Germany

Germany

Monday it was off to Germany to stay with my friend Angela, we have been friends since we were both exchange students in the US, Idaho in the 70’s. Staying with Angela is like being in a whirlwind, she is so organized and seems to have thought of everything for you to do that matches exactly to your interests. Working as a dermatologist in her own practice she had organized to have all of Wednesday off and managed to get the Bismarck Museum opened for us. It is currently closed I suspect due to lack of funds. Then she had also organized for a guided tour in English of the Bismarck trust building.
These are both located in Fredrichsruh and are short distance from each other but run completely different organizations. The trust is government funded and a very professional display while the museum is owned by the descendants of Bismarck and quite run down. The young man who was our guide was very knowledgeable he and Ron had a lively discussion regarding mostly German history as Bismarck was responsible for the unification of Germany in the late 1800’s. After our tour it was off to the butterfly house owned by the great granddaughter of Bismarck which was fabulous. Many butterflies and moths which I have never seen before with colours that were just amazing.
Then to finish off she took us to another historic town, Luneburg to view the many old buildings returning home about 8pm. Thursday she had the morning off so had decided to drive us 2 hours to Schwerin to visit the castle which turned out to be one of the most important ones in Germany. The Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania still meet in the building today. Built in 1845 it was definitely impressive and actually the first German castle I have been into. It also has a really large baroque garden which was impressive in itself without the fact that the National German Garden Show was being held there as well. With only 2 hours to visit both we really didn’t do the Garden Show justice but what we saw was just incredible. Due to the fact that the show is open for the whole summer there weren’t too many people. The colours of the flowers, mostly tulips and pansy’s were just amazing. Set in bands of different colours it seemed that everywhere you looked was better than the previous view.
Saturday Angela had organised for us to meet her father and his partner Sabina. This is great as we had heard so much about him, a retired college professor he was very knowledgeable about Germany in general and particularly the local area. Northern Germany is very close to sea level and there are several layers of dykes to keep out the sea. The one closest to the water is 8.5m high and quite impressive. We were taken to a historic farm house for lunch which was built with all the humans and animals living under one roof. With spaces for 20 horses and only 10 cows the farm was originally a large wheat farm. There was room to thresh and store all the grain under cover also. The whole house had been build on a mound which was apparently hand built to keep the building safe from floods. Seems to have worked as the building complete with thatched roof is still intact. The original living quarters are now a lovely restaurant with the rest of the animal area set aside as a museum.
We then headed to Haithbu which is a museum and re-created Viking village. They have found and recovered an old Viking boat which is on display in the museum along with many roman artifacts found in the area. There were a large collection of stone weights from spindles for spinning wool along with the weights used to tension the warp on the looms. Several fragments of garments were on display also.
When we arrived in the village there was only 15 minutes to go till closing time and we were feeling that we were going to be a bit rushed. The staff were all in re-created costumes and carrying out the crafts of the time, weaving, making lace from fine metal wire and working with deer antler. When we started talking to them they were all volunteers and had made their own costumes true to what was worn at the time and as they were staying the night in the huts were in no hurry to leave. We talked to them for nearly an hour after closing time. I found it really interesting talking to the woman who was making the metal lace. This was used to adorn the garments. She was working in either silver or brass as she couldn’t afford gold and the work looked like Celtic rope work but at between .5cm and 3 cm wide strips it was amazing. Very time consuming to do and as far as she was aware she is the only person who is doing this sort of work and has worked out how to recreate these adornments from fragments that have been found.
Then it was off to dinner to visit some more friends of Angela’s. They had an amazing view of the sea and stunning garden. Very lively discussion followed dinner. Sunday it was off to Kiel to see the monument to the marines who had lost their lives in both the 1st and 2nd world wars. Completed just before the 2nd world war it remained undamaged although Kiel itself was very heavily bombed. There was also a German WWII submarine to take a look at. Not really my cup of tea but when one is travelling with a history buff these are the sort of places one ends up.
Then Sunday night it was off on the overnight train to Paris. We managed to get a double sleeping compartment so ended up with a reasonable night’s sleep. A short trip from Hamburg to Hanover and then onto the Paris night train. My first glimpse of France just on day break was the remains of an old Roman aqueduct. Just amazing, the sort of thing I’ve only seen in books, it flashed by and I hope that I might just get to see more as we trip round northern France later in the week.