The whole weekend has felt slow and languid. The genesis for this was Friday night; I walked out of the office at about 6pm and, with nowhere to be, decided to walk to the apartment. This was only twenty minutes for the first few weeks but since moving, this walk is now more like 45-50. But I had nowhere to be so thought I'd head out of the office and along the river. This is not the quickest way but the river seems to have an almost siren song whose call I'm hardly aware of. Yet at some subconscious level I find my walks or runs always have the river incorporated within them. The Rhine is an unlikely congruence of relaxation and action. The contrast of couples walking gently while runners exercise vigorously. The steady flow of the river (certainly faster than walking pace but stately nonetheless) combined with the busy-ness of river traffic hauling cargo both up and down stream.
Looking back to the office, the mist had rolled in and the top floors of the building were shrouded in fog. As ever, mist seems to bring a mystical (or should that be mist-ical?? Certainly not MissTickle!) feel even to a massive edifice of steel and glass. As I looked back across the river I saw a glider and it's tow plane just separating as the gloom of sunset began to replace the light of day. The tow plane's buzz caught my ear but the size and obvious freedom of the glider caught my imagination. Then, almost as soon as the glider had made its hard right turn to clear the tow plane, it too was swallowed by the mist and gloom and disappeared from sight.
Wow! It's images like this that will always draw me back to the Rhine.
So the adventures for this weekend are similarly slow and languid.
Domestic bliss greeted me on Saturday morning. I suspect the standard Saturday routine of early run, breakfast, clean house and wash clothes will easily translate from Ormond to the Aldstadt. A little shopping was also in order (some domestic needs and food were on the menu) and I stumbled through an Indian-Asian-African store. For those who've been in Singapore's famous Mustafas, it felt like an extremely miniature version of that. From personal care to hair extensions to Asian sauces to Indian curries to fresh bean shoots there seemed to be something for everyone. There were even cans of UK Heinz Baked Beans tucked amongst the more exotic foods. Lord! Some people will eat anything :) I picked up some Oyster Sauce, Kitsap Manis, curry powder (of course!) and a paste for a Tikka Marsala. In the serviced apartment, they had a can of spaghetti which I've kept as a bit of a challenge. 24 days into Germany and I haven't resorted to the can of spaghetti - yet :)
I caught the train to Bad Godesberg that afternoon. The pretext for this 15 minute trip was for an antique show and sale. But I was so out of my depth! This was no trash and treasure. Antiques in Germany are actual antiques; furniture, silverware, artwork, medals, jewelry, porcelain and on and on it went. Beautiful to look at but outrageously expensive and not much of it to my fairly agricultural tastes.
Not to worry; the 'berg' in Godesberg means 'castle'. Chatting to the locals, It seems to follow that Germans have a tendency to pronounce our 'th' as a hard 'd'. So Godesberg becomes the Castle of the Goths.
As ever, the castle is built on the high point in the local region. This one was first built in the late 13th Century and all that remains of an enormous complex is the main central and circular tower with some of the original walls. These remnants of wall are about 1.5m thick, so certainly designed to withstand major attacks.
Half way up the hill, there is a graveyard. This is still used as the local graveyard so there are grave stones from last week right back to grave stones so old that it is impossible to read the dates. More eerily were the family crypts built into the side of the hill. These dated from the 1800's and what surprised me was how well maintained the crypts are. Families appear keen to maintain and use these crypts. But the eeriness was almost palpable; any one with a hint of an imagination could easily envisage being on this hillside late at night, a mist rolling over the headstone, the old castle looming over all of this and not begin to imagine some attack of the undead imminent from those well maintained yet still creepy crypts.
Looking back to the office, the mist had rolled in and the top floors of the building were shrouded in fog. As ever, mist seems to bring a mystical (or should that be mist-ical?? Certainly not MissTickle!) feel even to a massive edifice of steel and glass. As I looked back across the river I saw a glider and it's tow plane just separating as the gloom of sunset began to replace the light of day. The tow plane's buzz caught my ear but the size and obvious freedom of the glider caught my imagination. Then, almost as soon as the glider had made its hard right turn to clear the tow plane, it too was swallowed by the mist and gloom and disappeared from sight.
Wow! It's images like this that will always draw me back to the Rhine.
So the adventures for this weekend are similarly slow and languid.
Domestic bliss greeted me on Saturday morning. I suspect the standard Saturday routine of early run, breakfast, clean house and wash clothes will easily translate from Ormond to the Aldstadt. A little shopping was also in order (some domestic needs and food were on the menu) and I stumbled through an Indian-Asian-African store. For those who've been in Singapore's famous Mustafas, it felt like an extremely miniature version of that. From personal care to hair extensions to Asian sauces to Indian curries to fresh bean shoots there seemed to be something for everyone. There were even cans of UK Heinz Baked Beans tucked amongst the more exotic foods. Lord! Some people will eat anything :) I picked up some Oyster Sauce, Kitsap Manis, curry powder (of course!) and a paste for a Tikka Marsala. In the serviced apartment, they had a can of spaghetti which I've kept as a bit of a challenge. 24 days into Germany and I haven't resorted to the can of spaghetti - yet :)
I caught the train to Bad Godesberg that afternoon. The pretext for this 15 minute trip was for an antique show and sale. But I was so out of my depth! This was no trash and treasure. Antiques in Germany are actual antiques; furniture, silverware, artwork, medals, jewelry, porcelain and on and on it went. Beautiful to look at but outrageously expensive and not much of it to my fairly agricultural tastes.
Not to worry; the 'berg' in Godesberg means 'castle'. Chatting to the locals, It seems to follow that Germans have a tendency to pronounce our 'th' as a hard 'd'. So Godesberg becomes the Castle of the Goths.
As ever, the castle is built on the high point in the local region. This one was first built in the late 13th Century and all that remains of an enormous complex is the main central and circular tower with some of the original walls. These remnants of wall are about 1.5m thick, so certainly designed to withstand major attacks.
Half way up the hill, there is a graveyard. This is still used as the local graveyard so there are grave stones from last week right back to grave stones so old that it is impossible to read the dates. More eerily were the family crypts built into the side of the hill. These dated from the 1800's and what surprised me was how well maintained the crypts are. Families appear keen to maintain and use these crypts. But the eeriness was almost palpable; any one with a hint of an imagination could easily envisage being on this hillside late at night, a mist rolling over the headstone, the old castle looming over all of this and not begin to imagine some attack of the undead imminent from those well maintained yet still creepy crypts.
Enough Twilight nonsense but the picture is a little evocative, right? Anyway, I headed up the hill to the castle proper. It must have been almost impregnable in its day. The hill is more cliff top really and to walk the roadway saps the energy. Then to be confronted with those 1-2m thick walls that must have appeared to reach to the sky. in its day, infiltration must have been the only possible way to take the castle; full on assault would end in catastrophe for potential assailants unless they had serious siege weapons.
From the top of the hill there is quite a view back to Bad Godesberg. Sorry but a quick explanation; Godesberg is the castle and Bad Godesberg is the town where you'll find the castle. In German 'Bad' means 'Spa' so the implication is that the town had a series of wells or springs that drew people to live there.
Anyway, having been singularly impressed with the views and vistas available so far, I have to say that Bad Godesberg provides one of the ugliest sights on offer. Some genius decided to 'improve' the original market square. Every city, town, hamlet and berg has a market square that has evolved over hundreds of years into a place that brings the towns people together for markets and celebrations. The new BG city square has all the warmth and charm of Melbourne's Swanston Street city square of 20 years or so ago. Except the BG team made it worse by removing that wonderful grey slate-like square paving and replaced it with red brick pavers. Yuk! From the castle all that can be seen is a vista of red bricks surrounded by shopping centers and movie theatres looking more like middle America (or Bayside in Frankston, dare I say). To drive this point home, I was there at mid-afternoon on Saturday, so the busiest shopping time and day of the week and the place was dead. Below is a picture from the dead town square looking to the castle.
From the top of the hill there is quite a view back to Bad Godesberg. Sorry but a quick explanation; Godesberg is the castle and Bad Godesberg is the town where you'll find the castle. In German 'Bad' means 'Spa' so the implication is that the town had a series of wells or springs that drew people to live there.
Anyway, having been singularly impressed with the views and vistas available so far, I have to say that Bad Godesberg provides one of the ugliest sights on offer. Some genius decided to 'improve' the original market square. Every city, town, hamlet and berg has a market square that has evolved over hundreds of years into a place that brings the towns people together for markets and celebrations. The new BG city square has all the warmth and charm of Melbourne's Swanston Street city square of 20 years or so ago. Except the BG team made it worse by removing that wonderful grey slate-like square paving and replaced it with red brick pavers. Yuk! From the castle all that can be seen is a vista of red bricks surrounded by shopping centers and movie theatres looking more like middle America (or Bayside in Frankston, dare I say). To drive this point home, I was there at mid-afternoon on Saturday, so the busiest shopping time and day of the week and the place was dead. Below is a picture from the dead town square looking to the castle.
O well. The remnants of the castle is special and worth the 15 minute trip on its own.
Today (Sunday) saw me catch the regional train to Cologne. I didn't really want to go but I have a trip on Wednesday (how good is this? My first international work trip is on the train! From Bonn to Brussels via Cologne in less than 3 hours) and felt like I should make sure I could navigate my way to and through the big smoke of Cologne. I needn't have worried as everything is sign posted and easy to follow. Who'd have thought it could be so simple!?!
Having been lucky enough to catch the train to Cologne a few times in the past, I thought I'd be quite blasé about the Cathedral. A bit 'been there, seen that'. But there's no denying that the building is simply magnificent. And, as ever, I walked out of the station and looked straight up at those massive towers, the gothic arches and flying buttresses and was simply astonished all over again. Archeologically,they can prove there's been a church on the site since the mid-700's and they suspect that the Romans may have even converted houses built in the 1st Century into churches during the Roman move to Christianity as early as late 400's.
Today (Sunday) saw me catch the regional train to Cologne. I didn't really want to go but I have a trip on Wednesday (how good is this? My first international work trip is on the train! From Bonn to Brussels via Cologne in less than 3 hours) and felt like I should make sure I could navigate my way to and through the big smoke of Cologne. I needn't have worried as everything is sign posted and easy to follow. Who'd have thought it could be so simple!?!
Having been lucky enough to catch the train to Cologne a few times in the past, I thought I'd be quite blasé about the Cathedral. A bit 'been there, seen that'. But there's no denying that the building is simply magnificent. And, as ever, I walked out of the station and looked straight up at those massive towers, the gothic arches and flying buttresses and was simply astonished all over again. Archeologically,they can prove there's been a church on the site since the mid-700's and they suspect that the Romans may have even converted houses built in the 1st Century into churches during the Roman move to Christianity as early as late 400's.
The above photo was taken with my back to the river, so this is the rear of the Cathedral. But you can see the main towers looming large and the railway station away to the right.
Since I was last there, they have opened up a new entrance to the belfry. This is below the cathedral and to access the interior they have drilled a tunnel through the foundations of the church itself. It's only walking through this tunnel that you realize how solid the construction is as the foundations are eleven metres thick at the base. Walking through this tunnel feels a little claustrophobic; as if an entire Cathedral were sitting above you!
As magnificent as the exterior is, it is the interior that delivers the full wondrous effect. All of those foundations and flying buttresses were engineered to make the ceiling appear to reach the heavens; to be closer to God. Even today that effect is delivered. I wonder how impressed the folks of the 1500's would have been when a three storey building was the literal height of engineering achievement (let's assume they hadn't been to the pyramids). The height of the interior lifts straight and pure; the leadlight and adornments only add to the sense of occasion. I was lucky enough to walk in at the end of the Sunday service and I heard the organ playing the concluding processional. Ceilings to the heavens, leadlight to die for and music booming from the Cathedral's pipe organ; it was almost enough to make this agnostic reconsider his position.
I said almost ...
Check out this photo! Here's one instance of German engineering failing. Below the paving here is the Cologne Philharmonic's theatre. But the design is such that skates and even people walking over this paving can be heard in the theatre. So, on days when they're playing or even rehearsing, they hire guards to shuffle people around the roof of the subterranean theatre. A good idea that didn't quite work!
That now leaves me in Starbucks late on this Sunday afternoon. With no Internet connection at home, I can buy a coffee here and bludge off their wifi.
Not sure what next Sunday holds. I might try one of the local museums here in Bonn. The Kunstmuseum or main art gallery is supposed to be good. Who can say? Talk to you soon.
PS this picture is just for Peta; a girl who loves her donuts!
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