Return to Germany - Welcome to the outskirts of Freiburg

We decided to end our touring in Freiburg as it was recommended by our daughter who spent a memorable month here her second summer of college.  She found the city and it's surrounding gardens quite peaceful and beautiful - she stayed in the university area.  Freiburg is in southeastern Germany bordering France and Switzerland - it's known as culturally rich, with friendly residents (yes, much more friendly than in Berlin), and is the warmest and sunniest city in Germany.  Our hosts said there is little snow, and what falls, melts quickly.  This was our first visit to this particular city.

We arrived by train from Brussels to Freiburg's central station - and quickly grabbed our rental car and took off for Munzingen, in countryside where we stayed for a week in a lovely vineyard apartment (more on that later).  The vineyard is in Munzingen which is now part of Freiburg although you would never know it.  But, since our last two visits to Germany in 2006-7, it seems that in many cities, the US "mall culture" has taken over the "old city" sections which have been renovated as shopping areas with all the familiar commercial names.  Very boring and disturbing to say the least.  Freiburg was not the worst example but the entire old city area was taken over by shopping to the delight of many tourists - according to our AirBnB hosts, large commercial outfits have gobbled up and forced out the traditional stores in recent years - of course this has happened in the US and likely all over the rest of the world as well.  Not shoppers, we stuck more to the countryside and tiny towns.  

We went into downtown Freiburg two days after we arrived and I took this picture.  

To the right of and below the church clock tower, imprinted over the barely visible brown 

archway is "Macdonalds" - the one with which we are unfortunately familiar.  Sigh....

This is the centrepiece of the old city.  Blech.....

Fast forward to Munzingen, recently incorporated into Freiburg - just

on the outskirts - this is the front door of our little AirBnB rental at the 

Vorgrimmler Vineyard.

And here we are on one of the many plateaus which over the past ten
years were extensive landscaped, shaped and re-developed for the 

German wine industry.  In the background is likely France across the 

Rhine River.  

We were given a 3 hour walking tour by our host, followed 
(above) by wine tasting (of course) mid week after we arrived.

The many parcels are independently owned and some are marked by

signs or symbols of the winery.  We learned later that Vorgrimmler is 

the only bio organic vineyard in the entire area.  This affords them an

excellent foothold on a niche market which has not yet expanded

in Germany to the extent it has in the US.  All other vineyards in the
area work together cooperatively and grow grapes which are 
blended in a local co-op processing building.  

These elfin figures are on guard in the yard next to the barn

 of the vineyard where we stayed.  

And above is a figure carved from wood, 

guarding the woodpile!  There is a school of sculpting 

in the town of Munzingen (Freiburg) and because the tools made

so much noise in the middle of town, the work area has been 

moved from main street to the vineyards behind Vorgrimmler farm.  Different

finished and unfinished pieces of art made of wood or stone can

been seen in many locations.  

As luck has it, there was a ripe apple tree in the front yard, right 

outside our window - with Gravensteins, an old German apple

variety not readily available even in Germany - Danny's favourite

apple in California since we left the apple abundance of New

England.  It has a very short season and we happened to arrive 

at the perfect time for unlimited Gravensteins.

More of a close up of that wonderful apple tree.

Peaches were abundant as well - all organic - no washing

necessary here on the farm.

This was a floral display I enjoyed looking at - right 

around the corner from where we stayed.  The "pots" are

9" tall cement forms stacked about 7 feet high as a

retaining wall behind several homes built in the last 10 years 

Empty bottles in the barn awaiting the 2014 harvest - we 
added one or two more during our stay! 

The largest plateau at the top of the hill (Tuniberg) belonged to the Vorgrimmlers.

It was exclusively set aside to grow their "Spatburgunder rottwein" grapes 

(German version of pino noir), our favourite wine of our stay.  We sampled bottles 

from '09, '10, and '11.  2012 is still fermenting in barrels in their basement!  

More vines with Vorgrimmler land in the far background.  

This is the restaurant where we ate the night we arrived in Munzingen

The Red Line Museum - Antwerpen

We weren’t sure what we would do on our day trip to Antwerp – about an hour ride on the train from Brussels.  Antwerp architecturally is just beautiful if one can overlook the usual tourist centric businesses and USA mall stores which are unfortunately pervasively and invasively present in every city we visited in Europe.  We decided to head for the port area which was basically a straight line couple of kilometres from Central Station. After walking around a bit and admiring the buildings, we had enough time to go to one museum and looked up one close to the water – and discovered The Red Star Line Museum.

Between 1873 and 1935 the Red Star Line shipping company transported almost three million people from Antwerp to America and Canada. The buildings of the Red Star Line, are still in existence (below).  We did not at first recognise their significance when we walked past them on the way to the museum.  However, inside were old photographs of these structures with hundreds of immigrants sheltering and waiting underneath on benches.

What is difficult to see in the photo are the detailed stencils in the metal roof facades and decorative figures at each peak.  The structures are located in Antwerp on the Scheldt, from where the ships set off on the transatlantic voyage. It remains a place of remembrance, a "lieu de mémoire" for the millions of emigrants who set out for a new life in the States and Canada via Antwerp.  Once sheltering the immigrants, the structures have become dry docks for unusual boats or vehicle parking spaces. 

The historic sheds of the legendary shipping company with the red star in its flag currently house the Red Star Line Museum. The museum tells the story of the millions of Europeans who were courageous or desperate enough to leave their old life behind and look for a better existence. 

Above is a display of family photographs along with copies of shipping manifests and passenger lists.  Via an emotional roller coaster of high expectations and deep disappointments, racing adrenaline and sleepless nights, the dream becomes reality for some of them. The former harbour sheds of the Red Star Line are the perfect place to make the stories of countless passengers palpable and visible. Their dreams and complaints are brought to life in this inspiring environment.
 

Artefacts brought along by poor immigrants travelling in third class steerage are on display in the museum - including trunks, suitcases of the period, clothing, passports and other precious items they carried to use in their new life wherever they landed.  The Red Star Line Museum is a journey to the past and an encounter with the present. Migration might have a different face these days, but the human side of migration is timeless and universal.

Poster depicting the possible consequences of not being disinfected on arrival - the immigrants had to be inspected, showered, and inspected again to ensure no communicable diseases or pests had accompanied them on their long journey.  Any sign of contagion and they were sent back and not allowed to remain.  Families were separated if this occurred - one story board told of a family in which the sister had a medical condition and the family elected to be separated to try to make it in the United states and to send her back to relatives and have her come later.  She returned twice before being allowed to remain, over a period of several years.  Also immigrants' belongings were disinfected thoroughly in harsh chemicals as well.

Supplies being hauled off the ship in port

Not only immigrants travelled on the Red Star Line - these were cruise ships with first, second and third class (steerage/immigrant) passengers.  The upper decks were outfitted in luxurious fashion whereas steerage was overcrowded and travellers endured inhumane conditions.   Here are a few advertising posters directed to the passenger classes from the past days of the Red Star Line.

Erasmus House Day Trip

Another day trip we were directed to by our Brussels tour guide in absentia was to Erasmus House (again, via tram 81).  

 

A great humanist and reformer, Erasmus of Rotterdam only lived here for less than a year in 1521.  He originally came to the house because he was sick but after one week, he was rejuvenated and remained for 4 months. 

The house was built at the turn of the 16^th century, became a museum in 1932, and was classified as a historic building in 1937.  It contains a collection of beautiful furniture, paneling and fireplaces as well as works of art, books, engravings and archives. 

 Tourists have been visiting his house since the 17th century.  These items today give us a unique insight into various moments of European history – the Renaissance, the reign of Charles V, the rise of humanism, the development of printing and the emerging religious conflicts.  

One of the fine furniture pieces on exhibit

Amazing detail of a door panel in the chest above.

Detail of an oak staircase leading up to the library along with one of many identical chairs throughout the house.




The museum preserved many rare and ancient editions of Erasmus’s writings as well as a collection of 15^th and 16^th century paintings.  The books can be examined by scholars by appointment.  For the admission price of about $2.00, we were also given a lovely English translation of the history of the house.  

On the day we were there, there was a class of middle schoolers enjoying the exhibits – each one was given an “Erasmus hat” to wear during their visit!  


In addition to the house exhibits, the museum includes an important  garden space in the back which was specifically designed with conversation spaces for friends to meet and converse with each other. 

This archway of wisteria led into the main garden which was small and intimate.

                Doors to a storage shed - very impressive.

 

Not sure what this space was for - it appeared to be 

an enclosure of leaded glass pieces constructed into panels, some translucent, some transparent, quite high and with an open doorway, in the middle of the garden. 

                                 Grapes hanging from a fence

There were several shallow reflecting pools perhaps 5 inches deep with words suspended in the middle of each one.  The garden is wonderful to wander through or sit in in nice summer thanks to the unceasing commitment of local experts and a handful of volunteers.  The garden also contains culinary and medicinal herb gardens. 

To the Forest - Day Trip

Park in Tervuren

This is huge park situated on the edge of Brussels.  The Parc du Tervuren - of course the name reminded me of the Belgian Tervuren dog breed but I did not see any of these in Belgium, only in Israel at the airport where they are trained for military use by the IDF and help to locate bombs.  

Vast lawns with a canal in the middle

The green space is easily reachable by tram 81 (again!) to Montgomery (downtown), with a switch to another tram.  

The 2nd tram actually takes the passengers several kilometres through the forest to arrive at the park stop directly across the street.  We went in looking for the African Museum Marco suggested we check out but did not find it immediately due to the size of the park.  

The park has forest, lawns and a canal, not to mention some unusual medium sized geese and is a great place to bike or run which many do - we just spent a couple of hours hiking around the various paths and lawns.

Also dog walkers and minders of grandchildren can be seen enjoying the quiet spaces. Apparently, you can also find meteors if you walk into the forest – something I only found out when reading about the park after we went there.

It's worth walking around the alleys in the park. The stag statue was located at the entrance.  In earlier times, the park used to be the King's "holiday house", so imagine the size of the gardens...

Oddly, located in the former king’s palace (file photo, not mine - the day we tried to go, it was covered by scaffolding) is the Royal Museum for Central Africa.  It is housed in the enormous ‘palace’ (above) in the middle of the park.  It was unfortunately closed for renovation when we visited.  

but we spent some time strolling around looking at the sculptures on the lawns.  The museum mainly focuses on the Congo and tells (part of) the history of this former Belgian colony.  

All in all, we enjoyed our afternoon in this beautiful park.

Folestival!

Marco searched high and low for a typical Belgian festival to attend during our 

stay and found this one - Folestival in Longueville, Brabant, Belgium!  We all drove there mid Saturday night along with Gab and his friend Philipo.  

Featured was the 70s band, still rocking, the 

Amazing Slade!  We had a lot of fun as well as tasty refreshments!

          Setting it all up on a beautiful afternoon - rain was threatened but it was sunny and WARM.
                          We were well prepared for bad weather and all over-dressed.

The T-Shirt Logo 

                  There are two original band members from the seventies - the lead guitar and
                                                            singer and the drummer.

Appreciative audience of mostly 40s/50s folks

who danced up a storm - the cow theme

undoubtedly came from the fact that the

event was held in a very rural town surrounded

by fields of crops and cows.