WILKOMEN TO HELEN, GEORGIA

Hoo Boy! Went to Georgia for a week and came back with enough material for a month’s worth of blogs at least. I just don’t have the time to write everything. (I am currently still working on my training for Contemplative Outreach, I shortly start teaching a course for the Florida-Bahamas Synod Diakonia Program, and have two preaching assignments coming up after Christmas.)


I spent two days In Helen Georgia. I never heard of the place until friends Cherie and Juan Carlos went there. Helen is a small town (population 430) in north Georgia. Its life was typical of a lot of small towns. It started off as a mining town. When that petered out it turned to logging until they had just about stripped the mountains clean. There wasn’t much of a future until someone came up with the idea of reconstructing the town as a Bavarian Alpine Village. New fronts went on the buildings and zoning laws required a German look to new construction. Even the hamburger chain Wendy’s had to put Bavarian doodads on their standard construction store.

I talked to a very nice volunteer at the Art Gallery and History Museum who told me that during Oktoberfest (which runs from September to November) the town is so crowded that the traffic backs up for miles on the one main road. I arrived at a good time to avoid most of the tourists, too late for Oktoberfest and too soon for the Christmas celebration. Of course it poured rain for the first day which also kept the tourists off the streets. 

What’s this little bit of Deutschland in Amerika like? I described it to a friend as looking like something Disney designed after drinking too many Hefeweizen (that’s German wheat beer, a beverage I’m rather fond of.) You sit down in a German-looking restaurant and the waitress has a southern accent–and I don’t mean southern Bavaria. You never lose the sense of being in a southern town with Alpine decorations pasted on. The residents tolerate it because it brings in the tourists with their money. I don’t fault them one bit for that. They have arrived at a solution to a problem that would have eventually destroyed their community. We do it here in Ocala. First the community developed horse ranching and then shifted to retirement communities to keep the place running. You do what you have to do. 

I went to Helen to see what it was like and to eat German Food. My first caution: Don’t come on a Wednesday because a lot of the restaurants are closed. I have to say I was disappointed in half the places I ate. There wasn’t anything essentially wrong with the food, it just wasn’t what I anticipated. I visited the Bodensee and nothing was quite the way I was used to it. The goulash soup and potato pancakes were not like Mother used to make. The Wiener Schnitzel wasn’t pounded thin enough. The Erdinger Hefeweizen was served in a mug and not a Weizen glass. 

Thanks to friend Chris’s suggestion I went to Old Heidelberg where the food was much more to my liking Jaeger Schnitzel (breaded pork cutlet with a mushroom sauce), delicious red cabbage and spaetzle (small German noodles) and a nice König Ludwig Hefewitzen served in its proper glass. Only disappointment was they didn’t have liver dumpling soup as publicized in the online menu. 


The real gem is Hofer’s Bakery and Cafe. Go there for breakfast and order the Bauern Frühstück–two eggs, Roasted potatoes, rolls, and a Kassler Ripchen (smoked pork chop).  It’s the way to start a cold morning. Or stop by to buy a pastry or some sausage (imported from Stiglmeirer’s near Chicago).

What else is there to do besides eat and buy souvenirs? Head a few miles out of town to Anna Ruby Falls in the Chattahoochee National Forest. I don’t know what it is about water falls that so attracts human beings. This is not Niagra, but it’s still a sight to be seen. Anna Ruby Falls is actually twin waterfalls created where two Curtis Creek and York Creek join at the base of the falls to form Smith Creek.  It’s about a half-mile on rising terrain to reach the falls from the parking lot. 

I stayed at the Heidi Motel, a quaint family-owned place complete with windmill at the top of a hill. There is a steep drive up to the motel. It made me nervous driving down it, and I would hate to negotiate it if it were icy. The driveway is also the only way up or down on foot, so if you have trouble walking, you need to stay somewhere else. It’s very convenient, however, to all the shops and restaurants. Oh yes, make sure you have a cell phone as there are no room phones. 

I probably won’t ever go back to Helen, but I want to explore the area. I am thinking about a trip to Ashville, North Carolina in the Spring. 

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne