Meeting the neighbors: friendly women, Frau Blum and Frau Beer. Frau Blum is a cheerful, talkative woman who gladly finishes my sentences for me - very helpful for a novice in the language. Her husband spent 40 years on the technical faculty of the University in Erlangen. He speaks English and rides a low-slung recumbent bike with a windshield. Frau Beer is also friendly, about the same age. She and her husband are frequently seen around the house doing gardening, and always greet me cheerfully Frau Beer goes for walks with her 92-year-old mother-in-law, who looks more like 82.
Lawn fanatics here, too. The homeowner behind our house was applying the pressure washer vigorously all day yesterday, cleaning every hard surface around the house. They have a very green, well kept lawn, which they mow with a corded electric lawnmower.
Electric lawn mowers with and with out cords are very common here. Sure keeps down the noise.
The first people we invited to our place were the B. family, Peter and Ulla and their two girls. We had cake and coffee with them, Peter showed his pictures taken in Egypt during the solar eclipse, and his pictures from Siena, Italy. He takes such beautiful pictures, that I feel like I've already been to the places he photographs. The girls watched Harry Potter in English -- Anna is learning English in school-- and Pia, the younger, drew a picture of the Easter Bunny's Easter egg factory that stretched over several pieces of paper and was very precise. Ulla asked for the banana bread recipe. We spoke German the whole time. The whole visit lasted 6 hours, and none of us realized that much time had passed.
We had our upstairs neighbors down for "Abendbrot," a simple meal with cheese and bread and cold cuts, and maybe a salad. I had made a coffee cake and had just enough of Grandma Leroux's banana bread left. Susi asked for the banana bread recipe. Originally from Hamburg and younger than us, Susi & Marek appreciated the chance to practice their English. The previous 1st floor tenants were Americans, with a young child, and only had a year's contract with Siemens. Susi and Marek thought they were nice people.
We spent the long weekend traveling. (Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays here.) We spent Friday in Würzburg, a beautiful little city that was painstakingly rebuilt after the firebombs at the end of World War 2. A famous late middle ages sculptor, Tillman Riemenschneider, lived here and worked for the Prince-Bishop on churches and palaces. We visited a museum in the castle that overlooks the city and the Main (pronounced like "mine") river. There was a special exhibit on textiles and local traditional costume that covered the last few centuries. This was especially interesting to Kathy, but Richard thought it was interesting too. There were lots of other permanent exhibits, and we spent most of the day there. After that we went to a restaurant that specializes in Frankish food and wine. (Würzburg, Erlangen, Nuremburg, and Bamberg are in a region called Frankonia, which is named for the Franks, who were a Germanic tribe that lived here. The tribe spread to France, which is how France got its name.) We had a wonderful meal. Richard had wild boar and Kathy had a dish made from wild boar too. We drank frankonian wine and left very happy.
And yes, the peasants were revolting (Mel Brooks, History of the World Part I). One revolt in the 1500's was joined by the Mayor of Würzburg, Meister Til Riemenschneider, and he was imprisoned and tortured for his sympathies. That was toward the end of his life, and it put a real damper on his heretofore prolific artistic career.
The next day we went to Bamberg. We started the day by stopping at a Cafe for a "Bamberger", which is one of the many types of German Croissants. (see enclosed photo.) We spent most of the day in the old Cathedral and in the diocesan museum that is in the attached cloister. The only Pope buried north of the Alps is in Bamberg, and we saw the 1000-year-old, gold, silk vestments that he was buried in. (The vestments were removed in 1942, probably because of the war.) We saw more sculptures by "Meister Til" Riemenschneider, and lots of interesting architecture. We had another wonderful meal; Richard had the local wurst specialty and Kathy had goose. The goose was very tasty with crispy skin and a light gravy. We had to leave a little early in order to buy some groceries before the stores closed for the holiday. We also wanted to stop by a little town on the way home to pick up a lamp for the dining room. (I'll be installing that today.)
In Bamberg, the cathedral is devoted to the sainted King Henry II, and his Queen, also sainted, Kunigunde. Funny names to us, but they actually lived in the 11th century. That was long enough ago that several legends about the saintliness of their lives were rampant, and their tomb in the Cathedral is carved (by Meister Til Riemenschneider) with scenes from their lives. Queen Kunigunde is rumored to have walked unharmed over hot plowshares to prove her innocence and virginity. She was an intercessor on the level of the Virgin Mary at the time. This is the only case I have personally encountered of people who were reported to be saintly and miraculous (mostly after their deaths), who actually existed. Fascinating. We saw their 1000-year-old ceremonial robes in the Cathedral museum.
We were surprised to learn that the Bamberg bishopric was at times a haven of humanism and middle class commerce. During the past 1000 years, the fortunes of the town went up and down depending on the rule of the Cathedral Canons, and other wars. However, the middle ages in Bamberg weren't so dark or bloody as the 1600's and 1700's were at times.
Easter Sunday we went to Nuremberg to see a special exhibit about how Franconia was added to the Bavarian state just 200 years ago. A lot of history happened around here in just those 200 years. Franconia and Bavaria were separate until 1806; Nuremberg was the industrial city and Munich (in Bavaria) was the art city. The union was both financially advantageous for Franken and forced by Napoleon, but it resulted in the looting of many Franconian church treasures during the secularisation that Napoleon enforced (I think that's right; history buffs feel free to enlighten me). The church treasures, some from the middle ages, were transported to Munich or melted down for the precious metals. Apparently a wave of nostalgia for the "good old days" of the 18th century followed. Traditional costumes (lederhosen, wool jackets, colorful dresses-see photo) became popular again, and artists painted romantic views of the countryside, all green, with peasants rejoicing in the fields. Also in the 19th century, the fairy tale castle of Neuschwanstein (the one that Cinderella's was modelled on) and King Ludwig II's other pretty castles were built. That is in part how Bavaria got its fairy tale image.
Did you know that the Barbie doll has its origins in a doll made here in Franken from a comic book character? "Bild Lilly" (literally, picture Lilly) was so popular here in the post-war years with her pretty face, feminine figure and stylish clothes and hair, that Mattel bought the concept, and the rest is history.
We found out the key to the big soccer rivalry between the two cities. Nuremberg held the German championship until 1969 when Munich won it. Munich won again in 1972, '73, and '74. The fans get really intense about it. There are bumper stickers here in Frankonia that say, " I don't brake for Bavarian soccer fans," (the team from Munich) and "Don't honk: the driver is dreaming of his soccer club," that is, the Nuremberg team. Every soccer fan has one or more knit scarves with his team's colors on it. The scarves are tied around the wrists, and sometimes the neck and waist, too. There are songs for each team, and before the important games, you can hear the fans singing their songs on the way to the game. They generally occupy a whole train car, with open beers, singing and drinking and rocking the car all the way from Nuremberg to Munich. The police are always prepared for the big games. They show up in great numbers at the train stations, sometimes in riot gear, and with German shepherds in muzzles. They are dealing with soccer fans, after all. Maybe you've heard how rowdy the soccer fans can get in Scotland and England. The fans are almost that rowdy here!
History is very important here, at least to me. I have a lot of catching-up to do, in order to understand local history. The fuzzy concepts that one learns in high school -- Reformation, Thirty Year's War, Huguenots -- It all actually happened here, where I am living now, and influenced how cities rose and fell! One time period that we have yet to see more of is the centuries before 1000AD. Roman ruins and old Germanic sites also abound here. We certainly got a good dose of history Easter weekend.
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