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| Gary in front of Guntram and Eva's farmhouse. It's run completely by solar energy, including three rental flats. The extra electricity their solar panels produce is sold back to the grid, as part of Guntram's retirement income. |
This past weekend we visited friends Guntram & Eva at their farm near Bippen, which is close to the Holland border. They took us to see a burial area of giant rocks that are dated from 3500 B.C. How those people moved them there and piled them in a formation is a mystery. These would have been the forebears of the Saxons.
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| Eva, Guntram, and Gary at the Megalithic tombs |
(While I'm at it, I have another easy and good recipe that I got from Cordula when we were in Heidelberg: you cut up chicken (like a chicken breast) and put it, raw, in a baking pan. Then you mix leek soup mix with a good amount of Half & Half (or cream with milk), and pour it over the chicken so that you'll end up with a gravy. That's it! Bake until done, and serve over rice. It's really good because, of course, it's nearly all cream.)
Getting back to our trip this weekend, on Sunday afternoon at the end of our short-but-lovely visit, Guntram & Eva brought us to the closest train station and politely waited for us as we boarded the train. We waved out the window at them standing right there next to us on the platform, until the train pulled away. I love that part of European life, the daily train-taking, where you just park your car and stroll to the train platform just beyond the hedge there, and either wave goodbye or get on the train and leave. Just like that.
We took the train as far as Bremen, which was recommended by a friend (thank you, Janice Springer!). Before I continue, I have to first talk about . . .
A nutshell history of Bremen
The area around Bremen was originally inhabited by tribal ancestors of the Saxons, back as far as 12,000 B.C. — the same people, no doubt, who built the stone tombs we visited with Guntram and Eva. The word Saxon is thought to come from the word “Sax” or “stone knife.”
The Roman historian Tacitus wrote of the Saxons and other tribes living in the area that “they universally join in the worship of Herthum; that is to say, the Mother Earth.”
The Saxons were devoted to their god, Odin, and to Mother Earth at a time when Christianity was spreading. Their reluctance to accept Christianity -- along with a propensity for raiding their neighbors -- ultimately led to their downfall, which coincides with the founding of Bremen.
For centuries the Saxons were constantly at odds with the Franks, led by the Christian king Charlemagne, to their south. Eventually the two sides had one last skirmish — a war that lasted over 30 years, from 772 to 804. (To put it in perspective, the Viking Age in Europe was roughly 793–1066). The Saxons failed to win over the forces of Charlemagne, and lost the war. Charlemagne forbid the Saxons to continue worshipping Odin, and upon the threat of death, he forced them to convert to Christianity. That's the story of how the Saxons were welcomed into the loving arms of Jesus.
In 787, during the long war with the Franks, Charlemagne formed the Catholic diocese of Bremen, which is when the city of Bremen officially began. About sixty years after the war ended, in 888, Bremen was granted the rights to hold its own markets. Bremen’s first stone walls were built in 1032, and in 1358 the city joined the Hanseatic League. The rest is more history, of course, but I've already covered the Hanseatic rise and fall so will leave it there.
One last thing: We all know Bremen as the city in Grimm’s fairy tale about the Bremen Town Musicians. I had to re-read the story to remind myself what it’s about, and here’s the gist of it, from Wikipedia, in case you’ve forgotten, too: “It’s the story of four aging domestic animals — a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster — who after a lifetime of hard work are neglected and mistreated by their masters. They decide to run away and become town musicians in Bremen. Contrary to the story's title, the characters never arrive in Bremen, as they succeed in tricking and scaring off a band of robbers, capturing their spoils, and moving into their house.” That’s it — end of story.
I wasn’t exactly sure what the lesson of this story was, so I Googled it: “The respect of your elders is one lesson in this story. . . Another lesson is the importance of teamwork.” Okay! I have a new respect for the Bremen Town Musicians. By the way, this story dates from the 12th century (the brother’s Grimm retold old folk tales, they didn’t write them themselves, I learned), and in the original version the robbers are a bear, a lion, and a wolf. I don’t know if that’s significant, but I imagine it likely was, for whatever reason. The bear, lion, and wolf are often used on heraldic crests, so maybe it was a tale of the downtrodden defeating the “1%” of the day and enjoying the spoils?
Anyway, the Bremen Town Musicians are *everywhere* in Bremen. Every town needs a good mascot, and Bremen has four. Here's the sculpture of them that sits outside the town hall. (The truck behind Gary is a pop-up flower shop.)
But I'm getting ahead of myself. We arrived in Bremen late Sunday, checked into our hotel near the bahnhof (very convenient), and had dinner in the Ratskeller, in the basement of the Bremen town hall. It was built in 1405 and the Ratskeller looks like this (this is a stock photo; our table was next to one of these huge barrels):
We ordered Labskaus, apparently a typical Bremen dish, which was described as corned beef and mashed potatoes with eggs, and beets, herring, and gherkin slivers on the side, which sounded perfect. When it came to the table I was surprised to see that the corned beef and mashed potatoes were served in one big mashed pile, which was more than a bit off-putting, as you can see, but tasty anyway.
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| Labskaus in Bremen |
Our visit to Bremen was badly timed, on a Monday, when all the museums and many stores were closed. But we had a good time walking around the elaborate government buildings from the 15th & 16th centuries, and the Schnoor area, which was where the craftspeople lived, we were told, in those same centuries. Now the Schnoor is a tourist spot, with old little houses and narrow little streets -- very sweet and picturesque.
We also visited Böttcherstraße, an area that used to be populated by barrel-makers (coopers = böttcher in German) and was rebuilt in the 1920s and 30s into an artsy shopping area with art museums. While there, we passed by a shop that sold sheet music! I wasn't going to go in, thinking I would never be able to explain in German what I wanted. But Gary insisted I try, and to my relief the woman at the front desk was very kind and spoke perfect English. It was a treat to look for music for the Poco Baroquo ensemble on these shelves.
I picked up some Bach and some Handel and some English folk tunes arranged for string quartet, and also a tiny music box that plays the Triumphal March tune from Aida, for our bathroom.
Even though much of Bremen was closed, we felt lucky to be there on a cold Monday in winter, because there were plenty of tourists in spite of the weather and we can't imagine what it must be like on a summer day, packed with people. That's one reason we like traveling off-season. We don't get to see places at their best, but we also don't have to contend with thousands of tourists as clueless as we are.
We ended our stay with a cappuccino and hot chocolate in this old flour mill, located right in downtown Bremen:
And now we're back in Lübeck for a few days before our next adventure.
Again, another delightfully adventurous post! Thank you for sharing, giving us a glimpse of German life.
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