The steps with iron railings is the entrance of the restaurant where the group was dining. Far left of the picture you see a few soldiers and a group of people walking under the rain. The women have scarfs and nylon hoodies on their heads and are wearing raincoats. There is a couple on the right, followed by a slow moving VW beetle. The man is looking at the Eifeler Hof Monchau Hotel. This Hotel, with a restaurant and cafe is today still a popular attraction for tourists as well as locals of Monschau.There are three cars parked next to the hotel, popular makes of the times; a Volkswagen, an Opel Kapitan and a Citroen.
I have enlarged the photo to see which uniform the three soldiers in the picture are wearing. My best guess is that they are British soldiers, probably stationed somewhere in Rhineland. In 1956 the British army’s occupation forces BAOR were still stationed in West Germany.
The writing in the back of the second picture explains which restaurant the first photo was taken :
A comfortable coffee hour at the Alte Herlichkeit in Monschau. (Alte Herrlichkeit meaning Old Glory).
The Photo is in the back in a postcard form and the address section reads in German, translates as follows:
The Picture : Entrance of Alte Herrlichkeit Monchau.
Es trinkt der Mensch
Es säuft das Pferd
In Monschau ist es umgekehrt.
The man drinks
The horse saüfs*
In Monschau it is the opposite
* there is no word for this in English-it describes drinking a lot and intake in big quantity
Again the back of the picture is signed by the same five people and dated 24 June 1956.
