which is the same day as Ascension Day ("Christihimmelfahrt" in German, direct translation would be "Christ conveyed to Heaven by means other than walking or riding an animal"). Ascension Day is a Christian holiday but in Germany also a public holiday when the banks are closed and everyone has off. The weather was cold (in the high 40's low 50's F or around 10C) and cloudy, with light fog and drizzle in the early morning, but by noon things had improved enough that we could do a bike ride. We rode to Wannsee, a small town still part of Berlin near a lake.

In America, Father's Day is a sedate affair and is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. Kids give their father's gifts; the family goes out to eat or visits with the grandparents. It's like Mother's Day, which is celebrated in Germany on the same day is in the US, on the second Sunday in May. But Father's Day in Germany isn't like that. While in America Father's Day is, like Mother's Day, a chance for kids to honor their parents, in Germany Father's Day is about male bonding.

On the Kronprincessinnenweg bike trail, we met groups of guys of all ages riding bicycles with their back baskets filled with beer. In a couple cases, we saw groups with small trailers filled with beer and boom boxes, and passed a couple groups that were partying along the side of the bicycle path with boom boxes blasting. The handlebars of some of the bicycles were decorated with leafy branches, and some guys wore funny hats. One guy even had on a Santa Claus cap. When we arrived at Wannsee, there was a small fair going on, and the parking was dominated by motorcycles. We saw a few women along the bike trail, and one couple, but that was about it.

We spent about an hour or so at the Wannsee Lake, checked out the beach, still closed because the weather hasn't warmed up enough to swim yet. Then we had lunch at a nice resturant, the Wannsee Terresse. Afterward, we walked down toward the lake. There were a lot of small sailboats and a stiff wind, and a couple kayakers, but no wind surfers. The weather wasn't all that great for wind surfing, unless you wore a wetsuit.

On the way back, the groups partying alongside the bike trail were noticeably more inebriated. But we were also passed by a couple groups of guys wearing spandex and pumping hard, no beer in evidence, probably hard core bicyclists that rode for sport. We arrived home around 3:30, having completed the 32 km (20 mi) round trip in about two hours, not including the hour we spent having lunch.



Image from https://lincolnsquarecc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/vatertag_ballons_bm_249187a.jpg