Ahrweiler - Roman Villa – Government Bunker

Actually, I got off the train at Ahrweiler Markt. It is such a lovely day that everyone decided not to ride their bike but simply carry them on the trains in such numbers that no-one can get on or off the train.

Such minor things cannot detract from the day!

Ahrweiler is our location today due to its Roman Villa and Der Regierungsbunker or Government Bunker as well as its silver mine. First things first.

When arrive at Ahrwheiler Markt make sure you actually make it into the town at some stage.



The main square in Ahweiler Markt with the grape vines on the hills behind

Here we find a beautiful walled village where houses are now built right up against what remains of the city walls. There is even a grassed area running around outside the walls, hinting at the ditch that would have existed once. The gatehouses feel authentic; strong and almost vigilant even without a garrison in place. The market square is dominated by the church, open air restaurants and shops. Like Bad Munstereifel, many of the local shops were open on Sunday as well.

It is very easy to find somewhere for a beer or a coffee, for a snack or a full three course lunch. By late afternoon, the crowd had rolled in and there was a real vibe of people and happiness.

But still in the morning, there were few folks about and I thought I'd now head off to the villa.

The villa was found by mistake back in 1980 when road works uncovered some ruins and archaeologists were called in. For me, I think it is the scale of the place that defies belief. A Roman Villa is effectively a mansion with servant quarters, bath houses and space for a family of ten or twenty. Even the  very basics of the hypocaust or under floor heating require special attention to details and smart engineering techniques. Water flows in and through the building. This is clever but must also have brought a feeling of nature and peace with it. The site has to work with nature to allow the water to flow in and through; interesting and pleasant.

The remains are now covered in a massive timber and glass building with a ceiling that vaults the villa, leaving no stone touched but the site completely sealed off from the weather.

The site remains under excavation; being a Sunday, no-one was working today but it would be neat to be a tourist here and watch the archaeologists going about their business.

The quality of the finds is remarkable too. The pottery is complete, the glass shards and nails are plentiful. Occasional glimpses of mosaics and wall paintings hint at how beautiful the place must have been in its heyday.

The site began as a villa, then a bigger villa was built in top of that and then, by the 3rd or 4th Century, it had been converted to a guest house. The excavation has uncovered all stages if these buildings, most interestingly the first house's cool cellar which was filled in to make the second house. I'm not sure where they stored their cold goods in the second house...

The site was destroyed by a landslide in the 5th Century. This is very easy to understand when you see how sheer the nearby hills are. The site remained under all of the landslide material until 1980. Quite amazing!

After a couple of hours puttering about in the villa, I headed up those steep nearby hills to the bunker. It costs 8 Euros to get in and you have to do a tour and the tour is in German (but a written English program is provided and is quite helpful) but even without the English program, this is a must do. Even my generation (now approaching 50 years old) is a little young to have been a part of the Cold War but this place reinforces those times with devastating clarity.

The site was originally a train tunnel but a massive train tunnel; designed for steam trains pulling heavy goods. The tunnel is eight metres in diameter and this is much larger than any comparable tunnel built today. It is long as well; two sections of tunnels that combine for six km length. It worked as a tunnel right through until the end of WW2 when the local French bombed it every 200m to render it useless.

When Germany joined NATO, the rules required they be able to sustain Government in the event of a nuclear attack. A number of sites were reviewed and this one was chosen. The guts of the design centres around that original train tunnel; once it was cleared and sealed. Numerous side tunnels were built but the rules required 80m of rock to provide safety to anyone within. This may not have been enough as the calculations were based on the bomb that hit Hiroshima and by the 60s this bomb was quite small compared to the armaments being constructed by the US and the Soviets. Anyway, these we're the parameters and off they went to build this massive bunker between 1958 and 1970 in compete secrecy.

It's the doors that did my head in. There are so many. The outer doors are 1.2m thick and there are several of them in sequence. Basically, the first 100m of tunnel are designed to be sacrificed if a bomb is dropped. There are series and series of decontamination showers and monitoring equipment to make sure that anyone coming in is not contaminated. The doctors monitoring folks wood do this via windows so as not be contaminated themselves.

The 8m tunnel is high enough to be divided into two floors with offices, laboratories, workshops and the like downstairs with very rudimentary sleeping accommodation upstairs. Dormitory accommodation with four people to a room; very Spartan in design and outlook.

Strangely enough, the design allow for 7,000 people to live in safety after a nuclear blast (assuming that there was no direct hit) for thirty days. But there seemed to be no plan for what happens after 30 days; hopefully the worst of the radioactivity had blown away by then.

During exercises when the site was actually locked down, some people suffered from claustrophobia and were unable to function effectively.

They tested the system every Monday; that must have been something to behold! The alarms would sound, warning lights would flash and those massive doors would slowly but inexorably close, sealing the outside world to its fate.

A little creepy!

Most of the facility has been stripped back to the original tunnel so only the first 200m or so remain with sections of the complex moved into this museum section. One of the neat parts of the tour is to get to where the tunnel opens out and extends away for almost 200m. The echo of sounds here is phenomenal! It seems to reverberate forever. The authorities have had concerts and recitals in this area and it would be inserting to know if this reverb is actually too strong.

As we came out of the bunker and back into the warmth of the sun (I would take a jacket as the tunnels were quite cool), I was about to head back down the hill when I noticed another trail, this one called the Rotweinwanderweg. Having now googled this (check out http://www.ahr-rotweinwanderweg.de/) I now know this is a 35km trail that runs through the wine district of the Ahr Valley of which Ahrweiler is central. The bunker is about 2km from the Ahrweiler itself so I thought I would follow the Rotweinwanderweg back and was rewarded with a view of Ahrweiler like this.

You can see the grape vines in the foreground (and so steep! How do they pick grapes and prune the vines in this terrain). The village itself in the middle and if you look closely you can see the green grass and the cream trail that mark the edges of the city walls. While way off in the distance you can see a ribbon of road suspended by concrete legs; the autobahn to Koblenz.

By following the “red wine wander way” I came out near an abandoned silver mine; abandoned while leaving the skeletal remains of the bridge that was used to haul the treasure trove away. These massive legs are all that are left of this bridge.

If you look closely you might make it out that these legs are now used as climbing walls. Amazingly, this was as far as the bridge's construction went. These massive legs were built but nothing was added to them; the price of silver must have crashed significantly, I guess. It is not difficult to imagine how imperious this bridge might have stood above Ahrwelier below. The sign below shows how the trains would have looked had the bridge been built; the views to Ahweiler Markt are just magnificent!

This was a great day; from 1^st Century Roman state of the art living to 20^th Century state of the art paranoia buried deep within the heart of the mountains. I think I'll need to come back and explore the Ahr Valley in more detail, especially its wines!

Bonn Triathlon - Museumesmeile - Choirs in the Church

What a great day and a great location for the triathlon! A 3.8km swim then 60km on the bike with a 15km run to complete the event. The swim sounds long compared to the other distances but was actually swum from the Adenaur Bridge to the Kennedy Bridge along the Rhine. This is down stream and the current is quite strong. The strong swimmers shoot down river in no time.

Swimmers leaving the Rhine in the Bonn Triathlon; note the spray from the boat in the background

But even the non-swimmers are ok; as long as you can keep your head above water then the current will deliver you to the bike stage. Trust me, there were a few heads simply bobbing along, delighted that the current was working to their advantage! Bonn has turned on a lovely day as well; a few clouds but enough sunshine to keep things warm and a breeze to drag most of the heat away, revealing a beautiful light to see Bonn and a pleasant day to be out and about, watching other people sweat through a triathlon!

Bike transition - swimmers come from below, grab their bikes and ride out by the Rhine above. What a great location for a Triathlon!

I thought I'd head upstream and see if I could find the start of the swim. Unfortunately by the time I'd arrived the last of the swimmers were in the water. I did successfully find a mobile coffee vendor by the side of the river and a cappuccino was just the ticket. I'd heard that there was a family day/event in the Museumsmeile precinct. Remembering Steven Wright's mantra that everywhere is walking distance if you have the time, I set off on foot back over the Rhine toward the DHL offices.

I found the museum district and it was pretty well packed out. I arrived just in time to hear 'Us &Them' (a German Pink Floyd cover band) just as they kicked off the second half of the 'Dark Side of the Moon' album. They were good too; very good! The guy on guitar and the girls' vocals especially. How nice in a Sunday afternoon to be swaying contentedly to Pink Floyd in the now warm sunshine. Sublimely pleasant. The main attraction appeared to be tightrope walkers; I did mention this was a family day. The wire walkers seemed very competent but a little old fashioned; does that sound a little snooty? Too bad! I'd just enjoyed some live (if a cover version) playing of the best album ever made so perhaps lunch was the next best thing to consider. Unlike me, everyone seemed entranced by the tightrope so suddenly the massive queues at the food tents had dwindled to a few grumpy old men. I fitted right in! I succumbed to some fresh bread rolls smothered in cheese (not sure if it was a Brie or a camembert) tomato and lettuce; a taste sensation! The wire walker continued to enthrall the locals and I moseyed out and back toward Bonn central.

It was after 2pm by the time I stumbled into Munsterplatz. As is often the case, a craft market had broken out in the square; Beethoven's statue was once again beset by tents smothered in ceramics, jewelry, leather goods and the like. Some of these folks are amazingly clever; as ever it was most pleasant just to potter from stall to stall and admire just how creative people can be.

There was more music again. This time, a young lady (perhaps more accurately I should say a lady of indeterminate age but just lately it seems that everyone is younger than me so 'young lady' is probably accurate) standing on a box seemingly just large enough for her feet. She plays a piano accordion and has a kazoo (that looks like a plastic trumpet but is obviously a kazoo once she starts to blow it) and a harmonica in a hands free frame around her neck. She introduces each song in German but they are invariably 1930's American swing tunes. Her accompaniment is straightforward but it is her voice that is wonderful. Soaring above the hubbub of the marketplace, she sings with a careless ease and the result is delightful. She has a wicked smile and, while gifted with a beautiful singing voice, has no hesitation in blowing that damn kazoo for a verse in each song! This strange combination of wonderful vocals and annoying kazoo solos combined with that wicked smile suggest she is sharing her little joke with us. It's like she is suggesting that she knows she has an amazing voice but it's only busking for goodness sake! Listen to the kazoo and think what a nice day it is and how much better things will sound when I start singing again.

Time for coffee and cake! This is one tradition I am beginning to embrace with alarming regularity. The coffee here is ok but the cakes are to die for. Invariably the piece of cake offered would feed a small family for several days but, like the brave Antipodean I am, I somehow manage to struggle through and demolish my allotted portion. I am happily killing time with the remnants of cake, waiting for 5pm to roll around. There is a church (in German the Namen-Jesu-Kirch) which is just up from the Beethoven house and museum in Bongasse. It's been closed for renovation since I arrived here and has only opened in the last few weeks. I noticed that there is a choral recital at 5 this afternoon. Choral music in the acoustic wonderland that is a large, old church - how could I say no? Music by Sandstrom, Verdi and Mendelssohn. Strangely to me, not Felix Mendelssohn but Arnold Mendelssohn. Arnold? Sorry for you music buffs, but Arnold sounds like Felix's geeky American or English cousin. My imagination conjures  an image of Arnold as a spectacled nerd who tends to speaking slowly and is enthralled by model trains. Apologies to any  Arnolds reading this ... As a form of apology, I am genuinely looking forward to learning more of the musical genius that is (or was) Arnold Mendelssohn this afternoon.

The concert was amazing; I'd guess there were thirty voices with no accompaniment in a church with fifty foot ceilings. They sang ten pieces with an extra one as an encore and the sounds were sublime. For one piece, the choir moved from the standard configuration at the front of the church to being individually spread around the church. The sopranos led off and neatly, they sang individually with each singer separated by half a bar. The effect wasn't a round but an echo. The spread of the voices around the church just added to the acoustic effect of space and echo. A couple of the pieces also had dissonance rather than harmony. I find these pieces challenging to listen to but always interesting nonetheless. They must also be challenging to sing as they seem to sound 'wrong' but work almost in spite of this. A marvelous choir in the perfect setting. At the conclusion of each piece, the church's acoustics held a couple of seconds of sustained sound, ensuring a full and complete sound. A wonderful day in Bonn. From the Floyd cover band to the young girl's singing and playing her kazoo to the choir in the church built in the late 1600's. Quite the aural excursion.

Briare Aqueduct

Something of a small vignette today; work took me to the small French village of Briare and we finished a little earlier than anticipated. Our hosts suggested a short detour to see the 'aqueduct'.

The Briare canal was built back in the 1600's but the aqueduct was constructed in the 1890's to connect the original canal to a smaller canal that runs beside the Loire river.
So, as lovely as this picture looks, you need another angle to appreciate what has been achieved here.

(Image from http://www.radweg-reisen.com/en/boat-bike-loire-river)

This marvellous postcard from 1900 begins to show just what has been achieved. What they have done is create a massive Victorian-esque bridge across the very broad Loire river. But instead of carrying wheeled traffic, it is designed for boats and barges. The idea of water crossing water (above and at 90 degrees to the flow of the river) feels strange and wonderful at the same time. (Postcard from http://www.dse.nl/~jetse/flying_colours.htm)

But the craftsmanship of the bridge is a joy to behold; the whole thing is a wonder and a delight.

And we only went to look at it because we happened to get finished early and the local team thought it might be nice to see.

Nice!?!?

Lunch was 'nice'; this is magnificent; from an age when science and art could be as one.

Wow - another good day.



Mechernich - RÖMERKANAL-WANDERWEG - Roman Aqueducts

There are times when it is probably better to be on your own when travelling.
Take Sunday, for example; I have my daypack filled with the necessities (lunch, water, raincoat, book, camera and notepad) ready for this week’s adventure. My plan is to return to Mechernich but this time find the Roman sites and see if I can understand what was going on. An aqueduct that runs 100km to Cologne? Seriously?
But this will be a 20km walk and, as I get off the train, the insistent drizzle becomes actual rain. Imagine trying to convince another tourist that ‘this will be fun’! Undeterred, I slip on the rain coat and head off to the first site.

This section of reconstructed aqueduct is simply stunning! It really begins to call out the scope and scale of this amazing project. It also drew my attention to a nearby signpost showing a walking tour that follows the entire 100km from North Eifel all the way into the metropolis of Cologne. If only I spoke German I could have googled ‘romerkanal-wanderweg.de’ and found the beautifully produced 20 page pdf booklet myself. Instead, I had to photograph the signpost and check it out when I got home. I keep getting these subtle messages to learn German and I keep ignoring them at my peril! But the benefit became twofold; firstly, on Sunday morning I now had a trail to follow. This is much better than following the googlemaps directions as they are simply the standard roads. And German provincial roads are not designed for pedestrians; and they are even less pedestrian friendly when it has been raining (trust me – there were a couple of close calls this weekend!) Secondly, it meant I could download the 20 pages of document, run some of it through an on-line translation device and give you some neat information. For example, the elevation at the beginning of the Roman water supply is about 450m and slides away to virtually nothing as it makes it to the Rhine in Cologne; this is about half of the usual 1:100 ratio but seems to have been made functional by the Romans. We’ll learn one of their tricks later in the piece.
You can climb to the top of the aqueduct and even today see some remnants of the original tunnel and certainly observe the cutting in the hillside where the watercourse made its serene way ever on to Cologne.
With the way signposted, I merrily trotted off with a light heart, oblivious to the rain as I now had a trail to follow ...
... and promptly became ‘geographically challenged’ (as AJP would say. I was never lost as I knew I was still close to the village of Vussem). In my defence, I will argue that the very first sign post I followed pointed in the wrong direction and it was only good fortune (and 30 minutes of bush bashing and much foul language) that I found another signpost and was back on the trail.

This worked out well because the trail took me along the actual path of the aqueduct. I was actually heading ‘upstream’ but that’s fine; so you get to see little vignettes like this one. As near as I can tell, this little channel is the original line taking water to Cologne but on the right (and buried under the ivy) is another channel which diverts the runoff water from hillside, ensuring that the main channel is not contaminated in any way. This water is for drinking after all and the Romans went to great pains to keep it pure and clean.
Or how about the Sammelbecken or Collecting Reservoir? The sign posts are latter day but this collection point allowed for water to in from Urfay and Dreimühlen and then on to Cologne. Ingenious!

But the ultimate came when I ducked into this little house almost at the top of the irrigation system. To be honest, there is a solid door that was closed and I thought, just my luck, I’m locked out just as the rain began to fall once more.

But the door opened and inside was this well house.

As near as I can make out, it seems that there was a spring in the square pool at the base of the well house. The water bubbled up and flowed from here out through the channels on the other side of the concrete walk way. This channel then flowed to further reservoirs where more water was sourced and added to the flow, ultimately winding along its 100km journey to Cologne.
And all of this done by Roman engineers using their funky counting system; for folks who never had the zero, it is amazing what they achieved.
Of course, there is always some who has to put their mark on things; graffiti is as old as the Romans anyway. But I did like this addition; it reads ‘Romani ite domum’ and translates as ‘Romans go home!’ I know this because it comes directly from ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’. For those who have studied Latin, the scene where the soldier corrects Brian’s attempt to write ‘Romans go home!’ is hysterically funny; absolutely how I remember my Latin grammar classes.
From here, i found myself near the little village of Kallmuth and still about 8-9km from Mechernich (with its warm railway station and coffee shop). As the rain began to fall, I thought I’d head directly north rather than the circuitous way I had come to this point.

It all worked out but there were a couple of moments where I wondered just where the hell I was. Remember, the roads just aren’t pedestrian friendly at all so I found some small roads and tracks and headed effectively cross country. Unbeknownst to me, I was walking past the site of Mechernich’s main claim to fame some 100 years ago; the mines. Walking along, I happened past a series of noticeboards (where these historical photos have been lifted from) and it’s only in retrospect that you can imagine how terribly and terrifyingly the land was laid waste back in the 1920’s to recover the ores here.

There were deposits of Manganese and other minerals but it seems the big metal to be mined was Lead. As the pictures show, look how the land was devastated almost a hundred years ago.

Mining ceased in the late ‘50’s and since then, many of the open cut mines have been used as rubbish dumps and it is really only since the 80’s that the recovery of the landscape has begun to kick in.

Note the before and after shots taken from the sign posts.

A really interesting day; the ingenuity of Roman engineering and how 2,000 years has virtually hidden their accomplishments contrasted with the Lead mines and how 50 years still hasn’t been long enough for the scarred landscape to fully recover.