Little Dubai

I had interrupted my earlier entry about our visit to Bremerhaven as I wanted to add some pictures Schatz took with one of his various cameras. Unfortunately, that very camera had a faulty light baffle, as he found out - some rubbery thingie in that old camera let light into the camera body where and when it wasn't supposed to come inside and ruin the picture.

Anyway, I ended the first part of the Christmas 2008 Bremerhaven story with a picture of Schatz leaning against the side of the house, taking pictures of the 'new harbour' in the late afternoon. He photographed something like this:

more Christmas trees

Walking further south along the River, I caught sight of yet another illuminated object, the so-called radar tower.

radar tower

It's much like the tower for air traffic controllers, only in this case it is for sea traffic controllers... looking after ships on the River Weser north of Bremen to the island of Wangerooge. It also houses all sorts of equipment and facilities for maritime radio.

Like the globe at the Auswandererhaus, the radar tower is illuminated. And it changes colours. And it will continue to do so!

They started the light show a few years ago but as something rather temporary. It was continued year after year, but the city council thought the cost was too high, and so they only renewd the budget post year after year. Mind you, we are talking about the mindblowing sum of €15,000 a year! Most of this actually has not been for electricity expenses but for buying new light bulbs...

It seems they have now decided to make the illumination a more permanent feature and so maybe they will look for a more long-term and less bulb-consuming solution.

Looking the other way, you see this fancy new development:

not changing lights at night.

And looking great in the daytime too.

The Bremerhaven Burj al Arab

No, this hotel was not built by Atkins, a British design company, and it is not located on Jumeirah Beach. The 'Fischtowners', however, do call it Little Dubai.

hotel, conference center and offices

To be honest, the 'sail' looks better in this location than a 15 floor square highrise would but one wonders about the conferences that will take place in this small town. Not that I would mind working there, of course.

But back to Christmas Day late afternoon. We had by now walked past the Fischtown Burj, on to the terrain of the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum where Schatz enjoyed some more special photographic moments.

Schatz adoring a whaleboat

Rau IX, a former whaleboat, as adored by Schatz

In the meantime, I took another shot over Schatz' back.

former lightship from the Elbe 3 position

And looking in the opposite direction, I spotted yet another Christmas tree high up in a mast.

tug boat Stier at night...

...and the next day.

And, especially for Kees, here's a picture of the Wilhelm Bauer, also moored in the museum harbour:

Wilhelm Bauer - closed to visitors until end of March

That's basically all from Bremerhaven this time, although maybe I should mention that Schatz talked me into playing some snooker. Oh my...

Labskaus and Emigration

On Christmas Eve, Schatz and I went to Bremerhaven to spend the holidays with his Dad. When we arrived, it was already dark (no big feat this time of year), but there were so many lights on in the city that I snapped my little Canon anyway, like outside the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum where the lines and masts of the museum ships were covered with lights.

passing ships in the night

It was Christmas everywhere:

In the hallway

...and on the other side of the hallway.

Schatz' Dad conveniently lives in a highrise built on top of a parking garage and shopping mall, which comes in very handy when the weather is bad. It is also great because it is only yards from the River Weser and offers a superb view over the waterway.

On Christmas Day, we had Labskaus for lunch. I have loved this dish ever since Karin made it for me more than 30 years ago. Her recipe - from 30 km south of Bremen - was slightly different from the one Schatz makes - from 50 km north of Bremen - but the dish is traditional Northern German although it can also be found in parts of Scandinavia.

Labskaus (Schatz style)

Labskaus is considered a typical dish for long sea voyages, and though it doesn't look like much to some, the combination of salted beef (or corned beef), potatoes, onions, red beets, gurkins, sour herrings, fried egg, salt and pepper is not only savoury but also refreshing in its own way. Onions, potatoes, and beets also are good against scurvy.

After lunch, we went for a walk. First down into the shopping mall. Where it was Christmas.

Christmas in the central plaza - or:
"Süßer die Kassen nie klingeln..." (caption by Schatz)

But the shops were closed, including this coffee house which tries to benefit from some loopholes in the anti-smoking law for pubs and restaurants. This owner thinks he can solve the problem by having customers smoke locally...

from Babel Fish with love

Eventually, we walked along the dyke of the River Weser. It was cold and grey but quite a few people were out for a stroll.

reconstruction of old semaphore

The original semaphore was located about 30 km downriver from here on the quay of a lighthouse, and used from 1893 to 1973 to indicate to mariners both wind direction and speed for the islands of Borkum and Heligoland. In the above setup, winds are Eastern for both locations and 3 beaufort for Borkum and 6 beaufort for Heligoland respectively.

Schatz and his dad waiting patiently while I do my semaphore thing

We walked on and finally reached our destination, the "Deutsches Auswandererhaus" (German Emigration Center).

Deutsches Auswandererhaus

Its main focus is on Bremerhaven as the major port for emigration from (or via) Germany from 183o to 1974 for Germans but also Eastern and South-Eastern Europeans. From these quays, more than 7 million people left Europe for a new life.

Even before actually entering the exhibition, the museum tries to create the right kind of atmosphere with transparent boxes of what things people might have taken aboard throughout the decades of emigration, from the late 19th century right up to the 1970's. You then enter a room that takes you a step further, with images and sounds, and then releases you up some stairs onto the quay.

Emigrants waiting at the gangway

Once you have climbed the gangway yourself, you pass holds filled with luggage on your way to the various cabins and berths.

berths around 1850 on a sailing vessel

simple steamship berths around 1890

tourist class berth early 20th century

By now, people were actually not just going one way into a hopefully better life but were traveling back and forth between the US and Europe, for example, for business and for holidays.

Throughout the exhibition, you are accompanied by visual and audio effects - great when you are ablebodied but somewhat of a nuisance when you have some hearing problems. But there are also plenty of items from the respective eras to take you right back in time, as well as some models occasionally.

models of the bark 'Bremen' and 'SS Columbus', both prominent migration vessels

Also well done is the room of the 5 million - drawer upon drawer, images, names, audio sources about famous and not so famous emigrants. Actually, your entrance ticket carries the name of an emigrant and you can follow their tales throughout the exhibition, not just in this room.

drawers upon drawers

Whereas in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, the majority of emigrants left Germany for the New World - mainly the Americas - things were a bit different in 2006:

favourite emigration target 2006: Switzerland

But people not only left Europe via Bremerhaven, some also arrived here, like this young man on October 1st, 1958:

The King and his Court

By the time we left the museum, Elvis had left the building, too.

Outside, it was dark by now - which meant that we got to see the changing lights on the globe on the upper floor of the museum in a variety of colours (see the full image for a better view).

the world is-a-changing

There are more pictures to come, notably from the various cameras of Schatz. Here is one of the man himself:

Schatz catching a light in the dark

PS: Just to pre-empt any such comment - Labskaus never was the cause of emigration, but only of re-migration!

Convenience Loo and Viking Tux

Last weekend, Schatz and I went to the Kreismuseum in Syke near Bremen for a weekend Viking craftsmarket. A group of about 25 re-enactors had been put together by Lutz from the Hacheschmiede. Crafts shown included smithing, bow- and arrow-making, working with bone and antler, turning wooden bowls on a lathe, filting, card weaving silk braids with silver wire brocading, turnshoe-making, silver smithing, pottery, and last but not least, sewing, needlebinding and spinning.

When Schatz and I arrived on Friday evening during a major downpour, most other people were already there and had put up their tents. Unfortunately, the space allocated to us was not only wet but rather under water and quite muddy - and on top of that we weren't quite sure whether it was big enough. And you don't want to drag your tent about in the mud this way or that in the dark to be absolutely certain you cannot fit it in.

Fortunately, Lutz still has a flat in the same town and so we bedded down in his guestroom for the night, hoping the weather would be better the next morning. Lutz is moving to another city and so his flat is rather empty but fortunately he has not yet dismantled his loo corner.

Convenience Loo with built-in beaker holder and reading table

With a maximum load capacity of 500 kg, the reading table is perfect to hold heavy exhibition catalogues, smith hammers or possibly even anvils. A must for any smith!

Just prior to leaving the museum grounds on Friday night, we had spotted the perfect place for our tent, though: right among a few 18th and 19th century gravestones, underneath some majestic trees with extremely good foliage... had we discovered this place when we arrived, the tent would have been up in no time. On the other hand, we would have missed the Lutz' loo then.

(c) Syke Kreismuseum

Anyway, the next morning we set up our tent in the 'graveyard' (top left, between the children's museum and the vegetable patch) at 8 am, while the space originally reserved for us was taken up by two ladies whose matrasses had already submerged the night before in a little brook that had formed underneath their Viking tent. The joys of roughing it!

Torsten was roughing it, too. We discovered that his second 'good' shoe had somehow not made it to Syke and so he had to wear his worn-out Iron Age shoes with major holes in their soles. Since I had packed the shoes and not discovered the shoe's absence, I did penance by doing all the outdoor walking (and fetching) while he kept his feet dry and warm on a few pieces of wood underneath his workbench.

Even though it was still raining some, we managed rather well under the trees, and the audience quite appreciated the reprieve from the rain and mud there as well. A good 250 people actually did show up despite the cold and the drizzle. Real die-hards, hats off to you!

In the meantime, Birgitt and Michi from the Trutzhavener Feldküche worked hard to prepare the banquet which we were to enjoy on Saturday night.

The banquet was exquisite as always. The food was medieval - with a bit of Roman thrown in for good measure.

Michi is happy when we are

Some excerpts from the menu:

- chicken fillet rolls with apple
- pork carpaccio with dill and chives
- moretum
- hare and rabbit stew with coarsely ground pepper and coriander
- grilled salmon on a bed of red cabbage with ginger and mustard
- leg of moufflon with apples, sauted with tarragon and parsley
- smoked pork roast with Swiss Chard (or Mangold) and gooseberries
- plum compote with a trace of black pepper
- wheat pudding

Leg of Moufflon! Bones! Moufflon leg bone! Schatz' eyes lit up but Susanne was closer. And faster!

Susanne and the Moufflon Bone Whistle

And once she had gotten hold of the bone - under the pretense of helping Timm with carving the meat - there was no way she would let go of it again. The twinkle in her eyes did not leave any space for doubt about who our bone and antler worker was at the market.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next day brought better weather and more than eleven hundred visitors. Schatz' dad and his aunt and uncle also came to visit and he showed them around while I demonstrated needlebinding, silver wire braiding the Vikingestrik, polished brass and bronze wire beads and explained and answered questions until my lips started to fray a little at the edges.

A little later, I was able to briefly visit the museum's permanent exhibition. If you are in the area, and like to be taken back not only to your own childhood but a bit further, do pay the museum a visit, it is most delightful. Their collection focuses on 19th and 20th century crafts, agriculture and household activities but there is also a typical 1930's classroom and a historical exhibition about the history of the area, including finds from as early as the Stone Age and right through to the Middle Ages.

Until the end of August 2008, the Kreismuseum is host to a special exhibition of quilts, under the motto "Man and Sea". Dutch and German quilters have put together an extraordinary collection that left me speechless. And without pictures of my own! Fortunately, some of the quilts can be found on the net...

One of my favourites is called Aquamarine Window by Miriam Pet-Jacobs. "Silence under water. You can open your mouth but no sound emerges. You are cocooned, as it were. Through a window you catch a glimpse of the chaotic world", she describes it. Another quilt that really caught my eye is by the same artist and is called Rhythm I. This two-sided quilt is made as a tripticon and somewhat wasted on a wall...

By 5 pm, when the museum officially closed its gates for the audience, we were worn out. The audience in Syke was just as curious as the last two times, not just asking questions but listening to replies and then asking some more... a big applause to all those who visited!

It was time to pack up and go home. When we took the tent down and lifted the ground sheet, we discovered that the voles in this part of the museum had not lazed about during the weekend: they had tunneled a penthouse addition to their extensive tunnel system right underneath our tent. Unfortunately, the cameras were already packed in our chests. And it was only when we arrived at home that we noticed that neither Schatz nor I had taken a picture of our little tent in the 'graveyard'. Wadda mistaka to maka!

At home, we also found the missing shoe in Torsten's car where it had been hiding between the backseat and the side wall since our return from Ribe a few weeks ago...

While carrying several heavy chests upstairs, we lamented the photographs we hadn't taken, the ones that didn't come out (Birgitt and Michi in their director's chairs supervising the food in the barn cooking itself), and the captions we never got to write about graveyards or voles or cooks. Until we unpacked some of the items we had acquired in Syke, that's when we started grinning broadly:

Tux goes Viking

The egg cozies are made by Anja Stolzmann from Dat Beekfolk. She made Tux from a picture we had given her, and the result is most amazing. The helmet is an egg cozy itself, of course. I'm not supposed to eat a lot of eggs but at least I'll do it in style from now on! The tux, by the way, is for a friend's birthday: kill that lobster, Jan!