Nine Wheels in Germany – October 2019 (Month 67)

Cycling Statistics this month

338km for October

October was not a good month for cycling. We had one week when my Mum visited and another week when we were away in Berlin, so all the riding was concentrated into two weeks. This was almost entirely commuting, with just three leisure rides.

This is the Veloviewer Wheel for the month, excluding walks in Berlin and Used:

The green items are walks…

And this is the list of all my activity this year. The walks start from when I got my Garmin Vivoactive smartwatch in February, and these are just walks where I used the GPS tracking feature (dog walks, etc) and not my standard walking around in a day, including at work where I often walk 3km in my 5 hours as I visit the production area and warehouses.

As you can see from this, Bertie hasn’t had much use this year and Alfie even less.

A visit from my Mum

I invited my Mum to come and visit us before the 31 October Brexit date, so we planned for her to come in the second week of October.

As Klaus and I eat Keto and my Mum doesn’t, plus she tends to eat different food to us (she’s not very keen on salad, for example, which is one or two meals a day for us), we went shopping to get her some Brit Supplies.

Bread, cereal, biscuits, Pringles…

We collected Mum from Hoek van Holland and then went to have breakfast at Dechi Beach in what has become a tradition for us! The breakfast there is very good value and we were also able to have Poppy with us. Mum and I had a short walk along the beach in the drizzle – but it’s always nice seeing the North Sea!

A visit to Kloster Kamp gardens

The next day Klaus had to go to work but I had planned for Mum and I to visit the formal gardens of Kloster Kamp. I had hoped to do this during her last trip but the weather was too bad. Although it was a rather grey day this time, it was at least dry and it was really nice to visit these gardens.

Here is a short summary of Kloster Kamp from Wikipedia:

Kamp Abbey (Kloster Kamp), also known as Altenkamp Abbey or Alt(en)feld Abbey (and in English formerly Camp Abbey) was the first Cistercian monastery founded in German territory, in the present town of Kamp-Lintfort in North Rhine-Westphalia.

It was founded in 1123 by Friedrich I, Archbishop of Cologne, and settled from Morimond Abbey. As the first Cistercian foundation in the region it attracted great endowments and became very wealthy and powerful. It was extremely active in the foundation of daughter houses:
in Germany: Walkenried Abbey (1129); Amelungsborn Abbey (c.1129); Volkenroda Abbey (1131); Hardehausen Abbey (1140); Michaelstein Abbey (1146); Saarn Abbey (1214); Neuenkamp Abbey (1231); Bottenbroich Abbey (1231); Burlo Abbey (1448); and Grevenbroich Abbey (1628); In the Netherlands: Eiteren Abbey (1342); Mariënkroon Abbey(1382); and Sibculo Abbey (1412).


Kamp was largely rebuilt in the 15th century but suffered extensive damage in the Reformation. The abbey was abandoned early in the Cologne War (1583–1588); many of the monks went to the city of Neuss, where they underwent the siege and bombardment of July 1586; another portion went to Rheinberg, which was the focus of three battles to take the city, the last in 1589. The abbey itself was destroyed by Adolf von Neuenahr in 1586. A small group of monks returned under abbot Polenius (1636–64), but re-construction did not begin until 1683, and the community did not return fully until 1700.


The abbey was secularised during the German mediatisation of 1802 and the buildings were sold, and mostly demolished. The church was converted for use as a parish church.


Between 1954 and 2002 a Carmelite community resided on the remains of the monastery. The last monk left the monastery in 2010.
The abbey site is still known for the terraced gardens and the orangeries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamp_Abbey

So as you can see, there is a lot of history there, and the beautiful gardens have been restored to how they looked in 1747:

Während der Bau der ersten Klosterkirche um ca. 1150 erfolgte und bis Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts nach mehreren Bauphasen und trotz vieler Kriegsunruhen eine prächtige Klosteranlage entstanden war, wurde ein erster Terrassengarten am Südhang des Kamper Berges erst während der Amtszeit des Abtes Edmundus von Richterich (1695-1715) im Jahr 1700 geschaffen.


Als dann Franziskus Daniels aus Grevenbroich sein Amt als Abt im Kloster Kamp (1733-1749) antrat, erteilte er 1740 dem Kamper Mönch Benedictus Bücken den Auftrag, gemäß der Ideen des Barocks den Terrassengarten neu zu gestalten: Architektur, Treppen, Beete, Wege, Figuren und Wasserspiele sollten ein Gesamtkunstwerk bilden, wobei ein geplanter Wechsel von Standort und Licht die wichtigsten Gestaltungsgrundlagen sein sollten. 1747 fertigten August Querfurth / Ernst Ludwig Ceite einen Kupferstich von der Kamper Gartenanlage an, die in Vogelperspektive die Verwirklichung der barocken Gartengestaltung zeigt. Die Terrassenanlage war 5-stufig gemauert, wobei vier einschwingende Terrassen Sonnenlicht und Wärme sammelten. An Bepflanzung wechselten sich Obstbau und Taxus in Pyramidenform ab. An den Mauern befanden sich Spaliere mit Aprikosen, Pfirsichen und anderem Obst. Zierbeete umrahmten den Springbrunnen. Die beiden Orangerien – zum Überwintern der empfindlichen Pflanzen benötigt – waren beheizbar. Im unteren Teil des Gartens wurden quadratische Beete für Gemüse und Kräuter und Heckenbeete, ein ovaler Platz und ein Fischteich angelegt. Statuen schmückten die Treppen.


Nachdem 1794-1804 die französische Revolutionsarmee das Rheinland besetzte und 1802 auch Kloster Kamp im Zuge der Säkularisation aufgehoben wurde, verfielen Klostergebäude und Terrassenanlage zusehends. Der Enteignung entgingen nur die Klosterkirche und das östlich der Kirche gelegene Gebäude, das ehemalige Krankenhaus des Klosters, das nun zum Pfarrhaus bestimmt wurde, und deshalb bis heute erhalten geblieben ist.

1986 begann die Stadt Kamp-Lintfort – nach dem Vorbild des Kupferstichs von 1747 von A. Querfurth und E.L. Ceite – den Terrassengarten neu aufzubauen. Nach fast 5jähriger Bauzeit wurde der neue Terrassengarten 1990 mit einem Festakt in der Kamper Abteikirche eröffnet und zieht seitdem viele Besucher an, die sich an der wundervollen Anlage erfreuen. Auch zwei modern gestaltete Orangerien sind immer wieder ein Anziehungspunkt. Während in der östlichen Orangerie die Geschichte von Kloster und Terrassengarten erläutert wird, finden während des Sommers in der westlichen Orangerie von der Stadt Kamp-Lintfort organisierte Ausstellungen statt.

https://kloster-kamp.eu/gaerten/terrassengarten
I loved the ironwork on these gates to the garden.
Here is Mum as I look towards the Kloster across the garden and terrace
We walked up all those steps together to enjoy the view!
View from halfway up
View from the very top

We then went into the Kloster church to have a look. It was a peaceful and quiet building but we assume not actually that old (compared to how long ago the Kloster was founded). I really liked some painted panels with the names of all the former abbots, including some unusual old spellings of places we know well:

Colonia = Köln, Wachtendonck has an extra c in it
Abbot Number 17 appears to have come from Russia, and then eight years later from what is now called Swalmen which is just round the corner.

Kevelaer

On another day Mum and I went to Kevelaer, which is a pilgrimage town about 30km north of Kempen. It turned out to be twinned with Bury St Edmunds which is the centre of the local diocese for where Mum lives near Ipswich.

We felt at home as soon as we arrived – these two were next to the car park, celebrating the twinning with Bury St Edmunds.

We walked up the main street and arrived at one of the many churches in the centre.

The first that we looked at was the little chapel, the Gnadenkapelle, with some kind of pilgrimage relic, a picture. The intense gilding and other artwork around this chapel was impressive. I didn’t take a photo so as not to disturb the pilgrims there, but here is a Wikipedia image:

Von Thomas Schoch – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1163776

I have to say, I was a bit shocked that right under this special small picture (almost as small as a postcard) was a slot for you to donate money.

For those who can read German, here is the Wiki explanation of this chapel.

Im Zentrum der Wallfahrt nach Kevelaer steht die Gnadenkapelle, welche das Gnadenbild von Kevelaer beheimatet.
Die Kapelle wurde im Jahr 1654 um einen Bildstock errichtet. Diesen Bildstock hatte ein Mann namens Hendrick Busman geschaffen, der Überlieferung nach über dem Ort, wo dieser – im Dreißigjährigen Krieg, in der Weihnachtszeit des Jahres 1641 – innegehalten hatte, um an einem Wegkreuz zu beten. Über ihm soll sich der Himmel geöffnet haben, und er soll die Gottesmutter gehört und verstanden haben können. Drei Mal soll er den Anruf „An dieser Stelle sollst du mir ein Kapellchen bauen!“ vernommen haben. Nachdem auch seine Ehefrau eine Vision eines Heiligenhäuschens mit Gnadenbild hatte, baute Hendrick Busman über dem Bildstock als „Schutzhülle“ ein Heiligenhäuschen, zu dessen Schutz dann später die Gnadenkapelle errichtet wurde.[25]
Die Gnadenkapelle ist ein sechseckiger Kuppelbau, der auf der Seite des Gnadenbilds eine große, portalartige Fensteröffnung besitzt. Die künstlerische Ausgestaltung der Kapelle wurde erst im Jahr 1888 begonnen und vier Jahre später abgeschlossen.
Das Gnadenbild stammt aus den Händen von Soldaten, die es bei sich trugen, und es 1641 an Hendrick Busmann veräußerten. Seine Frau hatte dieses Bildchen bereits in ihrer Vision von dem Heiligenhäuschen gesehen, nachdem Busman selbst es bereits vorher bei den Soldaten entdeckt hatte. Das Gnadenbild wurde zunächst in Geldern aufbewahrt und verehrt, und erst 1642 in den Bildstock gebracht.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevelaer#Kirchenbauwerke

This was a very small chapel and there were three or four worshippers in there so we moved on so as not to disturb them further.

Our next visit was about 20 metres away, the Kerzenkapelle (Candle Chapel). The Wiki information in German is below, and under it my attempt at a translation!

Südlich neben der Gnadenkapelle befindet sich die Kerzenkapelle, die älteste Wallfahrtskirche der Stadt Kevelaer, die zwischen 1643 und 1645 errichtet wurde. Der Kirchenraum ist mehr als 30 Meter lang, etwa 10 Meter breit und 15 Meter hoch und ähnelt durch diesen Baustil einer schmalen Filialkirche. Der einschiffige Backsteinbau besitzt keinen Turm, sondern wurde mit einem Dachreiter ausgestattet. Später wurde der Kirche eine Sakristei angeschlossen. In der Kerzenkapelle sind eine Fülle großer, beschrifteter Wallfahrtskerzen mit den Wappen der Herkunftsorte bzw. -Gemeinden aufgestellt, die die Wallfahrtstradition dokumentieren.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevelaer#Kirchenbauwerke

“To the south next to the Gnadenkapelle is the Kerzenkapelle, the oldest pilgrimage church in the town of Kevelaer. It was built between 1643 and 1645. The church interior is more than 30 metres long, about 10 metres wide and 15 metres high and because of its building style is reminiscent of a narrow local church. The single-aisled brick building has no tower, but was equipped with a ridge turret. A sacristy was later attached to the church. The Kerzenkapelle contains a large number of large, inscribed pilgrimage candles bearing the coats of arms of the places of origin or communities documenting the pilgrimage tradition.”

Although this church had a lot of candles, what was more obvious were the various Standards/Plaques that groups had carried whilst doing their pilgrimage to Kevelaer, and it was really interesting looking at some of the really old ones. I spotted several dating from the early 1900s.

Pilgrimage shields, with the red, blue and gold Bury St Edmunds (St Edmundsbury) one

We also visited the large Marienbasilica which had impressive paintwork inside!

There was one last Catholic Church to visit in Kevelaer centre, a little way away from the others, and this was in a much more simple style. This was the Sankt Antonius church and it took me a little while to work out whether it was Catholic or Protestant because it was such a different style.

https://www.antonius-kevelaer.de/kirchen/st-antonius-kirche-kevelaer

Kevelaer is an interesting place and worth a visit, especially if you like buying candles or catholic religious articles. I loved this metal plaque just on a wall between two shops, showing Kevelaer’s position as a pilgrimage centre.

Arcen with Autumn Colours

On another day I took Mum to visit Arcen which is a rather lovely small town just over the border in the Netherlands. Klaus and I go there by bike quite frequently, usually passing through or stopping for a piece of cake in the town centre, but I thought Mum and I could have more of a look, especially as there is the Kasteeltuinen castle and gardens.

However, on preparing for the visit I noticed that the entry price to castle and gardens was 17,50 € each. This seemed a bit too steep for us, especially as we didn’t know how long we would actually want to spend there. However, I thought it was worth going to have a look around Arcen generally.

We found a parking space and then walked first to visit the Maas river.

We then started walking towards the Kasteeltuinen and saw this gun overlooking the river.

The Kasteeltuinen is a moated castle with extensive gardens. Here is the bridge across.

And once into the inner area across the bridge, we could see one of the large houses.

From this point onward we would have had to pay, so having seen some lovely trees and concluded this would definitely be worth a visit on a day when we had the energy, we headed back to the car and then drove to Bauerncafé Jacobs for a celebratory piece of cake. It would have been my Dad’s birthday so Mum and I had a piece of birthday cake each for him.

Klaus and I both really enjoyed having Mum to stay and we were lucky that the weather was fairly good. We drove her back to Hoek van Holland on the Saturday evening, having an Italian meal in Vlaardingen on the way, and then waved goodbye at the ferry terminal and Mum set off on her overnight trip back to the UK.

Another Velomobile in the garage – but just for one night!

Klaus and I drove straight back home again as we were expecting some time after 10pm a visit from a chap with a Velomobile who was riding back from Dronten to Frankfurt. He had posted on the Velomobilforum to say that he would be riding via Nijmegen in a second-hand Mango he would collect and would try to stay overnight somewhere on the way. We had offered a bed for him which he gratefully accepted. His plan was to leave Dronten at 4pm and he estimated he would arrive at our place at 10pm. I thought this was massively overoptimistic as he was estimating a 30 km/h average speed – and Mangos are not quick. So I expected to see him at about midnight perhaps.

But lo and behold, at 21:55, the doorbell rang and it was our guest, Jockel!

He had ridden very efficiently indeed to arrive with us so early.

The next morning I made a full English breakfast to give him energy for his ride back to Frankfurt am Main, 300 or so kilometres.

We had offered to accompany Jockel on his first 20km as the route he had picked wasn’t so nice and we had an alternative of a similar distance, so we led him around Kempen early on a Sunday morning (no traffic) and then through Vorst and Anrath to Neersen.

Just outside Neersen we stopped to wave him on his way as we were going to stop somewhere on the way back for a slice of cake.

Jockel did indeed make it back to Frankfurt that day, although he had a slower trip as the route along the Rhein is just difficult for velomobiles. However, he made it back safely and now has a spare Velomobile for if his Quest ever has issues. As the photos above show, his head it higher than the roll-over bump so he will need to do some seat adjustment so he sits a bit lower!

Walkies!

I have done very well this month with dog walking. I decided to see how long a streak I could manage of hitting my steps target of 8000 steps per day (about 6km). It was going very well through out the end of September and October, as I managed first of all the 31 days, then it extended. At the time of writing (31 October) I have managed 47 continuous days of at least 8000 steps. It helped that I wanted to take Poppy out for a walk every day, and that mostly the weather was OK and I had some lovely views and autumnal colours.

Cycle rides this month

As the days moved through October my commute became darker and darker.

By the middle of October my entire commute was in darkness, but I could often see some nice sunrises across the truck parking area at work!

I also experimented with using Millie on days where rain was forecasted during the morning, but using the rain cover on her (rather than using Bertie). Obviously if it were pouring with rain on the way to work I would probably get too wet, but the tarpaulin worked really well to keep her dry during rain showers and meant I could ride her home and stay dry when first climbing in!

I’m going to continue with this, possibly also fitting the Haube (the head cover) on rainy day, and see if I can have her as a fairly dry commuting machine. Riding Millie is much less effort than riding Bertie, although I can’t fit as much in her when grocery shopping!

A long walk for a Chinese meal

My colleagues and I periodically arrange a meal together socially, and we arranged to meet at a Chinese restaurant 5km from my house to celebrate the start of maternity leave for a colleague, Sabrina.

I didn’t fancy cycling there as I wasn’t too keen on leaving Millie outside a very busy restaurant for several hours. Klaus could drive me there but in the end I decided to walk there and have him pick me up.

I got Google Maps to suggest a walking route and off I went.

The track after the first kilometre, walking east

I was walking through the Tote Rahm area where we usually cycle, to meet up with Tönisberger Straße, but after this I crossed almost straight over the road to take a track that Google Maps suggested.

This looked like a nice bit of path but was clearly not used very often and not asphalted so I wondered how it would progress.

I had to turn off that road to the right, along this grassy track between two ploughed fields. It was a bit rough underfoot in places and I had to hop over some boggy bits.

It then got a bit narrower…

But after a while the track entered a wood and became a bit wider again.

This soon turned a bit boggy as there were some small streams criss-crossing the area.

The path started to get narrower and narrower and I wondered if it might peter out altogether before I got to my destination!

I had had to jump a few boggy mud puddles and had a slightly wet right foot after one of these was not too successful.

And then the path opened out into a large grassy field. I was able to walk in one of two sets of hoof prints but the long grass meant that my feet were now pretty wet!

And then, after 5km in total, I was spat out onto the main road along this little track you see in the photo below.

I made it to the Chinese restaurant bang on time at 19:00 and my colleagues arrived soon after. I had walked 5.18km and enjoyed it very much, although I was a little concerned at some points that the way would become impassable and I might need to turn back.

And as for the Chinese? It was a buffet, and I ate too much and had to get Klaus to collect me early as I felt a bit dodgy. My eyes were bigger than my stomach! But all was back to normal the next day. My virtuous feeling from having walked there was entirely negated by huge quantities of duck and other goodies at the meal…

A little more tile-bagging

My challenge for this year was to get a 25×25 square of Veloviewer Tiles, as I have mentioned in previous months. This was going pretty well and at the start of October I had a 23×23 square.

As I had so much overtime I decided to take two days off work as the weather forecast was looking good and do a bit of riding.

The first day I bagged a nice lot of tiles, starting right in the south at Kaarst and working northwards.

As you can see, there was a lot of fiddling about right to left in order to collect all the required tiles in that area. I had some but not all, but was able to make a decent 78km ride and get all of the required ones on the eastern side below Moers.

The plan for the next day was to get the missing tiles on the east above Moers and then also the missing 7 along the top, which meant I would need to go as far west as Kevelaer. I knew the roads in Kreis Kleve are fast though so that wasn’t an issue.

I set off at 11 in the morning, riding first to Moers and then I started tile-bagging again.

I had seen a potentially difficult section north of Rheinberg where I would have to cycle along the Rheindeich. I didn’t know if this would be possible in the velomobile. I also saw that I would have to do a small detour to collect a tile between some of the little gravel pit lakes on the north side. Google Earth suggested there was a track there.

The red circled area is where I needed to go.

So I set off, enjoying my ride and very pleased to discover that the Rheindeich was paved with bricks so this was OK for Millie.

I spotted another recumbent rider on the Deich and had a short chat. He was cycling on a HP Speedmachine and recognised me from the Liegeradtreff but I didn’t recognise him. But I have a very poor memory for faces!

When I arrived at the location where I needed to go off-track between the gravel pits it turned out not to be passable in a Velomobile. Never mind, I could walk up as I only needed to travel about 200 metres to get two tiles. So I hopped out of Millie and walked up the short slope onto the Deich.

No Entry

And I was faced with a No Entry sign, it was private land.

Oh no! This meant I couldn’t get the tile needed for my 25×25.

I wasn’t sure if I would carry on for the entire ride as I wouldn’t get my Maximum Square now, but in the end as it was such a nice day I kept going.

Here is my track going round the Deich.

And here is the Veloviewer schematic showing that I didn’t bag the required square.

What you can probably just see in the top left hand corner of that square, though, is a road. This is on the other side of the Rhein and I actually cycled along here with Klaus last year. So I have a chance to get this tile, but it is a 90km round trip just for the tile. I shall give it a go if we have reasonable weather for such a long ride later in the year. Fingers crossed!

I was now heading west towards Kevelaer, mopping up seven tiles that I had missed out for various reasons. It was a beautiful day for riding, with the clouds and the tree colours vying to impress me!

I had just three tiles to go, and 45km to ride, when I saw a sign for Winnekendonk just 4km away. I fancied some cake and I knew there is good cake there so I diverted… and when I arrived Bauerncafé Büllhorsthof was closed. Oh no!

Fortunately the sign on the door said they opened at 13:00 so I only needed to wait for 10 minutes.

I was rewarded for my wait with the chance to use the loo and a slice of their fantastic Pfirsich Schmand Kuchen.

The final 45km went quickly and I was soon home, uploading my route to Veloviewer. And here is the 25×25 square, minus the one tile on the top right below Mehrum.

Just maybe I will manage that elusive tile in November!

A week in Berlin

Klaus and I both really love Berlin and have visited it loads of times. I lived there for 5 weeks back in 2007, and Klaus first visited during the time of the GDR. Of course, now that we are together it is an ideal destination for us both.

As we both had some holiday left to use up by the end of the year we booked the final week in October as holiday and then decided to visit the same Ferienwohnung where Klaus stayed with his daughter in July. They were available from Saturday to the following Friday (one day shorter than we had originally planned) so we booked up.

As we are both a bit long in the tooth, we aren’t keen on mega long drives in one day, so decided to break up both journeys to and from Berlin. We would leave after work on Friday and stop halfway to Berlin Friday night, and then on the way back we had to leave Friday anyway and would stop somewhere around halfway on the way back before returning home on Saturday. Thus was the plan.

For the return journey I would finally achieve my goal of spending a night in the wonderfully-named Vlotho. I had seen this name on motorway gantries when driving to Berlin in the past and said to Klaus it was such a great name – in English it is a bit like “blotto”, but of course using our wonderful “th” sound which gives older Germans so many issues (all Germans under about 60 can now say this sound). But, surprisingly, it is pronounced in German “Floe-toe”. Weird, huh?

Anyway, Klaus said there is nothing there but I said I wanted to visit anyway. I found a nice-sounding hotel in the wilderness near Vlotho and booked a room. Job done.

For the trip to Berlin we got in touch with friends Fritz and Biggi who spent a few days with us after last Christmas for Oliebollentocht. They live near Willebadessen in Westfalen and said we could stay overnight with them. Great news!

When they visited us last December we had returned from the UK just a few hours before they got to us and had very little food in the house. Fortunately they brought home-made bread and a huge home-made Strudel as that was pretty much all we had to eat for three days. A bit tough on our guests, that they had to supply the food for the hosts! So this time I decided we definitely had to come laden with gifts too. A nice selection of Tönisvorst Obsthof goodies in a wooden case was one thing, but I also wanted to bring fresh cakes. The problem was that Klaus couldn’t get away from work until 13:00 which meant, with the Friday evening traffic through the Ruhr, we would have a horrible journey. A 15 minute detour to buy cakes from St Hubert would just be a pain.

I only had Millie available so I decided I would just have to try and fit the cakes somewhere in her. I had no idea if they would survive the journey, but decided to try.

I bought five slices and asked the lady in Café Poeth to separate them into two parcels so they were easier to stow.

It turned out not to be a problem at all!

Here are the cakes without the seat in place. I had to be careful when replacing the seat that my hips weren’t going to squash the front end of the cake parcels.

Fortunately there was plenty of room!

I got home with the cakes seemingly intact, had my lunch, then started doing all the little jobs (emptying bins, etc) before one goes on an 8 day holiday. Then Klaus arrived and we finished up before emptying our fridge into a cool bag and hitting the road.

A night in an old mill

As expected, traffic was pretty bad and our two and a half hour journey ended up as three and a half. But we had expected this, and arrived at Fritz and Biggi’s lovely secluded house between 5 and 6pm. It’s a former mill and a beautiful building which they have fitted out ideally for them. We felt very at home there!

First things first, we unpacked the cakes – they had survived!

Just the cream blob on the bottom cake (Black Forest gateau) not looking pristine

We shared some cake and then were treated to Fritz the Meister making Flammkuchen dough (like super-thin pizza) and then cooking several Flammkuchen for us in his special pizza oven which is built in their garden.

And here was the first Flammkuchen, ham and spring onion.

And the second, with smoked salmon.

I even had a third!

And then the piece de resistance, he made a chocolate and nut cake and cooked it in the Pizza Oven too!

We sat and chatted to Fritz and Biggi all evening and had a lovely time. I had to go up to bed at 11pm as I was really pooped but Klaus and the other two were doing well with their beer, gin, wine and whisky-quaffing and stayed up later. They all seemed remarkably clear-headed in the morning!

We are both very grateful to Biggi and Fritz for their wonderful hospitality!

Bernau bei Berlin

The following morning after a lovely breakfast, again prepared by Fritz, we headed off to Berlin. This journey was about four hours and we had some planned diversions due to a big accident towards Wolfsburg but fortunately it had cleared by the time we got there.

We arrived at our Ferienwohnung in Bernau at 5pm and settled in. It’s a lovely place with everything one might need for a relaxing week. We walked the 300 metres or so to the local supermarket to buy our evening meal and some food for the next day (Sunday) and later went for a longer walk around to see a little of Bernau. Klaus cooked me a wonderful Entrecôte Steak and we relaxed, enjoying being back in Berlin.

Unfortunately on Sunday Klaus’s regular headache returned. He seems to get these at the moment, presumably a reaction to work stress, in that one day each weekend he usually has a bad headache. But as we were on this holiday to relax we just took it easy, making our own breakfast and lunch and having a take-away for dinner. It didn’t help that I had unpacked the paracetamol I brought with me and didn’t find them again until the evening – they would have helped him during the day. But he had a chance to sleep and recover from a really busy time at work, and I enjoyed relaxing and going for a walk on my own in Bernau, so the day was still good.

Sachsenhausen and Wannsee

On Monday our trip to Berlin began in earnest. We had decided, as this was likely to be the warmest day of the week, to use this opportunity to visit Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, where most of the exhibits are outside. I had been once years ago and it was perishingly cold then.

We arrived in sunshine and it didn’t feel too cool, but once we were into the large open spaces around the Camp it was pretty chilly. We were glad for our thick coats. Once again I think of the inmates who were there with clothing of just rags and wonder how any of them survived.

What was a bit shocking was there is a Police training facility right next to Sachsenhausen whose buildings use some of the previous barracks of the concentration camp. This gave us a strange feeling and we wondered how the police felt using this, and then saw this sign which explained it:

Sachsenhausen has, like many/most of the concentration camps, this chilling ironwork on the main gate:

After WW2 the camp came into the possession of the Russian army who kept using it as virtually a concentration camp themselves. They turned it into a memorial site for the murdered communists/political prisoners (although not generally referencing the murdered jews, homosexual people, Sinti and Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses etc). Most of the buildings have been removed and some that were still there were locked, although you could see there were exhibitions inside. I think this is a winter vs summer thing.

I wondered if the few large trees had been in the camp at the time – I guess not. If they had been there, what had they seen?

Outside the main triangle of the camp where the barracks were located were the places where people were shot or killed in other ways and also the remains of some crematorium ovens. Although not so many people died in Sachsenhausen (I think about 200,000) it was the place where they practiced various methods which were then incorporated into other, larger concentration camps.

After reading some of the exhibition information we went to warm up with a coffee and piece of cake in the bistro just outside.

We had originally wondered about also visit Haus der Wannsee Konferenz today but I said to Klaus I thought it might be a bit much for the emotions. However, we were fairly close and had the car available and it seemed like a good idea. I thought also that there would be a shocking comparison between the two sites – Wannsee where men in uniform were served nice food and had a meeting to discuss their plans and then Sachsenhausen with all its blood and horror where these plans were brought to fruition. It is like the two ends of the whole Nazi extermination idea.

We arrived at the house, only to discover a note that the exhibition inside was closed as it was being renewed/changed, and we could only visit the gardens.

There was in fact an exhibition fixed to metal railings around the garden and this was really interesting. It was about the role of normal people in the Third Reich – the neighbours who denounced their neighbours as Jews; people who looted Jewish property; physical attacks on Jews by people they used to work beside. It was a reminder that it was not just the big cheeses, such as the Nazi leaders who met at this house, who were responsible – ordinary people were also involved at every level, even if just because of their avarice (wanting to loot nice things from their neighbours).

There were of course references to those who hid Jews, bought up their children as their own – although there was an interesting story of one German lady who sheltered two young children for her Jewish neighbours but she actually hated Jews. They think she did it as she thought she would get a reward at the end. The children survived, the parents didn’t. But, as so often, you see signs that things aren’t perhaps so black and white and that the ordinary people have tried to remove blame from themselves where they should perhaps have shouldered more of it.

We also thought about this at Sachsenhausen which is right next to the town of Oranienburg; the smoke from the crematoria, the high chimneys, the stench must have been apparent to the townspeople but they did nothing?

The exhibition snaked around the beautiful garden of this lakeside villa.

We spent a good half hour here reading the stories. We had watched the Wannsee Conference film with Kenneth Branagh a few months ago so knew a lot of the history of this place.

From here we drove the car a bit nearer to the S-Bahn station of Wannsee and parked, and then got the train into Berlin. The train stopped at the Anhalter Bahnhof and we were told there were people on the tracks up ahead and a police response so it looked like we would be there a while. We decided to walk instead, a nice 5.49km!

We were heading to Hackescher Markt and the Hackescher Höfe as Klaus wanted to buy a new Secrit wallet and they sold them there (he wanted to check the workmanship out rather than buying online).

It was a lovely walk through bits of Berlin with which we are both familiar. There is the stretch of wall beside Topographie des Terrors:

And then of course the beautiful Gendarmenmarkt.

We passed hundreds of E-Scooters as well as hire bikes. I was amazed by how many E-Scooters there were as I have only seen one or two near us in Kempen. I would perhaps like to have a go sometime!

3 E-Scooters, and E-Bike and an E-Moped, all for instant hire. These things are on every street corner in Berlin it seems!

We arrived at Hackescher Höfe and Klaus had a good look at the wallets, eventually choosing one and buying it. It is very nice!

We then decided to visit the Apple Store on his other mission for this holiday – to check out an Apple Pencil. The Apple Store was on the Kurfürstendamm so we took the S-Bahn from Hackescher Markt to Zoologische Garten and then walked to the Ku’Damm and the Apple Store which was absolutely heaving with people! Klaus duly played with an Apple Pencil and bought one.

We then took the train back to Wannsee to head off for a meal at Moorlake where Klaus has a restaurant he really likes (I have been there once before). Unfortunately it was closed (although Google had said it would be open) so we went for Plan B which was to eat in an Italian restaurant in Konradshöhe, which was on our way back. We had a very tasty meal there and returned to our Ferienwohnung at 9pm. We had had a really busy day but very interesting too. We had walked over 14km as well, and interestingly Klaus’s swollen foot (which he damaged when falling down the cellar steps a month ago) seemed actually to be improved by all the walking and the swelling had subsided a bit! The next day would be another trip to Berlin and more walking around of course, so we would see if this benefit lasted!

Tempelhof and Schönhauser Alleee

So the next day we walked to the S-Bahn station at Bernau and got the train into Berlin. We had decided to go first to Tempelhof Airport as Klaus fancied visiting it. I had been there a couple of times before but not for ages.

We got off at the U-Bahn stop Platz Der Luftbrücke which has a memorial to the aircrew who died carrying out the airlift – a surprising number of names.

Just round the corner you see part of the massive terminal building which was built in 1936.

You can’t actually get in here to go through to the airport as it is now used for other purposes, the walk round to the airfield park area is actually 1.6km. So we set off walking again.

Once on the grassy area of the airfield you can see how massive that building is!

We walked along the disused taxiways and passed a DC-3 standing in front of the hangar.

We then headed out again as we had already done a lot of walking!

We grabbed some food (Klaus had a Burger King, I bought a sandwich and some crisps from a supermarket – yes, Keto is on hold for this holiday!) and then we headed back to the U-Bahn station Platz Der Luftbrücke to head to Schönhauser Allee.

We had to change at Friedrichstraße and took the opportunity to walk away from the station to find somewhere for a coffee. Heading towards Alexanderplatz, with the TV tower in view.

We found a café and chose our cake slices.

We were taking it easy as we had done lots of walking and were quite early anyway. We were meeting Lars and Lara for an Indian meal at 6pm and it was only 3pm now. We had some shopping to do but decided to relax a bit first. Klaus had brought his iPad and new Apple Pencil along so spent some time doing whatever-one-does-with-an-Apple-Pencil.

We then walked back to Friedrichstraße and got the train to Schönhauser Allee Arkaden where we did a bit of shopping (trousers, hat, fleece, looking at shoes) before it was time to meet Lara and Lars.

We had a very tasty Indian meal with them.

We said goodbye and then Klaus and I had a bit of a long wait for a train back to Bernau (lots of them stop earlier at Buch). But we made it back and then had the 1.5km walk back to our Ferienwohnung in the dark, but this was fine.

We had a good day in Berlin again, and it was lovely to see Lara and Lars.

A quick trip to Usedom

One place that Klaus has regularly visited throughout his adulthood is the island of Usedom on the Baltic coast next to Poland. I have also been there with him three times.

As we were setting off on Monday morning to drive to Sachsenhausen we were briefly on the motorway which goes up to Usedom and Klaus said, “we could go and visit Rebecca!” We then thought about this and decided it would be rather a nice idea, as Rebecca and her partner Henry are friends of ours. Klaus knows Rebecca through their shared interest in photography and we enjoy visiting her in her goldsmith gallery as she is a jewellery-maker with a real focus on art and individuality.

Anyway, we contacted Rebecca to see if she would be around on the Wednesday and she said yes, so we arranged to meet her at her gallery.

So two days later we were heading off in the car northwards. The car wasn’t having its best day, though, as we had this warning message when we started:

“Motorisierung ist reduziert” means “power is reduced”, and we also had the engine warning light on. We couldn’t work out what was wrong, and did all the normal tests (doing a complete reset of the car which means locking it and walking away for 10 metres or so and leaving it) but it didn’t cure it. The temperature gauge wasn’t registering anything as we drove so we wondered if that was something to do with it, but that came online again later. Klaus also had a recurrence of a previous bug where some of the gadgets stop working (automatic cruise control, distance, automatic braking) and we thought this had been fixed. It always seems to happen on a cold and damp day and there had been a frost the night before.

Anyway, we carried on, and although the car was limited to a maximum of 160km/h this wouldn’t be an issue!

We drove straight to Heringsdorf where Rebecca has her gallery, parked and walked to the gallery. It is worth taking a look at some of her lovely jewellery on her website here.

I talked over a commission with her as I have a ring that I no longer wear which I thought I could get made into something else, using its sapphire and two diamonds. I didn’t have it with me (as I didn’t expect to be visiting Rebecca when we headed for Berlin) but showed her a photo and she started coming up with some really interesting ideas. I will send her the actual ring and then she will look into some options for me. Rebecca doesn’t do dainty, delicate rings but robust and solid and I like that style as I, too, am not dainty and delicate! She was already coming up with ideas so it will be interesting to see what happens as a result.

We spent some time with Rebecca and also her partner Henry who popped in, and then we decided to go for some lunch. Klaus and I walked to a bakery and had a sandwich and a cuppa, and then it was time for a lovely walk along the beach at Heringsdorf. We ended up walking to Seebad Ahlbeck, but I forgot to switch on my Garmin until halfway!

The two of us with our hats…
The pier at Heringsdorf
The beautiful blue Baltic Sea
Photographer at work
The resulting photograph – picture by Klaus

We arrived in Ahlbeck and it was definitely time for cake!

We were being watched by sparrows the whole time whilst eating. They are clearly often fed by guests sitting outside the bakery but this meant the chairs were a bit poopy.

We walked back along the walking/cycle path above the beach – it is very interesting looking at all the different villas as you go along the seafront. Lots of lovely houses, mostly now hotels.

We returned to the car and then were ready to head home, another two and a half hour drive. But first we had to stop at Wasserschloss Mellenthin for the requisite waffle!

You have to pay a 2 Euro toll for the bridge but get that money back once you pay for some food!

I loved the simple vaulted ceiling in the restaurant where we ate our waffle.

And we both chose the same waffle – apple and cream. And of course tea and coffee for us both.

The sun was setting as we headed south back to Berlin/Bernau. It was an easy drive although the car was still complaining about its power being limited. We had expected to be a bit later back but hadn’t been able to catch up with Klaus’s other friend Tim who lives on Usedom but wasn’t available. But it was a lovely day out, and our only chance this year to visit Usedom. We were in fact on Usedom last year at around this time, and I can recommend it in late October (assuming the weather is good, as it was) as it’s not so horribly touristy!

Shopping and Sushi in Berlin

Our plan for Thursday, our final full day in Berlin, was mainly to enjoy a meal at the Sushi restaurant in Potsdamer Platz that Klaus had discovered on his visit in the summer with Lara. We also had a few more bits and bobs to do (I wanted to visit the Spy Museum, we wanted to find some smart shoes for me, to perhaps find a couple of work shirts for me, to look at possible winter jackets for Klaus, to visit the Vodafone shop to see how to renew our mobile contracts) and all of these things were available around Potsdamer Platz, so we decided to spend the day there.

We had originally thought we would get the train from Bernau or Buch but as it was quite possible we would end up carrying things around (clothing/shoes that we bought), and because one can park for a reasonable price at Potsdamer Platz, we decided to go by car so we could place our purchases in the car and didn’t have to carry heavy rucksacks around all day.

So we set off in the morning heading south into Berlin on a very slow journey, which was to be expected on a work day. Klaus was able to squeeze his large car into the Potsdamer Platz Tiefgarage (underground garage) and then we made our way out into Potsdamer Platz/the Sony Centre.

We decided to do our shopping first, so walked to Potsdamer Platz Arkaden. This had really gone downhill with lots of empty shops – we soon discovered why, the Mall of Berlin which was just across the road was a much better shopping experience.

We spent some time in the Mall of Berlin searching for some smart shoes for me. I have large feet (size 42) and my left foot is a bit wider than my right foot. Lots of the shoe shops have the right shoe for you to try on and all seems well until I try the left shoe. Such was the case here. We looked in lots of shops but there were often no size 42s at all, and if there were they weren’t suitable or didn’t fit. We were getting discouraged so stopped for a muffin.

After the Muffin with a second wind we went into Schuh City and lo and behold I found some good shoes. They were 2-3 times as much as I wanted to pay, but in the end I went for them as it is rare to have such comfortable shoes.

I was also thinking about getting some boots for the winter so we then went into another shop and I found some that I liked, although decided not to buy them there and then as the ones I were looking at had a few manufacturing issues. Klaus had a look at some shoes and ended up buying some for himself, however, as they would be good for him for winter.

So laden with shoe boxes, we returned to the car to dump our bags before heading off to the Spy Museum.

I had wanted to visit this museum for several years since it opened and it was finally our chance!

It was fairly small but well done, with various interactive things. They had an Enigma machine and lots of other old equipment from the DDR time as well as the war. They also had an exhibition of James Bond items.

We had a cup of coffee/tea in the Museum café and then it was time to walk to the Sushi place where Klaus was going to treat me to an evening meal. We walked past Potsdamer Platz again.

It was a fifteen minute walk to the Sushi place and Klaus’s back was complaining about all the walking/standing/walking from today by the time we got there, but the food made it all worthwhile!

We also selected three small desserts to share – they were really tasty!

After a fantastic meal it was time to walk back to the car at Potsdamer Platz.

As we were driving back to Bernau we followed this car with the rather unusual sign writing:

It turns out that SINOB is a health food brand. But it doesn’t really appeal to me with that name!

We arrived home with our holiday in Berlin almost at an end. The good news is that I will wake up tomorrow morning as still a European citizen (as Brexit has been delayed again). We will be driving to Vlotho for our overnight stay there before returning home to Kempen. It’s been a wonderful time in Berlin and we will be back again soon!

Randomness

The language of German tends to stick together various words to make longer ones. For English eyes sometimes these words look a bit odd as we break them up in different places where there are recognisable English words. One example is the German word for a pre-cooked herring, which is written “Brathering” in German. I read that as brather-ring, but it is actually pronounced braat-herring.

My car radio did a good demonstration of this the other day when the radio station information was scrolling across the screen. My ‘favourite hits’ looked rather amusing!

I was also heartened to see that in the large Edeka supermarket in Aldekerk which we visit once a week they have increased their curry sauces.

These are British Sharwoods sauces with stickers on the back in German with the ingredients/usage instructions translated into German. No idea if these will continue after Brexit, and as you can see they are a lot more expensive than they would be in the UK, but at least there is some hope for curry!

Here is a nice photo of us that friend Inge took at her birthday event last month:

Cakes this month

This month I have had a bit more success with Keto cake recipes as I have been improving recipes that I have and experimenting with new ingredients/methods.

Here was the first success – a mascarpone berry cake:

Followed up by a Mascarpone Torte

These cakes have no sugar and almost no carbohydrate and are made with Almond flour. The mascarpone is a great option as it is very creamy and tasty, and has up to 70% fat (high fat is very good in the Keto diet).

Always ensuring that we are not running short on cakes, Klaus and I took his daughter Lara to Bauerncafé Büllhorsthof in Winnekendonk for a cake as they have a wonderful selection. They also had a new option, which was a mix ‘n match selection, which I thought I would try out. There were seven different cake pieces, each about a quarter of a usual cake size, so this is very generous and should probably be shared amongst two people!

Klaus and Lara had normal sized cakes.

Most of this month’s cakes have already been included in the images above, but here are a couple of additional ones!

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