Blogging Along the Brandywine: A Tale of Two Countries and a Love Lock

You are currently viewing Blogging Along the Brandywine: A Tale of Two Countries and a Love Lock

There’s something from the Brandywine Ace Hardware in Pocopson on the Mimram Brücke (bridge) over the Rhine River in Germany.

Honest. And I’m sure they don’t even know it’s there.

Two summers ago when my husband and I were strolling along a pedestrian bridge over the Salz River in Salzburg, Austria, we were introduced to “Love Locks.” There on both sides of the bridge were multiple hundreds of padlocks of every variety attached to the steel chain link fencing. Each of the padlocks bore initials, a heart or a personal message.

“Für immer und ewig” one said in German, or “For ever and eternity”.

After the padlocks are attached to a chain link, the couple throws the key in the river.  Locked forever in un-ending love!

Ah, pure romance.

There seems to be some mystery surrounding Love Locks and their exact origin. Some sources trace their origins to Europe, particularly Italy in the early 2000s, others to the Far East.

Tom and Sally's Lock of Love
Tom and Sally's Lock of Love

But Tom and I vowed on our next trip to Europe we would come prepared with our own Love Lock.

So a few weeks ago, on August 19, Tom and I found ourselves enjoying a free afternoon on our eight-day Viking cruise up the Rhine River from Basel to Amsterdam. We walked along the Rheinpromenade Park and right over the Mimram Brücke a modern pedestrian suspension bridge elegantly arching its way over the Rhine between Kehl, Germany and the Jardin des Deux Rives in the historic Alsace region of France, an area which has seen both French and German rule through centuries of fighting. But now with the new European Union, no passports are needed between countries- just walk over the bridge and…Bonjour.

And sure enough, mid-way over the bridge, the chain links of the bridge became tightly packed with guess what, Love Locks.

“Unsere Liebe für die Ewigkeit. Ich liebe dich meine Frau” — Our love for eternity. I love you my wife.

What’s all this stuff about Germans never smiling or being stiff and formal?  Here were hundreds of padlocks with Germans publicly and unabashedly professing their never-ending love for one another. Many of the locks were professionally engraved.

Finding an empty area, Tom clicked our lock in place as we threw the duplicate keys into the Rhine.

Yeah, OK, we kind of exchanged a kiss too.

Walking back to our ship later that afternoon we told some fellow passengers about our afternoon escapade, thinking they would chuckle at a tradition probably reserved for younger couples.

“Oh, we hung ours on a bridge in China last year,” came their reply.

However the most awesome Love Lock display was on the magnificent Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine in Cologne, Germany that not only carries the main railway as well as pedestrians, but now bears the additional weight of over 40,000 Love Locks including a bizarre collection of bicycle chains and handcuffs, too. Yeah…I don’t want to know.

But I’m glad we chose the smaller pedestrian bridge from Kehl to Strasbourg for our Love Lock: the rural setting, the peaceful feeling and the bridge gracefully soaring over the Rhine, symbolic not only of our love but the new feeling between the two countries.

Recently, Nawel Rafik-Elmrini, the deputy mayor of Strasbourg, France said, “There are no longer physical borders and now there will also no longer be borders in the minds of people."

It’s a great beginning.

 

About Sally Denk Hoey

Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...

Comments

comments

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Bonnie Dalrymple

    No need to go overseas to participate in Love Locks. Recently, while walking across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn you could see hundreds of Locks.

Leave a Reply