Oldenburg and Hanover

This weekend we went on a whirlwind trip, first to Oldenburg to visit a former student of Gary’s -- Regina -- from when he was in charge of the foreign exchange program at the U of M dental school. Then to a town near Hanover to visit some other friends from that same era. 

Very quick history in a nutshell

Before we left, I checked out Oldenburg history and learned that archaeological digs have dated the first settlement in that area to the 8th century -- by West Germanic tribes and later also by the North Germanic Danes -- but wasn’t until 1108 that Oldenburg was first mentioned in history, when Eligmar I became its first count. 

This got me to wondering how one becomes an area's "first count"; I apparently missed that day in history class. It turns out it's too complicated to summarize in a nutshell, but I learned that Romans and Franks were involved in this particular area in initially setting things up with kings and dukes and counts. So that satisfied my curiosity for the time being. 

Anyway, Eligmar I, the first Count of Oldenburg, is interestingly the patrilineal ancestor of the “House of Oldenburg,” which has ruled Denmark continuously since 1448 and still is Denmark’s royal family today. Even Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, is descended from Eligmar I.

Modern Day

Getting back to our little side-trip, Friday we took the train to Oldenburg and Regina met us at the train station. She picked us up in her brand new VW camper van, which was very well designed inside compared to our old Ford Coachmen van we recently sold. We asked if she'd been camping with it yet and she said she and her boyfriend took it to Slovenia over New Years. Because that's where you go camping when you live in Europe. *sigh*  

Regina took us to see her dental office, which was very modern and housed inside a building with the date 1853 on the front. From there she drove us to the “rich” part of Oldenburg, with house after house like this one, which turns out to be where she lives:

This is a Buddhist center, which was an intriguing surprise to us. Four people, including Regina, share this beautiful house, and it's very peaceful and calm inside as one would expect. They share a common kitchen and living room and a meditation room, and each person has a separate (large) bedroom. The house also has two sunrooms, one in the front and one in the back, and what looks like a beautiful garden in the back (it's winter, so we didn't see it at its prime).

After tea in the back sunroom, we walked through a large park, where kids were out testing the ice on the newly frozen river (eek!) and to the old part of Oldenburg, where we had lunch in the basement of the Rathaus. 

After lunch Gary, Regina, and I had a quick look at the castle (shown here) and had a woman snap a photo of us before it was time to head to the bahnhof

From Oldenburg we took the train to Neustadt and were picked up at the bahnhof by another friend, Andy, who took us to his and his wife Antje's house in a little farming village called Schneeren, near Hanover. There we had a great raclette dinner, along with Antje's sister Imke and her son Michel, and we spent the night there. 

This is Antje, Andy, Antje's sister Ute (pronounced OO-ta) and, of course, Gary, at früstück the next morning. 

Antje arranged to take us to visit an old mill in town, which was really a treat. (We temporarily misplaced our camera while there so these are images from the internet.)

The proprietor was raised in this windmill, and her parents were both German and English. When her mother died in 2008 she moved back to the area and restored the mill to its current condition, which apparently was no small (or cheap) feat. She now runs it as an Air Bnb, and kindly let us go inside the rented part to take a peek even though some people were staying there. It's beautifully restored.

My favorite story she told us was that the mill was built, to grind grain, in 1871 by a man named Heinrich Dettmer. The windmill was problematic from the start, because the sails kept hitting the masonry as they turned. Dettmer tried again and again to fix the problem but failed. He finally got fed up, so he secretly sent all the unmilled grain to his father-in-law's house in town for safekeeping, and set fire to the mill, intending to collect the insurance money. Unfortunately, his stash of grain in town was discovered and he knew his plan had been discovered. Before he was arrested, he set fire to the town, fled to Bremen, and sneaked off to  America, never to be seen again. Only the brightest and best, eh! 

From here, Frank and Ute took us to Hanover for a quick visit to the town hall, where the city has set up four scale models of Hanover, showing how the city has changed over time:  a walled city in the Middle Ages, Hanover before and after WWII, and Hanover today. The model from 1949 was the most striking: it shows that nearly every building had been bombed and was missing its roof. What a mess that must have been. One cathedral has been left in its bombed-out state, as a memorial, like the one in Hamburg. It's mind-boggling that this happened so recently, in the scheme of things. And it's a good reminder of the consequences when a country votes for the wrong person. 

After a walk through what's left of the old part of Hanover (including some beautiful old timber frame houses), we stopped at a Dutch cafe where they served excellent hot chocolate and kuchen! Yay!

... and then we went to the bahhnof and boarded the train for home. A quick but fun trip! 

The old-fashioned trains with compartments are gone, but now and then you'll luck out and get a modern one with compartments. This was the kind we had for the trip back to Hamburg. The ICE trains (in Germany ICE means InterCity Express) also have Wi-Fi and electric sockets so you can charge your phone and computer.

Gary in the train compartment, heading back to Hamburg

Today (Sunday, January 27) was a rainy day in Lübeck. It's apparently -22 F back at home, with a winter weather advisory, which makes 41 and rainy feel like a dream come true.