Bamberg

So this morning we got up and had a huge spread of stuff to choose from for breakfast. Huge.  We ate, we checked out of the hotel and I got to check my email but that was the extent of it – no emergencies. We walked the ten blocks to the train station and got on the first of our three trains for today. On the second train we were there for three hours and I swear mom was going to adopt Naomi – our seatmate for the trip. She and Elizabeth (another seatmate) took quite an interest in what I was doing so I showed them the work box and the binder of doom. They now both have my website address.  I couldn’t believe how excited they were for me – and neither spoke much English and we don’t speak German so I kind of needed the props to explain what I was doing in Europe.

So we arrived in Bamberg at 3:20pm and got directions right away to Koblenz. We kind of determined that Information was to far away so went over to the taxi stand and found a very nice driver who pointed us in the direction of the hotels and I figured that we get a hotel and have her take us to the cathedral right away and we’d be good. Got the last room in the entire town it sounds like because everyplace is pretty booked up. First in Xanten and then here. Oh well – we got the last room in this hotel  and it was the 5^th one we tried! Anyway – made it to the Cathedral at quarter to four and then asked exactly where the crown is (I have a big picture of it) and what time they closed. Upstairs and 5pm.  We’re all good then. And they had other reliquaries there – too late for me but I took pictures anyway to see the progression of the artform. And in case you are wondering – it’s much the same as being able to tell how old a Cathedral is by looking at the decoration – Gothic, Ren, Rococo – you might miss some of them but over all you can get the right century down.  I can tell most paintings by style of dress, most books by style of calligraphy. I don’t do so well with sculpture, wood carvings, or furniture (except Jacobean – I loved that era) but I can now date the flowers and I have a feel for different regional styles. It’s kind of creepy that I can look at the pictures (like flashcards on my desktop – in random order) and tell which shrine it came off of.

So we found the crown – took some pictures – it’s got a very worn out appearance to it. Saw the whole of the museum quickly, went next door and saw the Cathedral and then walked back to the hotel. Stopped at St. Michaels on the way and I found reliquaries there too but I couldn’t get close enough to them to see if there were flowers on them too.  Then we went searching for dinner (found pizza) and are now comfortably in the room.

During dinner mom asked if I was going to put bones in my reliquary – the answer is yes and no – we had a big discussion about it and she knows how I feel. I’m going to leave it at that – if you know me real well you know the answer.

Xanten and Kalkar 9-3-10

Got up this morning and mom was in a hurry to get out of Rheine – she’s all “lets get up early” and I keep trying to explain to her that I don’t get up early for anything and I’m on vacation so I’m not rushing around and stop rushing me.  And besides if we go too early then she’ll miss breakfast and she loves breakfast. As it was we got to the train station with plenty of time to spare so I asked the train office about the direct train to wherever it was we changed trains rather than having to also change in Munster. We got a reservation for that one and then as we were waiting for it a train full of cars went past and I had no idea that autos rode trains so I took a picture – it was a very, very long train. I was eyeing up the new Cross Polo – it is a cute little car and it comes in aqua!

We made it into Xanten at about 2pm and found a hotel and the Information station and then headed over to the museum by the church. We asked for Dr. Grote whom we were told worked there but he is only in on Tuesdays so I got his card so I could email him. We showed the binder of the flowers and they told us that it was at the church so we went next door to the church. We asked at the church and they were no help either – even after we found a couple who spoke English and had them translate for us. I then found a little one in the base of an altar and so started taking pictures. There were only three silk and two beaded flowers and the whole of it was 12 by 7 inches but I took a good twenty pictures when this workman walks by and laughs at me.  We talk briefly he leaves and when he comes back I’m still taking pictures. Then we get to chatting and he takes me over to the museum to see the real relics.

Here’s the thing – decisions by committee don’t work. There are three women sitting at the museum desk and they can’t decide if I should be allowed to go see the relics if I’m not going to pay the museum fee! The workman is actually the secretary at the Cathedral – he has the key and he and one of the desk ladies took me up to the back room – through 8 locked doors (I left mom in the lobby so I wouldn’t have to worry about her) to the bones of the museum to see the bones. I took some pictures  and thanked them – I’m thinking the flowers might have been buried in the section of the church that was being worked on but I’m sure if I contact the curator I should be able to get pictures from him as I now have a contact to go to.

Still having plenty of time left in the day mom convinced me to try going out to Kalkar right away so we did. We found the bus – the bus driver told us where to get off and it was two blocks walk to the Cathedral. We got in and I found what I was looking for right away. I started snapping pictures and then the tour guide from hell shows up and starts yelling (in polite tones) at us for being up on the altar. Mind you – she didn’t catch me up on the altar like I was at the other church (don’t tell anyone about that) but I was just standing there taking pictures. She was all “you can’t be there, you need permissions, the alarms…” Bottom line was she had an audience (her tour was waiting for her) and she was putting on a show.  I think she embarrassed the rest of the people working there. I waited until the tour was at the other end of the church and went back to taking pictures.  I took 180 pictures today 130 at Kalkar. So it would appear that I can’t be intimidated. Had she been logical I might have listened. I don’t follow rude.

So far I have taken 1033 pictures and the vast majority (950?) are details of shrines. I never enjoyed looking at vacation photos and hearing about the vast relatives of the friends I have. I will never subject anyone to the vast quantity of pictures I took unless they ask J because no one could be as interested in this stuff as to stay awake trough that many pictures. But I think I have all the details I need to get making garden number 2 from the Hypernomicominon – and I know that’s not the spelling but that’s what I call it. Garden one was glass, garden two was silk, garden three was gemstones. I think there was a fourth too but I don’t remember what it was made of (or I don’t remember if it was told what it was made of).  It’s forming up real nice in my head at this point.

So – because we snuck both things in today we have tomorrow free and there is some triathlon in town this weekend so we couldn’t get a hotel room for tomorrow night anyway so WE ARE GOING TO BAMBURG! And for that I am very excited. Mom gets the last few days to spend with her friend in Koblenz and then we have to get to Zurich for the flight back so I really only have one last day to find shrines. I did hit most of them though and I’m pretty excited about that.

Rheine 9/2/10

OMG – We had another great day!!!

So we got into Rheine last night (yesterday afternoon) and got ourselves situated with a train schedule to Xanten and we had gotten directions to the Cloister and did a little walk about to see what the town has to offer.  We had supper at the most amazing restaurant where we sampled the local cuisine. We are in Westphalia and if I had to claim a region of Germany as my own then this would be the one I’d choose. There is very little tourism here and the prices are reasonable to us and very few people speak English here but they all make the effort to make us feel welcome. It is a very nice place to be.

Today we got up and had breakfast. Breakfast had a lot more local flavor than the ones previous and I had a sandwich of purchudo with peppered Swiss cheese and those little tomatoes with cheese and oil. Tea of course and frosted mini-wheats rounded out the meal.

We set out for the Convent and mom decided we just must take the bus which was good because even after the bus ride we had to walk about a mile. It was a pleasant walk through the woods and then we arrived at the Convent Bentlage. We went in and asked the man at the desk to see the reliquary shrines and he said that yes they were there in the museum and pointed us in the right direction. Down the hall we got to another desk where we each paid 8 euros to enter and see the museum. Booklovers please note that they have a very fine collection of medieval texts on display. Anyway, we walked in and looked in a few rooms and then about the fourth one – there it was – I should say there they were – two very large and very fine shrines. Very wonderful! Very large. Very, very everything I came to Europe to see for myself.

I whipped out the binder and mom got out the tape measure and I grabbed the camera and I started taking pictures and mom started measuring things for me. Then a woman comes in and sets a flashlight down between the shrines and leaves. I played with the flashlight too – I think I figured out that it wasn’t for me (she spoke no English) but it was there so I used it. She came back about 15 minutes later with a tour group of about 15 people and gave them a very long explanation in German of the shrines and I caught bits and pieces but she used her flashlight as a pointer (yes – of course I had left it where I found it) and took it with her when she left. After she left I took a few more pictures until mom came and told me (yes – she still wanders off but she keeps checking doorways for lockable doors) I wasn’t to take pictures.  She then went off to the bathroom and I went back to taking notes and comparing things.

And then she returns with the curator! She went to the bathroom, met the curator, asked if she was the curator and then said her daughter was studying these reliquaries and she was sure I had questions and so the curator and her assistant finished their inventory and came to the room with the shrines to answer my questions. She said she could talk about them all day and I said I could listen all day so she answered some of my questions right then and there and then we went down the hall to the cafeteria where we had beverages and she answered more questions.  She was surprised that I knew of the Convent because they had not been around that long (she got there when they started the work restoring the shrines in 96) and they have only been open for a few (7?) years.  But I knew of all the shrines and she added to my knowledge of some of them. She too is upset with Koln for being closed for renovations and she was surprised that I had not been to Ebstorf or Walsrode but there just is so little time left.

Dr. Mechthild Beilmann is a most awesome curator! She showed me the whole book on the restoration of the shrines and another on an exhibit they did at the convent to introduce the shrines. Beautiful books with lots of juicy good pictures (in German of course) that she gifted to me!!!!  And I was given postcard close-ups of the shrines and wonderful information on the other shrines. It’s like heaven.  I had some of my questions answered, everything she said jived with what I knew, we were conversing on my favorite geeky topic. I envy the people who got to spend two years restoring the shrines.  It was blessed goodness oh yet again and still.

We, mom and I, finished seeing the museum and then walked back to the bus stop in a light rain. My binder fits in my purse along with my new books and I think that’s why I bought this purse in the first place – it doesn’t look that huge. We just caught the bus (a bit of running was involved) and made it back to town. Stopped at the train depot and got the schedule to Xanten for tomorrow morning. Did some shopping where I got the most excellent coat – I know I’m obsessed with coats but mom encouraged it and it’s “all the rage in Italy” so the guy said. I had looked at it last night and just came back for it. We found a Woolworth store! We had supper at the same place as last night but I had two glasses of wine (I’m getting luscious?) and the waitress was the same one as last night and was just as nice and brought us dessert after some more lovely meals. And then we came back to the lovely room (and it really is) at the Freye hotel.

It was a most excellent day. Again. I just wish I had another 6 weeks of vacation so I could get more done! I’ll make due though 🙂

Today I had to call the Police – but I’ll get to the part.

LOL it was a great day again. Seriously. We got up pretty early, had breakfast, walked across Antwerp to get to the museum. We arrived at the museum. They had a special exhibit going so I asked “I understand you have a Besloten Hofje here and I would like to see it.” The guy taking the money said “no no no” the guard said he didn’t think so. I asked to speak with a curator – he called one, hung up, called another and then called a third. The third one was Christine. It took her about twenty minutes – she said they had one but it wasn’t part of the exhibit and she didn’t know where it was. I begged of course and let her know I came all this way just to see it. She said you should call ahead – I let her know I had problems getting a hold of a lot of the addresses and such. She said she’d be back. Ten minutes later she said she had located it and please follow her. We did. Up the stairs, through the exhibit, though a door to the closed off regular exhibit and down at the other end of the hall to the far corner of the building to my little shrine.

She asked some questions and how do you explain that I’m just weirdly obsessed and not writing a dissertation? I tried to explain but – I need permission if I want to publish the pictures and she gave me the email of the expert who was responsible for getting the item to their collection. We got to see it and take lots of pictures, got great info, got in for free – it was great. Christine is awesome.

Next we went to the Cathedral to see the exhibit that had some Rubens. I enjoyed it. Mom suggested we go to Diest so we went to the train station – found where we needed to be and waited. The train left without us! We were in the right place but the train wasn’t and five people trooped off to the train office. After the train guys explained the whole thing I made them do it over again in English – so there. We had to wait another hour for the next train and that put us in Deist at 4:25 pm. I stepped onto the nearest bus to ask if they knew where the museum was and they did – did I want walking or riding instructions so I asked how long to get there and he said 6 minutes. So for 2 euro each we rode the bus.

It was a small hike downhill from there and we found the museum. I went in (10 minutes to five) and told him I was all the way from America to see the Bee-slot-en Hof-ja and he said they had two – I called out to mom who was still outside as he led me to where they were and let me know I had ten minutes. I took as many pictures as I could in 15 minutes and then went and thanked him and asked if I owed anything – he said no and I should just enjoy my pictures. They had two – not typical – shrines.

Mom had yelled down that she would be at the Cathedral next door so I went out and over to the church but it was locked. I checked the surrounding restaurants, no mom anywhere. I sat on the stairs and waited thinking that she just went to find a restroom and would meet me back there. I waited. I walked down to tourist information two blocks away but it was closed so I walked back and sat at the top of the museum stairs. It’s been at least a half hour at this point – mom has my watch so I don’t know but I’m freaking out – how do I explain I lost my mother?

So I pray – God – my mom better be ok because how am I going to find her? And then I hear a voice that sounds like mom – “Jonalee – I’m in the church.” So I walk over to the church and find her eye peeking out the keyhole!!!!!!!!!!!! She got locked in the church! So instead of just thinking about calling the police I go across the street to the waiter I have already picked out to help me call the police. He calls them and lets me know that the lady in the bar is going to go get the caretaker who lives nearby and has a key. I go back and tell the keyhole I have forgiven the part where she kept me waiting… really long story – it took the woman two trys because she didn’t find mom the first time and by the time she did the police had already shown up.

So for all of you – churches all have a phone in them in case you get locked in and you can call emergency. Good to know. It helps in case you’re so deep in prayer you don’t realize they locked the doors on you. We walked back to the train station, waited three minutes for the train back to Antwerp have now eaten and are back in for the night. I have pictures of nearly everything. Tomorrow we head back to Germany for some more shrines.

Some updates

No internet for three days so here is the past:

Mechelen 8/27/10

Today I finally got to see what it was I came to Europe to see!!!!!!!

I’m in heaven for real! This is just so way more cooler than I ever could have imagined. First off – we are staying at a two month old hotel less than one block (less of a walk than going to the quicky mart for lunch) from the museum. The museum is FREE to get into. Most of the people here have not been to the museum that is right next door to them. So sad. They have seven shrines.  They are in their cases but they do not have a separate glass in front of them which means I can get right up into them for the most part.  So today I took pictures and notes on two of them and I still have to do four more. There is another one that is post – period so I won’t take a lot of pictures of it – that, and it appears to be cut out of paper or woodchips and not the silk wrapped wire that is what the rest of them are made of. It is very awesome and I got the museum directory too which has a big picture of each of them in it. It’s a very small museum and for most of the afternoon I was up in the room with the shrines all by myself. I took the opportunity to take many pictures of the one that had its light burned out as I refuse to accept that I can’t take pictures of it because the light is burned out – I took my book light with me and held it with the camera.

Color isn’t going to be an issue. At lease one of the shrines was terribly damaged by not being behind glass for many years. It’s what the bead garden looks like when it needs a good cleaning and some fresh moss. Anyway – it is just black in places and some of the leaves are falling apart. Which is the good news – some of the leaves are falling apart. VINDICATED! The petals are cut in one piece like a long drawn out M – just as I supposed they were. They have a wire that backs them. And I figured out (in a dream one night) why the particolored ones were particolored – much easier to wrap the silk going up hill than down so you wrap the uphill side, skip the down, wrap the up. Then you start from the other direction and if you use a different color thread then you get particolored.  I have to check for pin holes in the damaged parchment but I bet (if I can get a good angle on them) that I find a pin hole.

Only about half of the pictures are nice and clear – a tripod isn’t going to help because of the weird angles and I’m trying to brace my arm on the wall or the ledge but it keeps readjusting itself and so I’m not sure if it’s something that the camera is doing or something I’m doing wrong with the camera.

Tomorrow I take pictures and notes on the rest of the ones. I will also take pictures of the very tiny LOOPED BEAD FLOWERS that are on one of the shrines – in pretty modern colors and everything. That whole shrine dates to 1525-30 so I guess they must be period. Also have to confirm some of the other pictures I took because it appears that there are a bevy of small glass beads (blue) in the center of one of these flowers I took pictures of and I didn’t see them when I was taking the pictures.

They are MUCH smaller than I thought they would be. I mean – they are smaller in person than I imagined them to be. They are so small. Small and cute – the miniatures I love to love. And I can see the garden – part deux – silk. Much like the beaded garden only better because I can actually see the examples of what I want to make. And I think this one will be built under glass because I know just the case I want to build it in. And I have lots of examples of free standing trees and bushes and little flower vines. And they are all set into a fabric covered mound of (I can only assume) clay.

Mechelen 8/28/10

Got up, had breakfast, searched for a bank because we are out of money. Banks do not have people in them on weekends so I used my debit card. Oh the joy of it – can’t wait to see how much that is going to be. After the bank I went to the museum and mom took off for a trip to the travel agency because last night she took my pages of notes and decided to plan out a route for us. She did well and tomorrow is all planned out to go see three more shrines.

I took 272 pictures today and spent the whole day at the museum – they kicked me out at the end of the day. I took lots of notes and still didn’t get to everything. Note to the wise – if I’m on a museum trip then I am no fun to hang out with outside of the museum. I’m cranky because I don’t eat or because the museum is not open yet, or it closed too early and I wasn’t done… The joy of having mom along is that she is getting all of her people ‘smoozing’ in while planning the rest of the trip which frees me up to do stupid things at the museum – like point out the fact that the little silk dog tipped over and now appears to be dead – meaning that particular shrine is now fixed in my mind as the shrine of the dead dog.

The other shrine is missing an angel and the little discs with writing on are upside down but that is the ‘dirty’ shrine and the pictures have a lot more color to them then I thought they would – the camera must photograph right past the dirt.

I now have over 300 photos of the shrines and at least half of them are good and clear and still I feel like I’m missing shots of a lot of things. I know I’m not and I was pretty systamatic when I took the pictures and so I’m thinking way too much. And I went through the pictures and don’t remember half of them so I think I’m brain fried and hopelessly tired.  I want to sit down right now and make flowers but if I do that I will not get any sleep at all.

There are small looped bead flowers on one of the shrines – I even had pictures of them before I got here but they were not all that clear and I’ve trained myself not to see beads in historical things – lots of people tell me that it could be anything and so I start thinking that it could be anything so until I saw it with my own damn eyes – in person and for real – I wasn’t going to believe that it was what it looked like.  Well it is what it looked like – in person and upclose. Beads – size 11 or 12 five loops and a center bigger bead with a loop in it too. I got good pictures and I took lots of notes on colors and such. These are not French flowers but they resemble the ones in my beaded garden.  I’m hoping the shrine in the Rheine has even more and better examples.

Too much for me tonight so I’m off to bed for the night. Church and shrine hopping come tomorrow.

Mechelen 8-29

What an incredibly stellar day! It was amazing. First I should say that yesterday while I was at the museum mom went and planned out a route for us for travel today so that we could see three of the out-lying cities (shrines). I was pretty sure we wouldn’t see all three but she did well.

We had breakfast at the hotel and then went across the street to mass at the Cathedral being that it is Sunday and all that.  Came back to the hotel to grab our day bag and then walk to the station.  We got to the station and had to wait a bit for our train to Herentals – via Antwerp so it was two trains. When we arrived in Herentals we were told that “it was a very long way to walk” but it was less than a half mile which was fine as long as we were going in the right direction. We found our way and arrived at the Beguinage – I have pictures of it but it looks like a row of attached, small houses. We tried the church, we asked someone, everything was closed up and there was no one else around. I persuaded mom to knock on a door where I heard voices and she did (because I’m not brave enough to do so) and we found the archery guild meeting hall where a party who had rented the hall for the afternoon was breaking up. I showed them the binder of what I was looking for and they (one of the men) escorted us to Wiske – the woman who cares for the place. We showed her the binder and she went back into her house, got the keys, went two doors down, opened the building and there it was. They got me a chair to stand on to photograph from and then told us it was closing TOMORROW for a three year long renovation! Some of the people from the archery hall banquet wandered over and Wiske gave us a tour of the whole building including the mother superior’s quarters and some other artifacts (it’s kind of like a building in a colonial village if that helps any.) Also learned that on Sundays a bucket of sand was heated and then poured on the floor to soak out oils and such. It was interesting but at this point it was after 3:30 and the next place closed at 5 so I think we weren’t getting more out of today. Then Peter – one of the party guys, offered to drive us to Dimpana even though he wasn’t going that way! We walked to his car with him and he not only found the church ….

I’m getting ahead of myself. Peter is the kind of person every traveler hopes they bump into on their journeys. He drove us to Geel, he found the church, he smoozed the ladies at the door – we found the shrine and at some point (heaven help us all) he ran interference so I could climb up on the marble altar that the shrine was sitting on – it’s a big one – 66 inches across and so I probably have the only real pictures of the top of the silly thing. He also found the light switch which helped a lot. This is a stunning piece and very different from the ones in Mechelen. There are lots of particolored flowers, there are lovely birds and lots of beads! A review of the pictures shows that I got enough good ones to keep me busy for a long while. Clearly I have a lot of analasis to do before I’m finished but this will keep me very busy for a bit. OK – busy for years! I did all of this in less than 20 minutes because we got to the church right before it closed.

Peter then walked us over to the museum but they were closing in 15 minutes and they still wanted 3 euros each to get in so we skipped it. Then he took us to a monastery and got to see the chapel there and a 14^th century gate. We had ice cream on a lane that had lots of trucks, each with different flavors – it was lovely. We went to see another church where someone gave us the last of the English-language brochures – and they have a large iron tree in the church – I took a picture – I like trees. So sue me. It was raining when we got out of the church – pouring rain and Peter went to get the car – I had a moment there (because my day bag was in the trunk) where I was a bit worried but then I discovered that the street was closed to traffic so I got even more worried. He found us though and did some very fancy driving that I’m glad the police weren’t watching. Then we went to anther church where they were having an outside music festival which sounded a lot like polka but wasn’t and Peter bought us supper of burgers and fries and champagne which was so incredibly good that I was very happy we did not eat in a restaurant.  After that he brought us to our hotel and it was after 9 when we returned. So this was one of my best vacation days – ever. And I’m pretty sure he speaks 6 languages which means he was getting information at a rate that few people can manage. And I think he had fun too. I know we did!