Hello again after a long pause. I am back in Storkow after taking a couple of quick trips to new (to me) parts of Germany. We had three days off of school this week for Ascension Day, and so I decided to make the most of it. Ascension Day is the official name, here everyone calls it Maennertag (Men's day). Traditionally, all the men would decorate their bikes with birch branches, pack a back pack full of beer, and go riding through the countryside together, stopping at every bar in the small towns to have a beer. Now mostly they just skip the bike part, and spend the day drinking. Everyone tells me how much nicer it was in East Germany when they still did the bike part. Back then it wasn't an official holiday, all the men would work double the day before, and take the next day off.
I had been invited to go to the Baltic sea with a couple from chorus, and that is what we did Wednesday. We went to Warnemuende, which is where Rostock's harbor begins. In what was East Germany, there were no ports for large ships to the Baltic sea. So they needed to build one, and decided on Rostock. It was really important for trade particularly with scandinavian countries. Now most trade has moved back to other ports in the west, so business is slower, but we still saw some ships while we were there. Warnemuende is a lot smaller, and set up for tourists. Lots of boutiques and cafes, and a nice long beach. Even though the weather report had predicted rain, it was mostly sunny, but with a strong wind. It took a day or two before I got all the sand out of my hair. We had a really nice day, and I can say now that I have waded in the Baltic sea. For anything else it was way too cold. We left the car with the aunt of the couple I was there with. Her ex husband who still lives with her was there when we got the car to go home. He has gone deaf from working in all the noise from shipbuilding, but can read lips pretty well, and didn't have anymore trouble understanding me than anyone else. Spending one day on the coast was really too short, but it was all we had planned, and I needed to get back for the next day.
Once I got home I went to one friend's house for a men's day pre-party. An unexpected event, and a lot of fun.
Early early the next morning I caught a train to Bremen. I would have gotten to my hotel a lot faster if the trams in the city weren't completely torn up. There was construction being done over the holiday, of course. But I got there finally, out by the space center that isn't anymore. A couple of years ago they decided to make this big space museum, very hands on and interactive, and it closed after 6 months. But the hotel that was built to house all the guests is still there. Pretty much completely outside Bremen, but there. So everything in the hotel is space themed and futuristic. The elevator is lit from inside with black light, and the walls are glass, so you can see the universe painted on the elevator shaft wall in neon colors. I have no desire to be in a building with that much navy blue, lemon yellow, and stainless steel again for while.
But Bremen itself was really neat. A really compact Altstadt, and a really interesting history of being independent and liberal for the past 800 years. The churches went reformed really early, and had already been putting the state power before the church for a century or two. They got the first greens elected in the 1970s. Their state symbol, Roland, is way bigger than I expected, and has extremely pointy knees that you could hang cloth on. The distance between his knees was the official unit of measurement for cloth since the middle ages. I also got my picture taken with the Bremen town musicians, which I am going to try and include in this post. It is good luck to hold both of the donkey's front feet and make a wish. At least, someone did that and then Germany won the world cup in 1953. Or something like that. Lately, almost everything has some sort of connection with Germany winning the world cup. There is a really great street off the main market place that the inventor of decaf coffee (kaffee hag) bought and redid completely arte nouveau. Very interesting, also when you see the parts that he sort of sold out to and made Nazi-symbolism friendly. On this street is a Glockenspiel with meissen porcelain bells and a rotating frieze showing the history of seafaring. It also has the first museum dedicated to a single female artist in Germany, the Paula Modersohn-Becker museum. I have been a fan of hers since we saw some of her work in school, and it was a real treat to get to see her works up close. Closer to the water is where the poorer Bremeners lived, which means the houses are completely squashed together. It has been completely renovated and is now the "most romatic" part of Bremen, with lots of windy streets and little shops and cafes. Overall I had a really positive impression of Bremen, and wouldn't mind going back.
I got home late last night and have spent most of today recovering and getting used to being back. I would love to hear from you all, write when you get the chance!
OH! ps I need strawberry rhubarb pie recipes? Anyone have a successful one? And barbecue sauce recipes. Again, I know I can just look some up somewhere, but a tried and true would be really super. Thanks!
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