Hosp Children

After Christmas Eve celebrations with grandmother & Uncle Jochen in Weinheim, Germany, Jochen and I took off for a weeks skiing in Höfen near Reutte, Austria just across the border from Füssen and Neuschwanstein Castle.

We went their with two of Jochen's great Weinheim friends, the Finks (if I recall rightly) who had a big Citroën DS. I remember that well as one evening after a good deal of drinking (not me) and eating in Reutte, we were driving back to Höfen and the car went out of control on a corner over a bridge and took a bit of damage against the bridge walls. It wasn't at speed and nobody was injured, I seem to remember we simply drove home without bothering to report it! I don't know if breathalysing was a "thing" in those days.

The place we stayed at in Höfen was a farmhouse belonging to the lovely Hosp family. A very small dairy herd held in the stable that was as is the norm in these parts, part of the house. The bedrooms had no bathrooms but a large bowl and jug of water for basic washing. The water would be frozen in the mornings!

The best place in the house was the day room/dining room/evening games room /breakfast room.... with a huge tiled wood burning oven. We were only thereon B&B terms so most meals were taken elsewhere but after a days skiing would come home to cans of coffee and tea and cakes. One part of the oven was out in the corridor where our wet clothes were hung up to dry and the leather skiing boots stuffed with newspapers with the hope they would also be dry by the next morning.

The photo is of the children. The two youngest boys we called Max & Moritz after a famous German cartoon book about two rather naughty children. The eldest at the back, and I sadly can't be sure of his name but will call him Gerhard, would often accompany me skiing. I think he was to die at a very early age in a farming accident. The middle one, a girl.

In 1975 was to stay there with my girlfriend Annie.