Saint for a Day

How do you get to be the man sitting on the white horse while everyone else has to walk?  That’s what I want to know.  The story itself is pretty well known, but just in case you were sitting in a car for an hour recently waiting for long lines of lantern waving children to go by and wondering why – I set out in short trousers, lantern in hand and crossed the road without holding mummy’s hand in Kessenich to bring you the story behind the story.  Saint Martin for beginners:

---

So the legend goes, St Martin was part of a Roman legion serving in Armiens, Gaul. One bitterly cold day he was riding past the gates of the city and saw a half naked beggar. In no more time than it takes to say ‘Whoah horsey!’ he stopped, dismounted, and tore his cloak in half – giving one half to the poor beggar. That night Martin allegedly dreamt that Jesus wore the cloak half that the beggar had been given. In other versions of the tale he awoke to find the cloak was miraculously whole again.

 

King (or in this case Saint) for a day!

 

The tradition of a procession of children with bright lanterns goes back to the Flanders area and often includes a depiction of geese, St Martin being so reluctant to became a Bishop that he is said to have hid in a shed inhabited by geese – who honkingly gave him away to his searchers. 

 

St Martin later became a Bishop and his Abbey at Tours was a powerful one – as indeed was the man himself who was alleged to have not just cured the sick, but brought life back to the dead. It is something of a curiousity that St Martin is celebrated even in Protestant areas of Germany. 

So next time you get stuck in that queue of cars waiting to get home in early November because a waving man on a nervous horse is meandering along followed by a couple of brass bands, dozens of parents and hundreds of lantern wielding children –now you know! 

The bonfire at St Nikolaus Kirche, Kessenich

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Martyrs of Münsterplatz

 

 

Well done to anyone who spotted the eye from our mystery photo as belonging to Cassius – one of the two giant heads at the back of the Münster Basilika on Münsterplatz.  The closest correct answer we received was ‘One of those big heads near the church’ from a certain Mr Donaldson – guess we owe you a pint for arranging all the walks anyway Robert!

If you thought that ‘Cassius’ was just Muhammad Ali’s real name then read on…

---

 

Shoppers at the Bio-market behind the Münster Basilika will have noticed (I hope!) that there are two giant heads seemingly left carelessly laying about amongst the market stalls.  The two heads represent martyrs Cassius & Florentius and the Basilika itself was actually built on top of their graves.

In case you ever wondered (as I did) the bearded head is that of Cassius whilst the beardless head is his compatriot. 

 

 

 

 

 

THEIR STORY 

Legend has it that the two men were part of a Roman legion made up exclusively of Christians from Thebes.  The Legion, being Christian, understandably had trouble with the notion of persecuting fellow Christians but it also unwisely refused to recognize the Emperor as a god.  Upshot of all this was that their Commander, Mauritius, was executed in Switzerland along with every tenth member of his command.  His legionaires were also not spared and were executed elsewhere.  visitors to Cologne might like to know that Gereonstrasse is named after another of the Martyred legionaires who was executed in the Domstadt.

 

 

Cassius & Florentius were beheaded in Bonn in the 3^rd Century – allegedly at the foot of the Kreuzberg in Endenich.  What is known for sure though is that early in the 4^th Century AD a Church was built on the gravesite of the two Martyrs which over time became the present Bonn Münster (Basilika).  In short, Bonn is where it is largely due to the two men whose oversized heads lay in the dust of the Münsterplatz.

The heads themselves are based on statuettes of the Martyrs inside the Basilika and were created by sculptor Iskender Yediler.  Each head is 7 tons of solid granite, 1.5×1.52 metres in size and they were lowered onto the Square by crane in 2002.  The fact that they were made by a Turkish sculptor in Thailand with financing by two former Bonn residents now living in America makes them something of an  International monument to what was a core moment in the history of Bonn.  It is also a macabre reminder of two men who’s heads literally rolled on the dusty ground that became Bonn.   

Popularity: 3% [?]

End of The Magnificent Seven

Over, done and dusted as they say – seven walks over seven hills over seven months. Sunday saw Robert take the last climb to Drachenfels literally in his stride. The highs and the lows, the laughter and the tears, the drama and the landscape – all leave me with one final question… did anyone out there do all seven walks?

 

My own memories of Roberts hikes are of watching the bobbing rucksacks of people lost in small groups of conversation who always seemed on the verge of wandering off in the wrong direction never to be seen again. I am quite proud to report that, to my knowledge anyway, we never lost anyone. I remember also thinking if ‘little’ Nonnenstromberg was a mountain then we’d all be home, seven mountains climbed, before lunchtime in the first month. Some though were more demanding than others and we arrived on one return journey to find that Donaldson senior had sensibly stopped on the way out to keep a table for our return. Then there were the arguments over dogs and leads, and who sat facing the sun at the restaurants…

 

Numbers for the walks were generally pretty good for a Sunday. The last one to Drachenfels was eleven strong I hear and would have been unlucky thirteen if the full car parks had allowed Monica and myself to disembark. (or did Robert arrange all these other cars on purpose for ‘good luck’?!).

 

 

I think it only fitting that the final words and thoughts about ‘Operation Seven Hills’ should be from Robert himself:

 

 

 

”I'm happy to have managed all the hills/mountains and
impressed with the encouraging turn out each
time.

Once home, Birgit & I were chatting about which
mountain and walk were the nicest. I found it hard to
decide because what I enjoyed could be completely
different from another persons. Well all in all my fav
walk was last month Petersberg, because of trail
variety. Favourite mountain was Löwenberg, for the
ruined castle and views. And best turn-out was the 14
for the Nonnenstromberg walk.

I would be looking forward to organising more walks
next year. Now off to go hibernating”

 
The 7 main hills of the Siebengebirge:
Ölberg (461 meters – summit reached 9th April 06),
Löwenburg (455m – summit reached 14th May 06),
Nonnenstromberg (335m – summit reached 11th June 06),
Wolkenburg (324m – summit reached 2nd July 06),
Lohrberg (432m – summit reached 13th August 06 -
without me sniff),
Petersberg (331m – summit reached 24th Sept 06),
Drachenfels (321 m – summit reached 22nd Oct 06).

 

 

On behalf of everyone who took part in the walks –

 

Many thanks for getting us out in the fresh air Robert

 

 

Hope you can get out during the Winter and recce some new walks for next Summer  

---

---

Popularity: 3% [?]

David meets the Dom

It’s the typical Cologne Cityscape of course:  The Museum Ludwig, The Cathedral,…
and Michaelangelo’s David?

There is no explanation of how or why this mock-up of the great Classical sculpture came to be looking out over the Rhine on the statue itself so it may be here today and gone tomorrow.
Personally I think it loses something in colour, but it certainly catches the eye.
Wondering what it looks like from behind? Click on dear reader… 

David’s back in Cologne

Meanwhile, back in Bonn… Beethoven’s more tastefully attired for late Summer.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Bill Shankly – Life & Death

"If you are first, you are first. If you are second you are nothing". 

One of many famous quotes from legendary football manager Bill Shankly who died 25 years ago on September 29.  For anyone who doesn't know football history in England, Shankly was a Liverpool legend as the clubs manager, taking them from division two onwards and ever upwards to endless Cup and League success.

More than that though, he was probably the greatest character football ever had.

---

The list of famous quotes is endless:

 

"Maybe they have the best team on paper, luckily we're playing on grass"

 

or, as a deliberate snub to local rivals Everton:

 

"There are two great clubs in Merseyside - Liverpool and Liverpool reserves"

 

Shankly's fame was such that Adidas wanted to present him with a golden boot for his services to football. Fellow manager Tommy Docherty remembers taking the call from Adidas asking what shoe size Shankly was. The great man replied "If it's gold, tell them I'm size 28"

 

Most famous of all was his answer when it was suggested that football was a matter of life and death to him - Shankly replied "No, Its more important than that"

 

"Shanks" gave the people of Liverpool something to smile about at a time when unemployment was high and expectations were low in the City. He had a simple working class work ethic that the men on the terraces could identify with and they loved him for it. A player remembers him arriving in the dressing room shirt hanging out and hair dishevelled. He'd been down visiting the supporters who had passed him around the park over their heads - such was his popularity. His successor, Bob Paisley, was more successful but "Shanks" was and is a legend. You can take your Arsene Wengers and your Jose Mourinhos, They don't make 'em like Bill Shankly anymore - and I was an Everton fan!

 

Link:

http://www.shankly.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

All the fun of the Fair

Don’t forget ‘The Grand Theatre of lemmings’ or ‘Five Pints per Mile’ or the Falcon Show, or the Wellie Throwing or…or… As usual, The ‘British Days & Country Fair’ at Burg Linn in Krefeld proved difficult to review without writing a small book – but for those of you who missed it I’ve put together my personal highlights – oh, and did I mention Paddington Bear?  See, so much to write about…

Burg Linn in the sunshine

To say that ‘5 Pints per Mile’ don’t play a song twice with the same notes would be an understatement.  This band don’t use the same tact or even the same lyrics twice in a day.  Sounds bad? Actually they sound very good.  Always fresh – and if you don’t like ‘Whisky in the Jar’ this time around maybe next time it will be more to your taste.  Last year it shot through like an express train – this time around it hopped along pleasantly the first set and rolled through authentically on the second but was never less than foot tappingingly enjoyable.

Faster…"There’s Whisky in the Jar…" (Five Pints)

 

In the absence of a musical category called ‘Enthusiastic Music’  they can safely be labelled ‘Irishfolkrockcountryblues’.  Micky, Frankie and Pete are all German and based in Berlin – but they have an Irish outlook on life.  When I asked why Irish music? the first answer Mickey (the singer) gave me was ‘because it’s easy to play’.  Anyone who’s tried to get their guitar fingers round a celtic riff would argue otherwise, but I’m not going to argue with these guys.  Frankie’s answer was more plausible – ‘Because we love Irish music’.  Throw in a Paul Simon, Beatles or Jethro Tull song or two and you have the bands sound – until they play the next set that is.

 Fish & Chips?                      …Join the queue   

‘The Grand Theatre of Lemmings’ is an interesting name in itself.  The ‘lemmings’ are David Danzig & Mandy Medlicott.  “Intoxicating comedy for the spiritually legless” is how they introduce themselves on their homepage and they are certainly tailor made for shows like the British Fair.  In between shows they can be seen riding their self-made ‘camel’ round the arena.  Enchanting and frightening children in equal measure I suspect.

Later they frighten adults too by swinging a beer glass around on a length of rope whilst standing on stilts.  You have to be there to appreciate the humour – but they ARE funny, which is not surprising as the duo have been around more than twenty years and hopefully will do more than twenty more.

 

Another stage highlight was ‘Dinner For One’ by ‘The Hamburg Players’.  Well done, right down to tripping over the Tiger-skin rug and muttering ‘I’ll kill that cat’.  There was something missing about the performance though to me.  Maybe Mark Lyndon as the happless butler wasn’t drunk enough? Freddie Frinton is still a hard act to follow, even after all these years.  But no; I think there was too much colour.  It should be black and white and grainy – the same procedure as every year.

 

"Hey oop! – Cheers to Lord Pommeroy" (Mark Lyndon & Ursula Schmidt)

 

So I still haven’t mentioned the falconry show, or the hammer throwing/Caber tossing and Wellie Wanging.  Paddington Bear sitting like the Pope before an audience of eager children (would have been nice to have heard the stories read in english – but I suppose I wasn’t part of the target group).  For those of us who were there though it was with a heavy heart that we heard Ken Mckinney’s bagpipes announcing that the Fair was about to close.  Especially hard on those who had spent all day queueing for a bag of fish & chips I suspect – make a note to get there an hour earlier next year.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Bonn still Live & Alive

The weather is getting more unpredictable by the day – a sure sign that Summer is easing towards Autumn.
In Bonn City Centre this weekend though the sun was still shining and the people on the streets were finding plenty of entertainment during the ‘Bühne Frei Für Beethoven’ festival as our picture gallery shows…

---

A stage in the middle of the main street on a Saturday? – well you can’t miss it! (Poststrasse)

Looks easy enough – but can you stand up again afterwards?

A study in Concentration – Two members of  Irish music band ‘Die Erkelteten’

Three flutists in harmony – from the ‘Mixed Bag Boogie Band’

‘Die Erkelteten’ sweat it out in front of two talent scouts

All Photos c. John Hurd 2006

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tea is good for you – Official!

If you’re a true Brit chances are that, like me, one of your first tasks on arriving in a foreign land was to ascertain a regular supply of tea from PG Tips. Researchers claim that around 40% of a brits fluid intake comes from tea – so recent research concluding that tea is even healthier than water is good news. Brew a pot and read on…

---

---

"The British have an umbilical cord which has never been cut and through which tea flows constantly.
It is curious to watch them in times of sudden horror, tragedy or disaster.
The pulse stops apparently, and nothing can be done, and no move made, until "a nice cup of tea" is quickly made.
There is no question that it brings solace and does steady the mind.< What a pity all countries are not so tea-conscious.
World-peace conferences would run more smoothly if "a nice cup of tea", or indeed, a samovar were available at the proper time."

 

- Marlene Dietrich ‘M. Dietrich’s ABC (Frederick Ungar Pub.Co.)

Yes, we really are at constant war. Not just against terrorism, but against a similarly invisible enemy – free radicals. The good news is that we have a weapon against this invisible aggressor. Recent studies suggest that drinking three to four ‘cuppas’ a day will aid prevention against cancer, heart disease, tooth plaque/decay and weak bones.

 

All this is possible thanks to Polyphenol Antioxidants (flavenoids) and fluoride. Oh, and claims that tea drinking causes dehydration are an ‘Urban Myth’. Tea actually contains less than half the level of caffeine present in coffee, so even if you make a very strong black coffee/tea there will still be a net gain in fluid intake.  These are the findings in a recently published edition of the ‘European Journal of Clinical Nutrition’. The only Caveat on our favourite fluid is that too much tea can prevent the absorption of iron from food –

 

So there you are – if you’re not aenemic, you can drink your way to good health.

 

Tea (with milk) contains:

16% of daily calcium required (4 cups)

Zinc

Folöic Acid

Vitamin B6, Riboflavin B2 and Thiamin B1

Manganese (bone growth)

Potassium

 

Okay, enough talk, get that kettle on and make the perfect cuppa as follows:

• Use a good quality loose leaf or bagged tea
• This must be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature
• Always use freshly drawn boiling water
• In order to draw the best flavour out of the tea the water must contain oxygen, this is reduced if the water is boiled more than once.
• Measure the tea carefully
• Use 1 tea bag or 1 rounded teaspoon of loose tea for each cup to be served
• Allow the tea to brew for the recommended time before pouring

Now you really can follow the song:

“I like a nice cup of tea in the morning
For to start the day you see
And at half-past eleven
Well my idea of Heaven 
is a nice cup of tea
I like a nice cup of tea with my dinner
And a nice cup of tea with my tea
And when it’s time for bed 
There’s alot to be said 
For a nice cup of tea”

( A.P. Herbert, Home & Beauty)

 

Sources:

bbc.co.uk/health

http://www.tea.co.uk/

Popularity: 3% [?]

The return of Jose

To continue the ongoing adventures of ‘Jose’ I am pleased to announce trhe wax ‘boy wonder’ is back where he belongs, pointing to the ceiling in Cologne’s Main Station foyeur - this time safely behind (hopefully bullet & bomb-proof) glass.  Sad that the protection is needed but good that Jose beat the bad guys!

Jose is back - ’boxed in’

Popularity: 3% [?]

Still climbing every mountain

Okay, so this picture is a tiny bit misleading.  We didn’t have to wade through miles of wild grassland in search of food and shelter on our latest ‘Siebengebirge’ walk on Sunday.  We did however have quite a long walk to the summit of Wolkenburg via the Restaurant ‘Milchhäuschen’ not helped by Robert only knowing half the route

– but which half?

---

Wolkenburg means ‘Castle in the Clouds’ so it was a mixed blessing: first the bad news – no Castle anymore, and the good news – no clouds on Sunday either.  This was truly an international expedition with walkers from England, France, Russia, Serbia and Germany -

fourteen of us in fact.

 

I congratulated our French colleagues on their World Cup victory and wished them every success in hammering the Portugese in the semi final – only my british sense of fair-play prevented me from wishing that someone could get Ronaldo sent off or, even better, transported ‘Star Trek’ like to an unpleasant corner of the universe populated solely by creatures genetically identical to Wayne Rooney. 

A wonderful view down to Nonnenswerth

As the walk progressed our chain of walkers got progressively longer.  Again there was good and bad news:  Good was that we had a wonderful view but bad was that the view was not right at the top of Wolkenburg – someone had (annoyingly) left a bit that could only be reached by a steep and pointy path upwards.  In my defense, I was not one of those who immediately retreated back to the safety (and apple-cake) of ‘Milchhäuschen’ but I am afraid to admit there are no pictures of Robert actually at the Wolkenburg summit.  This isn’t the spirit that captures stunning panoramic vistas of Everest and Kilimanjaro I know – but the camera was heavy, and the tread on my shoes was worn, and after all Caroline had a dog to pull her up not to mention Robert having chunky, non-slip profiles on his sandles.  To cut a long story short I have it on good authority that at approximately 1500 hours EST Robert summited Wolkenburg.  What he did there must wait until his autobiography ‘One Man – Seven Mountains’ appears.

Great scenery but NOT the summit!

As previously reported the apple-cake at ‘Milkhäuschen’ can be recommended and the cream was heavenly.  Despite the wonderful weather there was plenty of room for everyone and I’m fairly certain a good time was had by all.  So much so that we will be heading for the Seven Hills again in a months time for more hills and more apple-cake.

Robert has also promised to learn the whole route next time – maybe he should also bring his own camera in case I have equipment problems again – or a rope…

Popularity: 2% [?]

« Previous Page — Next Page »