Travel is a blessing and plague still

AFTER finishing writing last Saturday’s column we took a flight to Munich for a wonderful tour of the extravagant Bavarian palaces of mad King Ludwig II, including tickets for the famous Oberammergau Passion Play.

This centuries old drama, about the last days of Jesus, is five hours long, all in German (but you do get a translation), and an extraordinary, moving spectacle watched by 5,000 people.

The back-story to the Passion Play (in this context ‘passion’ means ‘suffering’) is about gratitude. In 1633, as the Black Death ravaged Germany, the inhabitants of the small village made a vow that if God spared them they would re-enact the final part of Jesus’s life, every ten years, to give thanks. So that’s what happened.

All the people taking part (tiny children too) have to live in the village or have been associated with it for about 20 years. There was also a live donkey on the stage, some doves, two horses, sheep, goats and a camel. That’s what I mean by spectacle.

Ironically, this year’s performances (it runs all summer) come 12 years after the last, not ten. Why? Because in 2020 another sort of ‘plague’ shut down the world... So the thousands of visitors watching this year probably feel grateful that at last we can travel again.

I dislike leaving home so travel restrictions hit me less hard than others. And I love the British Isles and rejoice that we have so much to see here. But getting away did me good.

We heard excellent lectures by the brilliant TV presenter and writer on art and history, Andrew Graham-Dixon, saw pretty towns (clean and flowerbedecked), observed German families enjoying the beauty of their country as I do ours, and meditated on the horror and futility of wars past.

We also drank wheat beer (him) and wine (me) and met lovely people.

So yes, travel broadens the mind. And it’s also given my husband Covid, for the first time.

■ Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.