The October 2023 Birthday Trip, Part 2 of 6: Welcome to Oldenburg

A large convent that looks like two 19th-century churches in a row.

The Convent and Academy of the Immaculate Conception, built in the 1890s. Tours available only by appointment, which we didn’t have.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

In addition to our annual road trips, my wife Anne and I have a twice-yearly tradition of spending our birthdays together, usually traveling to some new place or attraction as a short-term road trip — partly as an excuse to spend time together on those most wondrous days, partly to explore areas we’ve never experienced before. That’s every May for me and every October for her. We’re the Goldens. It’s who we are and what we do.

Anne knew what she wanted to do for this year’s birthday outing way back in July: see Patrick Stewart live on stage in Cincinnati. As previously recounted, we landed fourth-row seats and had a wonderful time. But Admiral Shakespeare’s grand tour wasn’t the only thing we did that weekend. Friday on our way from Indianapolis to Cincy we spent the afternoon in the Hoosier town of Oldenburg, where German roots run deep and our curiosity abounded. The two of us met in 1987 in high school German class. We can get sentimental sometimes when we’re reminded of that…

The town’s origins date back to 1837, when two speculators from the original Oldenburg in Germany bought land from a Virginia farmer who’d gotten there first. The duo drew up plans for a small community; other German immigrants joined them and founded its earliest establishments — its first church, a post office, a monastery, a convent, et al. Over time this new Oldenburg would amass a higher-than-average number of spires compared to the average Hoosier town, as expressed in their official three-spired crest that popped up here and there throughout our walk. The map that the Brat Haus waitress gave us was an unexpected and rather detailed surprise in annotating the various features and flourishes hither and yon. We’re not quite architecture geeks, but the brochure was a useful guide for our stroll around this pleasant autumn day.

A main street lined with numerous old buildings, some with spires.

The view down Hauptstrasse, including some of their spire collection.

A red street sign for Main Street a.k.a. Hauptstrasse, and a streetlight banner billing Oldenburg as "The Village of Spires".

All street signs were in English and German, as was the two-sided Willkommen/Auf Wiedersehen sign at the town’s southern edge.

Historical marker detailing Oldenburg's origins, some of which I recapped earlier.

“Previously on ‘Oldenburg’…”

A tall white post with pointer-signs listing mileages to other places worldwide such as the original Oldenburg (4,236 mi.), Tokyo (6,512 mi.), and "Carter's House" (500 feet), among others.

Still more signage provides useful travel data, especially if you’ve made plans with Carter.

A red-and-yellow maypole in the middle of a town park, standing on a concrete circle with two benches and a few night lights. Eight signs are hung upon it, and a circle on top appears made up like a wreath.

The town maypole (“der Maibaum”) has its own little park on the other side of a stone-banked creek. Red and yellow are the official town colors, apropos of Germany.

A brick wall with a metal gate opened up to a patio with bushes, table, patio umbrella, chairs and trees, In the distance is a lone, tall factory smokestack jutting into the horizon.

A garden gate to a pleasant scene. We don’t know the story behind that giant smokestack in the distance, which I don’t think counts as a spire.

A colorful rooster sculpture standing in front of a restaurant called Wagner's Village Inn.

A colorful rooster stands guard at Wagner’s Village Inn, one of Oldenburg’s other restaurants If you want McDonald’s or Subway, it’s a 2½-mile drive to neighboring Batesville.