Gallery – Life on my Own Terms

…and the last phase of our European adventure draws to a close

We say farewell to our apartment „Fritz im Glück“
Wir verabschieden uns von unserem zweiten Zuhause „Fritz im Glück“ – das Fachwerkhaus auf der rechten Seite

Our apartment in Rietberg is the half timbered house on the right where we had the ground floor apartment complete with a small patio garden in the back. The renovation of the street in front was finishing up as we arrived and by the time we left the major work was being completed at the other end of the block. Small linden trees have been planted at regular intervals and I can only imagine how more beautiful this largely pedestrian/bicycle route will become. It’s a real joy to be able to walk to the Friday morning market, one of several restaurants and cafes, the grocery store, library and parks. We enjoyed our stay so much here that we have already reserved our spot for next year.

Bicycle (yellow) and Train (black) to Mesenich via Rheinbreitbach

The next step on our adventure was Rheinbreitbach (on the Rhein) to visit good friends Ester and Horst. From Rietberg to Rheinbreitbach is now a familiar route combining bicycling and train rides. We „saddled the horses“ early and cycled about 40 minutes to the train station at Rheda-Wiedenbrück. There we were able to get on a train with the bicycles with the plan to get off about three hours later at Cologne train station and then bicycle the day along the Rhein. About half an hour away from our arrival at Cologne the engineer announced that due to the fact that the train was running significantly late, we were not going to stop at Cologne after all, but continue on to the airport. Fortunately we had tried this route in reverse a couple of years earlier when we were returning to Rietberg. We had taken a ferry across the Rhein and then cycled along dykes and wooded farm roads almost all the way to the airport. We were not particularly concerned about the train rerouting particularly as Andreas was able to call the ferry operator to make sure that there was enough water in the Rhein for the ferry to operate. What we had forgotten was that its not that usual to ride a bicycle to an airport and consequently the bicycle routes are not necessarily well marked and Google is more than a bit „not-bicycle-aware“. Before leaving the arrivals terminal (the train station was under the airport) I stopped to ask a policeman where we could find the bicycle routes. Well the combination of my baby-deutsch and the unbelievable request left him bewildered for a few moments. He was however able to gather his whits and put us on the right path out of the airport. Unfortunately we put too much faith in Google and not enough confidence in the Policeman and ended up on a not so pleasant route across country, in full sunshine and nowhere to stop for a coffee and lunch but we did end up at the right ferry. After that, it was an enjoyable ride along the southern side of the Rhein. The low water levels were striking and this year we saw no active Viking cruise ships and very few bulk carriers.

Rheinbreitbach is a small village nestled on the fairly steep slope of the Rhein. The village itself is charming and offers plenty of opportunity for sketching. Id made the decision to swap back to my very small sketchbooks to ensure that I always had my sketching stuff with me. I must admit I had become spoiled in Rietberg using larger paper and a wider color palette. Despite the short comings of a 5“ x 3“ sketch pad i was able to capture some of the charm of the church grounds.

We spent the next day exploring the flea market in Linz, another charming town. The timber framing here is more elaborate than the northern areas around Rietberg perhaps indicating more wealth at the time of their construction.

After our too short visit with Ester and Horst, we were back on the bikes to Koblenz to pick up a train to Cochem where we to meet Andreas‘s daughter the next day. The train ride was memorable to say the least. The previous train had been cancelled and so the platform was crowded with people. To add insult to injury Deutsche Bahn (DB) decided to reduce by half the number of cars of the next train. To say that the train was packed would be an understatement. For me traveling in over packed trains with a bicycle is a special kind of stress. We often haven’t take the travel Paniers off so that more bikes can be stacked close together. That means a stressful 5-10 minutes when we arrive at our destination, struggling to get bags and bikes off the train, and negotiating other people, bikes and baby carriages that either want to stay on but are standing near the exit doors, or new passengers trying to get on before the leaving passengers have exited. I’m starting to think I’m getting too old for the hassle. Fortunately Andreas has a few tricks up his sleeve, selecting stations where trains originate so that we have more time to get organized. Despite his skills, the challenges that DB is facing are extreme. More freight is being carried on the train lines as the Rivers are too low. Freight and passengers travel on the same lines. There‘s pressure to speed trains up and put more trains of the lines, but the trains and line segments are not always compatible with digital signaling so things get clogged up. Add to that vandalism where people are raiding train switches for copper and I’m starting to get a real feel for a term that I first leaned as an accident investigator at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada: its a real Cluster F**K.

After a bit of a harrowing train trip we were relieved to arrive at a wonderful hotel in Cochem complete with Sauna and what turned out to be a fantastic kitchen and wine cellar. The hotel sources all of its food locally and has a superb touch creating healthy tasty and innovative food. I was particularly taken by their Traditional Mosel Riesling potato soup. Ill be trying t replicate it when I get back to AZ

The next day we met Anneli and she was able to pick up a rental bike so that she could join us for a few days on our Mosel experience.

Despite only being Early August, the heat and dryness of this summer resulted in the forests looking more like early fall. Instead of the wonderful oranges and yellows of a fall woodland day, many of the trees were brown and losing leaves already. Even the vineyards high up on the hillsides looked stress and the grapes seemed small. The Mosel itself had plenty of water as it is governed by a series of lochs. While the water level was high, the water quality was very poor with algae blooms everywhere. Reports suggested that the Mosel was just a series of stagnant lakes with signs posted to keep out of the water and keep pets out too. Even though there were obvious signs of heat and drought stress, the bicycle rides along the river were still beautiful. There‘s always a cooling effect near the water and the oak and linden trees that often line the bicycle paths provide welcome shelter.

Once Anneli had her bicycle we were off to our next Pension: Weingut Pauli in Mesenich. Frau Pauli is an iconic hostess with a warm smile and eager to make her guests feel welcome. We were in the same Pension 2 years ago and thoughroughly enjoyed the local atmosphere and the „rule“ to say „guten Morgen“ to all the people in the breakfast room in the morning. This year was no exception. We were greeted like long lost friends and had adjacent rooms with small balconies overlooking the village and the forest on the other side of the Mosel.

Our trips included Beilstein and Zell. Beilstein is a quintessential Mosel village with timber framed buildings along winding alleys climbing up the vineyard slopes. It’s here that we discovered Afogatos- express coffee with a scoop of vanilla icecream. Heaven!

View across the Mosel from Beilstein – Der Blick über die Mosel von Beilstein

A view of the castle ruins above Beilstein – Blick auf die Ruinen der Burg oberhalb von Beilstein

One of our last adventures was walking up to the stone head behind Mesenich, Its a larger than life wire cage in the shape of a human head filled with rocks. As the story goes, the ground in this area is mostly slate. The vines appear not to grow in earth at all! However, rocks are very necessary to create the terracing that allows the grape vines to fill the very steep hillsides. Mesenich was a place where stones could be found. The people of Mesenich were referred to as stone heads. Rather than get annoyed that they were being ridiculed by their neighbors, they decided to celebrate their unique attributes by building this stone head. It sits proudly high on the hiking path that weaves through the Mosel vineyards.

Our walk to the stone head was encouraged by an AI assisted description of the almost full eclipse of the sun that AI assured us was best seen at the very spot of the stone head. Exuberant words had us excited to experience the twilight that was sure to enthrall us. What AI failed to take into account was that the sun set behind the forests that rose up on the other side of the Mosel. No eclipse for us, just sunset. Oh well, we enjoyed a wonderful bottle of wine and a smorgasbord on the second floor patio when we returned to our Pension.

Waiting for the eclipse – wir warten auf die Sonnenfinsternis

Too soon our trip drew to a close. We returned for a couple of days in Köln and then returned to Rietberg to pack before our return train trip to Frankfurt.

We had an uneventful flight to Charlotte NC, had the fastest pass through US immigration that I have ever experienced and then saw this amazing glass mosaic in the arrivals area.

Our Rietberg stay draws to an end…

The last two weeks in Rietberg have been exciting for me. I have been sketching a lot in the town and this year more than any of the previous years, I have been attracting attention. People have been approaching me, „can I look over your shoulder? Is that water color? How long does it take to do a painting like that?Where are you from? Wow I wish I could do that! Are you a prefessional artist? … and last but not least, you are sitting in my parking place!“ all of these interactions have allowed me to practice German and gain more confidence. OK I am far from fluent, very far, but I am starting to connect with people here.

A converted Kloster building that is now a gymnastics center. Ein renoviertes Klostergebäude, ist jetzt ein Turnhalle.

This gymnastics center/Turnhalle is opposite the library, which is also housed in a former Kloster building. I was sitting outside the library working on this sketch last Friday. What I didn’t fully appreciate was that Friday is the day that marriages are celebrated and recorded. Needless to say there was plenty of merriment in the neighboring Kloster and lots of backwards and forwards between the administration garden, behind the library and the Kloster courtyard. In addition to that traffic were LOTS of children and adults returning and borrowing library books. The vast majority of the library people were traveling on bicycles. I sat in the middle of this joyous space and several people stopped to chat. One of these people had been married to men from the UK and spoke perfect English. We were able to chat about lots of things and will be reconnecting later in August before our return to the States. She is also a water color painter and I hope that next year we will be able to get together to paint. I might try to figure out how to get my easel and bigger paint set over here so that I can paint more „Pleinair“ rather than pen and wash….hmmm???

This house is one of many stately buildings in the area belonging to the Tenge-Rietberg Administration. Almost all of their buildings are painted in this very warm yellow/orange color. Dieses stattliche gelbe Herrenhaus gehört zur Verwaltung der Tenge-Rietberg; fast alle ihre Gebaüde in der Umgebung haben diese Farbe.

The Münte House above is also a half timbered house, but was plastered in the 18th/19th century with this rich yellow/ochre color. It was painted this way to simulate the prestigious look of sandstone structures. This style was not uncommon in Central Europe and became associated with „administrative significance, sovereign presence and grand estate management“. The current administration has continued this centuries old tradition. Interestingly this house sits on the site of a 15th century Mint. According to Wikipedia, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II confirmed Rietberg‘s minting rights in 1569.

WW1/WW11 memorial – When the People are silent the stones will speak“

This memorial struck me hard the first time I visited it now 5 years ago. Coming from the UK, and living in Canada and now the US I am familiar with war memorials. This one was DIFFERENT for me. Until now all memorials that I have seen acknowledged heroic sacrifice and eternal glory. This one focuses on the tragic loss and waste of soldiers‘ lives. It’s a call to arms to stand up and speak against whatever drives nations to sacrifice its soldiers.

This chapel is not far away from the Old Town of Rietberg. For two years it was shrouded in construction cloths and last year it was revealed after extensive repair and restoration. It is the remaining building of a large castle and chapel grouping. It is located in a small park with a popular walking trail around it. Many dogs and their people enjoy this wooded peaceful setting. It is also a popular pause place for local bicyclists touring the area. On this particular day I was captivated by the grandma who was convinced to lift up the toddler so that she could see inside.

Well that‘s all for now. On Tuesday we leave this area for the Rhein and Mosel.We have our fingers crossed for mild temperatures and not too much rain!

I hope you are all enjoying your summer wherever you may be.

The Rietberg respite (Die Ruhepause) continues…

We have been in our apartment (Wohnung) for almost two weeks now and it is really starting to feel like home. We have even had some of Andreas‘s friends visit. The first were Horst and Ester from an area near Bonn. Horst is one of Andreas‘s boyhood friends. Horst and Ester have invited us to stay with them several times now and we have had wonderful dinners together in their delightful garden. We will be going to visit them again in August and it is one of the highlights of our southern bicycle excursions. The first year we visited my German was at best rudimentary and despite considerable challenges they made me feel so welcome. They fully understood when my „German ears“ quit working! We spent a delightful afternoon showing off Rietberg and catching up on news. The second visitors were Siggy and Ingrid. Siggy is one of Andreas’s engineering college friends and I met them for the first time on one of our first bicycle excursions to North Holland. They had rented a holiday apartment that was big enough for us to stay for a couple of days. Ingrid is actively learning English and so we were able to get to know each other using a mishmash of English and German. I learned my first German funny childhood story on that trip:

Hier ist der klassische Breitmaulfrosch-Witz:
Ein Breitmaulfrosch geht zum Arzt und fragt: „Lieber Doktor, wie kann ich mein Maul kleiner machen?“ Der Arzt rät ihm, jeden Tag mehrmals das Wort „Konfitüre“ zu sagen. Nach einer Woche kommt der Frosch völlig verzweifelt zurück – sein Maul ist noch größer geworden. Der Arzt fragt entsetzt: „Aber Herr Frosch, was haben Sie denn gesagt?“ Darauf der Frosch: „Maaarmelade!“ [1]

So now the in-house breakfast joke, with hyper mouth exaggeration is „confiture“ or „Maaarmaalade“. We managed a delightful bicycle round trip to Rheda-Wiedenbruch and returned home to home made soup and appetizers. I’m spending time to tell you these stories to set the scene that explains how fortunate I feel. Meeting Andreas just over four years ago now, changed the direction of my life. I’m now spending summers in Europe, struggling, but making progress learning German and delighting in getting back to my European roots. While I was raised in the semi urban/rural outskirts of London, it was still a time when children could roam free and bicycles were an important form of transportation. Small farms and small factories were embedded into the village/town culture. Yes there was plenty of commuting too, but trains and buses were more important than cars. Spending three months in Europe without a car is both liberating and eye opening. We are no road bikers so the pace of our cycling is moderate and we have plenty of time to „stop and smell the roses“ or in our case, sample the local bakery offerings or the local wines if the timing is right. If we stop for long enough for me to get the sketch book out, more often than not, someone will come by to watch, make a comment, smile….make contact. Most of the time I’m able to offer them a copy as a souvenir of their visit. The cell phone camera and email make that so easy.

So …. Back to Rietberg. Our apartment is on the Main Street (Rathaus Straße-Townhall street) The Rathaus is a truely magnificent building: The zig zag element on the building facade is the stair well. Building an external staircase as an architectural feature rather than a back-door afterthought really makes a statement!

Das Rathaus ist wahrlich atemberaubend. Das Zickzack-Element an der Fassade des Gebäudes ist das Treppenhaus. Wie wunderbar, dass die Treppe ein architektonisches Element ist und nicht bloß ein nachträglicher Einfall.

Across the street from the Rathaus is a beautiful half timbered (Fachwerkhaus) house that has been in the process of renovation for two of the four years I have been visiting. It is now a prestigious café with an outdoor garden area too. The small blue door at the bottom left is a regular door entry. It gives you a sense of the dimensions of this huge home built in 1653, a few years after the 30 year war that devastated this part of Europe. The yellow building behind houses an art gallery that features work by Angelo Monitillo who welds metal „scrap“ into magnificent sculptures. Pegasus is outside!

Café Münte. Dieses wunderschöne Fachwerkhaus wurde 1650 erbaut. Als ich Rietberg 2022 zum ersten Mal besuchte, wurde das Haus gerade restauriert. Heute ist es ein stilvolles, gemütliches Café in dem man verschiedene Kuchen und Kaffeespezialitäten genießen kann.

The old town of Rietberg is surrounded by a modest moat based on the River Ems. There‘s a delightful treed allée that we walk in the evenings to top up our step count if necessary. At one point there is a striking view of the Kloster St Katherina steeple. In the 1800‘s and possibly before, the place where. Iowa’s standing was a meadow where people bleached their sheets in the sun.

Ein Blick auf den Kirchturm über den Wassergraben hinweg; im 19. Jahrhundert bleichte man auf dieser Seite des grabens die Bettlaken.

Last but not least, this last sketch celebrates many of the wonderful concrete sculptures made by a Mother/daughter pair that are found all over this area. The sculptures are larger than life and represent people in everyday activities. In this case, Andreas and I had stopped for an ice cream and I could sketch the rounded young man sitting on the bench. As I started, an older man rode up on his bicycle, sat next to the sculpture, smoked a cigarette and left. The poignant part of this story was the following day when we brought Siggy and Ingrid to the same ice cream place, the same man came and sat in the same place, smoked another cigarette and left.

Der Raucher und sein jüngeres Ich – eine Erinnerung? Der junge Mann ist eine betonskulptur. Während ich die Skulptur zeichnete, kam ein ältere Mann auf seinem Fahrrad vorbei, setzte sich,rauchte eine Zigarette und ging wieder. Das Bewegende an diesem Ereignis war, dass er am nächsten Tag wiederholte.

Settling into life in Rietberg and celebrating Schützenfest

Ihave been traveling to Europe with Andreas for the past four years and Rietberg has become my home from home (ein zweites zuhause). After bicycling in the Netherlands and each year discovering new vistas to capture the imagination, its nice to come „home“ to a familiar place, have the same bed to sleep in for more than a couple of nights and emerse myself into the local tempo. This year our apartment is in the center of the newly „pedestrianized“ down town core that is largely made up of half timbered houses built in, during and after the 30 year war in the mid 1600s. Our building is itself a restored and renovated half timbered house. We have the ground floor suite with a large kitchen/living room opening onto a small enclosed patio garden. Like most houses in Germany this also has no air conditioning so heat management will be a challenge as the house is orientated in a west-east direction. The bedroom faces west and the living room east. At least we are on the ground floor and do not have to deal with over heating under the roof. But I am getting ahead of myself….

When we first arrived back in the home town area we stayed for two nights with Friederika, Andreas‘s next youngest sibling. It was at the peak of the heat wave so we spent those first couple of days very quietly. FIFA kept us all company!.

On Sunday we moved into the apartment and Monday it was off to Andreas‘s childhood home, Lipperode to observe the near final event of the local Schützenfest. This is a multi day festival that replicates itself in all the towns, large and small in this part of Germany. It has its origins in the 14th century when towns and villages needed to recruit local militias to protect the town and inhabitants from marauders.Tradition has it that at one time a man shot an eagle that was attacking a child. Hence the culmination of the long weekend is a ceremonial „Vogelschießen“ (Bird shooting) contest. The „bird“ is a wooden Eagle mounted high on a target board. The contest is highly ritualized and involves turn taking using a rifle mounted on a shooting frame that restricts the scope of movement of the gun. Within the bird itself are special target areas that when shot off triggers cheers and an opportunity for one or more of the brass bands to give a rousing rendition of one of the many lively marching tunes. It’s also an opportunity to run to the beer stand and refill the glasses. This event happens on the last Monday in June in Lipperode. It is preceded by weekend events that include marching bands that wake up the community on the first day, honor ceremonies at the cemetery to commemorate war time losses, street marching with marching bands that move around the village „Picking up“ the current Schützenfest officials and bringing them to the central festivity hall. All of this is accompanied by neighborhood fellowship and beer drinking. A couple of years ago I was able to see one of these parades. The marching band arrived at a house all decked out with garlands and flags indicating the residence of the current Schützenfest king and queen. As soon as the band arrived and finished it song, the band an attending marching squads dissolved into the garden areas and dragged out crates of beer. As the participants awaited their refueling, speeches were offered acknowledging the current King and Queen. On the word from the Company leader the band and marchers were dismissed and the beer was quickly consumed at the Royal front door. In relatively short order the band and marchers quickly reconvened to march to the next „Royal“ household and the process was repeated. Within minutes, the neighbors who were not marching swooped in to clean up bottles and within 20 minutes everything was cleaned up as if nothing had happened. At some time in the afternoons there are full gala parades with smartly dressed men in their uniforms (in Lipperode its a black jacket, white shirt and pants and a black top hat. The hat has a yellow and red band around it and marchers also have a yellow and red sash). The women are dressed in beautiful ball gowns that are purchase new each year. Later in the evenings there are balls (I’ve not been to those as bicycle gear is not de rigueur).

Composite sketches fron last year of the New King and Queen

Today was the first day quietly at home, getting groceries, visiting one of Andreas‘s other sisters, Sabina and husband Freddy, and trying to expand my German vocabulary using a multisensory approach… no not wine this time:

I was trying to remember the word for tap water. Turned out to be more of an education than I expected

Tap water has at least three words: the common one: das Leitungwasser (literally pipe plumbing water); Gänswasser (geesewater, because that is what they drink) and Kranwasser (Crane water, presumably because the faucet looks like a crane)