My Trips To Trier, The Oldest City In Germany.

The main square

I visited Germany for the first time last year. I had always wanted to go because I have a great interest in history, particularly World War 2, and the Third Reich, and I suppose having spent so much of my life studying history, I just wanted to get a feel for the place and the people. Of course that is not to say that particular period in history should be or is what defines Germany or its people, however I suppose like any country’s history, the major events, will forever have an impact on how people see it, and in terms of visiting a country, people will always remember these historical events and try to imagine the country during them.

I see visitors to Dublin all of the time, and they are all interested in the Irish struggle for freedom from the British, so they seek out the places that are associated with the War of Independence, and the later Civil War etc. So for that reason, I would love to go Berlin and to visit all of the monuments and places of interest there from a historical perspective. I did however visit Trier on the banks of the Mosel River, and remembered all that I knew of the history of the city during World War Two. In 1944 the city was very heavily bombed and bombarded, and it was also the place where 60,000 British prisoners of war were marched to when they were captured at Dunkirk. From here they were taken to prisoner-of war camps elsewhere in Germany. I felt the history of the War coming alive when I visited Trier, and imagined the agony of the people of the city, and of those captured and sent there.

The Porta Nigra

Trier is on the banks of the Mosel River. It is a beautiful, picturesque city. My daughter was studying Business and German in the University of Trier for a year, so that was the main purpose of my visits. The town is magical, the buildings look like they could have come out of a fairytale. There is a beautiful central square, and it is surrounded by shops, restaurants, the toy museum, a lovely church, and just off it the Dom, an amazing cathedral. Several streets lead off the square, and the main street brings you back down to the Porta Nigra, the large Roman city gate in Trier, built between 186 and 200AD. It is quite amazing, and is a world heritage site. Trier is in fact the oldest city in Germany.

The Cathedral of Trier, is also the oldest in Germany, built by Constantine The Great, the first Christian Roman Emperor. It houses many great art works, and is very beautiful. Karl Marx house is also in Trier. He was born there in 1818 and it is now a museum. Trier also boasts the remains of one of the best Roman Baths of its time, dating back 1,600 years. The Constantine Basilica, now a Protestant church, is also worth visiting, as is the Electors Palace, and the Palace garden.

The hotel we stayed in

In the main market square you will find many half timbered houses, a church, a medieval fountain, the cathedral and the Jewish Quarter. As I have said, it is also the main shopping and eating area. It is a pleasure to sit at one of the caves with tables and chairs on the square, and watch the world go by, whilst listening to the beautiful sound of the church bells tolling.

Trier at Christmas is a delight. I visited in October, December, and July, but I think I enjoyed the December visit the most. The Christmas market was really incredible because it felt just like stepping into the pages of a magnificently illustrated children’s Christmas story book. The sights, sounds, and smells were what one expects of Christmas, but rarely gets. The atmosphere was great, and all of the things for sale in the market were of excellent quality, and craftsmanship. The mulled wine was delicious, as was all of the food on sale at the stalls. I was just sorry that I hadn’t been aware of Trier and its great Christmas market when my kids were small. They would have really loved it, and it would have delivered that incredible Christmas feeling we all love, the one that makes us all become children again and believe in Santa Clause! I was there on the 6th of December, a special day in the German Christmas calendar, and there were lovely carol singers on the square, and Santa Clause himself!

My three visits to Trier were amazing, the people of the city were so friendly, helpful, and nice. The shops were great, restaurants great (and inexpensive) the sights beautiful, a wonderful experience all round. I am a committed Francophile, but I think I could become a Germanophile too!

Christmas Market

Electors Palace behind the Basilica of Constantine

Unfortunately I was not using a good camera, so check out some other pictures on the internet!

Old Postcards. Finds at Antique Fair Yesterday.

An Irish Jaunting Car. Dublin 1912

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Dublin, and I went to an Antiques and Collectibles Fair with my daughter, and then on to lunch in a lovely restaurant in front of the sea. She had not been to one for years, in fact since she was about ten, and was a bit reluctant to go. However she is now converted to the joy and pleasure to be had from rummaging around one of these fairs, she was amazed at the sheer diversity of things that people collect and sell. She was particularly taken with the vintage American jewellery, especially the amazing broaches, and also with the elegant pieces of Wedgwood Pottery. Of course she is used to me collecting postcards. But while helping me to search for some for my collection, she was intrigued by the writing on the back of the cards, as much as by the pictures. I personally love to find cards with interesting things written on them, and love to imagine people’s lives, by noting the date, and thinking of what was happening in the world at that time!.

Wicklow Ireland.

Killeney Beach, Co Dublin

Cologne Cathedral

Coney Island. New York.

Old Train. 1911

The postcard of the Irish Jaunting car was the most expensive, and I really like it.

I love the one of Co Wicklow because of what is written on it. The sender sent it to a friend who was a collector of postcards!

I love the Killiney Beach card because that is the beach nearest to my house, and my daughter used to go to school just down the road. It still looks very much the same today, except that today Bono of U2 fame has his beautiful house on the hill looking over the beach, as do several other celebrities!

The picture of Cologne cathedral reminded me of a trip to Cologne last year with my daughter, it was an amazing sight, enormous, and beautiful.

I bought the Coney Island card for my daughter. She loves New York, and it will be the first card in her collection!

I love trains, particularly old ones, so that’s why I bought this card.

What To Do With Old Abercrombie Sweatshirts

My Abercrombie and Gap Cushions!

Just a quick post to share a creative idea that I had a while ago. My son grew out of his Abercrombie sweatshirts, and I was on my way to the clothes recycling bank to put them in, when I had a good idea. I thought I would make cushions out of them. I was in the process of decorating his room at that time, and was going to buy fabric to make cushions anyway. So I continued on to the recycling center and put the rest of the clothes in, and then I went home got out my machine and started sewing!

Just a little note on the Abercrombie sweatshirts. At the time that he got them, we had to order them from America, as there was no shop selling them in Ireland. (One just opened a few weeks ago here) This particular brand of clothes were all the rage with teenagers, they all just loved them, and still do I guess, and getting a big box of clothes arriving in the post, including tee-shirts,shirts and sweatshirts was very exciting for him, so he was delighted with me turning them into cushions!

My first sweatshirt cushion!

Second cushion.

Third cushion.

When does an Interest Become an Obsession?

Our endless fascination with Hitler and The Third Reich.

I am interested in a lot of things; books, culture, politics, quilt-making, furniture restoration, and loads more, however a big interest of mine is History. I love World War 2 History in particular, and I have a deep interest in the Third Reich. I am not unusual in that respect. The fascination with Hitler has never waned, people are as interested or “obsessed” today as they were 30 or 40 years ago.

Today I was shopping with my daughter and she suggested that I was in fact not merely interested in history, but “obsessed” with History, and said that instead of buying the History magazine that I had selected, I should buy a current affairs magazine. I get current affairs all day long on the radio, and plenty of it in the weekend papers, and what I miss, I can be sure she will fill me in on, as she is a Political junkie, and “obsessed” with current affairs.

In the end I didn’t buy a magazine, I decided to come home and finish my book, which incidentally is about World War 2. Well, to be more specific, it is about the fortunes of one particular Jewish family, and their eventual financial ruin in the wake of World War 2. It is also a biography and more besides. (The Hare With Amber Eyes. )  she also says that I should change the type of books I read, as quite a number of them are history related in one way or another.

Jewish children in Poland.

So I got to thinking, am I “obsessed” with History, or merely very interested in it. When I came home I went through my collection of books, and reminded myself of what I have read, the the authors range from, Colum Mc Cann, Curtis Sittenfeld, Mohsin Hamin, Emily Bronte, Douglas Kennedy, John Steinbeck, Laurence Rees, to Abert Speer, and Plato, and Solzhenitsyn. I could go on and on. I have to admit there is a lot of history on the shelves, and a lot of historical novels, but also a vast amount of books on travel writing, another passion of mine.

I then picked up the weekend paper, (I always keep the weekend papers and read them all week), and came across an article called, “The nagging guilty feeling that keeps us hooked on Hitler”. The writer begins by telling us that no matter what happens, even in recession when it is difficult enough to sell books, the “one topic guaranteed to shift books by the lorry load; Hitler and the Nazis”. This journalist was interviewing, Ian Kershaw, an authority on this subject, having written 13 books on it to date. He asked him what was the fascination for people, after more than 65 years since the Führer’s death. A question I have often asked myself, and a question which my daughter obviously wants an answer to as well. Kershaw gave the following answer.

“It is a fascinating question, which I ask myself the whole time, and I still don’t know. There is obviously a macabre fascination about the extremes of absolute power and the fact that this man unleashed the worst genocide in History, the worst war in History.”

The interviewer suggests that there are perhaps alot of weird individuals who are fascinated with this period  too, “the leather, the SS insignia, the jackboots, the sadism,” and I am sure there are. Kershaw has devoted his career to the study of Hitler and the Nazis, he was originally a Medievalist, but whilst engaging in conversation with a German in 1972  in Bavaria, he was shocked by what he heard.

“You English were so foolish. If you had sided with us, we could have ruled the world. The Jew is a louse.”

Another great book from Ian Kershaw.

Kershaw was utterly shocked and decided to study the subject, and it became his life’s work. His latest book, seeks to answer the question, why did the German people fight to the bitter end, and keep Hitler in place, unlike in the First World War. He asks many more questions, like why did the German people continue to believe in Hitler and his policies, even when they knew what was happening, the Holocaust etc, and why the prospect of national extinction seemed preferable to the surrender to the Soviet Union. The answers are complex, many and varied, and I will not go into  them now, as the point of this post is not a review of the book as such. One last point about Kershaw is that he is a “Germanophile,” (as I am a “Francophile”). This might seem paradoxical considering what he writes about, “the foulest chapter in that peoples history, a moral wound that can never be closed.” However I for one am forever grateful for his interest  or “obsession” with this subject, as I suspect are a great many people. I believe it was the single worst period in the History of the World, and there are still lessons to be learned from it. So I have decided if Kershaw, a renowned author writes prolifically on this subject, without knowing why it fascinates so many people, then I shall continue to read on the subject, for I know why it fascinates me!

For anyone who might be interested, you can find a review of the book here.

From Ireland to the Philippines.

Today I posted my first postcard to my new blogging friend, Sandra in the Philippines. Sandra came across my very first post when I started reluctantly blogging, after months of pressure from my daughter! Anyway she liked my post and a subsequent one I posted about how I collect old postcards, and she suggested that she would like to send me a postcard now and then from the Philippines. I was delighted with her gesture, and agreed. She posted my card a few days ago, and she blogged about it yesterday, and put up a picture of  the actual card for me to see, but with the greeting blocked out. She said she did that just in case my card fails to arrive, then she will unblock it on and I can see it online! What a good idea! I have decided to do the same.

I think Sandra being the first person I met online, and her being so nice and enthusiastic and friendly has got me hooked on blogging!

Your postcard is on the way, Sandy! It should be there in 6 to 8 days, the first of  many!

Postcard for Sandy!!