More Churches

I'm realizing that a majority of my posts have to do with churches or Half-timbered houses, and I hope that I'm not boring the heck out of you with the repetition. While the winter months have not been nearly as bad as I anticipated them being, I have begun to look forward with more eagerness to the summer months, with flowers back in full bloom and the warmer weather luring one out to breath its fresh air. In the meantime, churches it is. My semester has largely been occupied with the subject not only because it's often the thing to see in each town, but most of my courses have focused in one way or another on the Church, its ecclesiology, history, and architectural development and symbolism. It's been great to have this time to be occupied with these thoughts and to visit so many, seeing the symbolism as well as oddities that lie within their walls.

Not wanting to waste a rainy Sunday afternoon, myself and travelmates traveled to Hildesheim in search of more churches. If nothing else, we could at least sit on the train and play a riveting game of cards, providing afternoon entertainment. Our visit in Hildesheim became a comedy in itself.

We knew the way to Hildesheim, and we knew that there were old churches dating back to the 11oo's, one of which was mostly untouched in the war. What we didn't know was where exactly they were. Like good tourists, we found a city map in the train station to get our bearings and headed towards a large church. Before reaching our destination, we came upon another, small church with Romanesque architecture, circled around it and tried to get in, only to be denied entrance, so on we went. We came to the city center with another church, with similar architecture and a little larger. The door was open, but we were greeted on the other side by a man who informed us that we could come back in 10 minutes, but they were not yet ready for visitors. So, out we went finding signs pointing to the Dom and St. Micheal's. This was for sure a better direction to be heading in.


We came upon another church that we thought was the Dom, larger than our first two church sightings, but still oddly small from what we had read about on the Internet. It was open and we explored its insides getting a taste of a Romanesque middle, and baroque and Gothic side ships. However, another visitor to the church, eager to talk about the wonder of all three architecture types in one church, informed us that the Dom was yet further on.


So on we traveled to the Dom, which was much more in line with what we were expecting and got the treat to see a supposed 1000 year old Rose bush. Due to the wet, damp weather and hungry stomachs we decided it best to catch the next train home.


It was then on our return journey to the train station that we came upon St. Michael's, the church undamaged in the war. This was the church we were really in search of, but not wanting to spend another hour in the rain we agreed to come back in the summer months to explore it further. We returned to the train station, passing the first church we had come across on our way, and chuckled at the larger revelation each church brought to the day and looked forward to another round of card games on the ride back home.

Cologne

I was invited to join my Atlantan classmate Todd and former exchange student to Atlanta, now classmate in Goettingen Peti, on their trip to visit Todd's Great Grandmother and a trip to Cologne. You know me, I can't say no to traveling. So at 5:00am on Saturday we boarded the trip South to Darmstadt to spend the day with Todd's Great Grandmother getting the personal tour of the town and hearing family stories. Sunday morning we boarded the train once more to head on to Cologne. I found myself so grateful that I got to travel to the city from Darmstadt because coming from such a direction allowed us to travel alongside the Rhein river.

The views from the train were spectacular. And there really are castle's at every river bend.

A view of a ruin from the old Roman wall, dated from 50 bce. The Cologne Cathedral is in the background.

The Cologne Cathedral, in its Gothic glory. It's the largest cathedral here in Germany

Inside the Cathedral. It's claim to fame is not only is it the largest cathedral in Germany, it also has the relics of the three kings (the golden glow in the middle of the picture). Who knows if they're really them or not, but the tradition carries on.

A view of the Rhein river running through the city

All in all it was a great weekend, full of many adventures, new card games for the train rides, and good conversations.

And by the way, the mystery of the date, going back to 808 in the last post is solved. It's the insurance number for the house... and a great way to intrigue the tourist.

You never know who you're going to meet

I woke up to yet another day in which I truly had no idea so much would be in store for me. There's a visitor from Atlanta in town and while I'm not the one being visited it's been great to be invited along to see the sites of neighboring villages and hear stories of Candler happenings along the way.

Knowing someone with a car affords the opportunity to visit towns where the trains don't run. Our first major stop was to Fredelsloh a town full of artists most of whom make pottery. It was fun to visit the different shops and admire the pottery but by far the best was a pottery shop in which the first floor was a cozy restaurant and the upstairs was the workshop. The pieces were beautiful and delicate. We had the good fortune to meet the artist who shared that he had been working in the shop for 40 years. The shop itself has been there since the time before department stores and when it would have been necessary for those who lived in small villages to buy their tableware from the local potter. The artist talked us through the process of how the each piece is made made hand, that every three weeks they fire up the electric kiln and once a year they use the old wooden fire oven. He explained how the ashes were used to make different colors and designs in the pieces and was humble about how truly beautiful the pieces were. He made an impression on myself and fellow travelers as our experience in the shop came up several times during out day. You just never know who you're going to meet.

Potheads- village charm

A pottery display from a more traditional pottery store.

Following our visit to the town of pottery, we continued on to Einbeck, the town in which our tour guide for the day calls home. We received a well informed tour of the small town and I of course continued to admire the half-timbered houses. While the style of these houses is found in most every town in these parts, I'm learning that each town holds something unique to it, making it one of a kind. Here in Einbeck it was the old, large doors, and these were no barn houses rather individual homes who had received permission from the state to brew their own beer back in the 1700's or so and needed large doors that would allow them to bring the beer brewing equipment into their homes. I'm guessing that at one time the doors were a little more straighter than they are now.

This is possibly the oldest building I have seen to date. On it was the date 808, and our local expert seemed to agree that it was in fact the date for the building. That's pretty dang impressive if it is.

The date in question...

The New Year and Beyond...

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe but with the New Year, I am almost at the halfway point with my time here in Germany. Time is flying by! I must admit that things haven't been too exciting here in 2008, but it's just the calm before the storm. There is one month of classes left and then I'm on break for 2 1/2 months. Of course I'll be filling up that time with as much traveling as possible. I spent the last day of 2007 cooking up a feast with others who were here in the Stift: Wedding Soup for our starter course, Duck, Red Cabbage, Potato Dumplings, and Stuffing for our main course and Chocolate Mousse for dessert. After dinner I met up with some other friends to bring in the New Year with fireworks. It was a rowdy time!

Our Ducks

I have had the good fortune of getting to know two wonderful people who live with me in the Stift and are from Brazil. They have become great friends and travel partners. Our time on the trains allows for great theological discussions (it never gets old), talks about life here sharing in the being a foreign student experience, and life in our home countries. Apparently, there is quite a German population of immigrants in Brazil, many of which still speak a dialect in their homes. For my two friends they felt it was important to make a trip to Bremerhaven where their ancestors would have departed and see what family information they could dig up at the Auswanderer Museum. Plus, in dreary January we thought maybe a chance to see the sea would make it a bit less dreary.

The sea was pretty depressing. It was freezing cold, cloudy, with a mixture of snow and rain coming out of the sky. We got to see the North Sea, but I think a trip back in the warmer months would leave a much better impression.

Just an old boat sitting in the harbor.