Antiques

Saturday we got combine two of my faves - biking and archaeology.  The ADFC (Algemeine Deutsche Fahrrad Club - the German Biking Club) and a local museum got together and offered a bike trip to complement the current exhibit at the museum (see the previous post).  Though we're really not much for hanging out with groups, especially groups we don't know, we signed up. And really, we're not great at getting up and away before 9AM on a Saturday, but we did it anyway.  Good move!

Here we are at the main station waiting for the train to take us to Wildeshausen, the first stop of the tour.  I'm standing in front of a billboard advertising cigarettes "shaken and stirred".  What that has to do with cigarettes, I don't know, but the colors match.

Our biking tour leader was friendly and competent.  And the other guide?  Professor of Archaeology (Pre-History) at the university, State Archeologist, Head of Department at the museum.  She was great.  We forgive the black socks and sandals.  We're in Germany.

First stop was the Alexander Kirche in Wildeshausen.  It's not pre-history and wasn't directly connected to our trip agenda, but it's too nice to pass up.

This building was finished in 1290, though the church was established in the 800s.  So, old, so to say.  Like so many chuches of the time, both Romanesque and Gothic elements are there and decorations are a bit sparse.  Inside they were busy - the local TV station was getting ready for a special Sunday broadcast.  Werner checked out the camera angles - and pronounced them good.

 Next stop, the Megalith tombs.

There are hundreds of these ice age and stone age grave sites in Germany.  In Klienenkneten we saw two.

The first was impressive - monstrous boulders placed around the perimeter and then even larger boulders used as decking for the graves.  The Nazis were interested in these Germanic sites so they could establish the historical supremacy of the Germans. One archaeologist even claimed these stone age sites were the precursors of Gothic cathedrals!  His theories were debunked even at the time.  I guess there was some ethical behavior somewhere.

The second was more impressive - a site that had been reconstructed to look as it would have way back when with the stones and then the dirt covering the boulders decking the graves.  Even an entrance to the grave - dark and small and creepy.

How they moved the boulders here and placed them so well is a secret yet to be discovered.  But the Egyptians did it with the pyramids and the Celts did it in England.  Clever people back then,

Break time!  We'd not got any further than where we started!  Back to Wildeshausen for lunch.  We'd packed sandwiches and snacks but decided to have them later.  Bad move.  We had the worst meal I have had ever had in Germany.  I kid you not.  A sandwich an American would be embarrassed about - half-toasted white bread (!!!) with a super thin slice of ham and cheese and some lettuce.  I ordered "tacos with warm cheese sauce" which turned out to be taco CHIPS (really not good, really) with a too-sweet tomato sauce.  I asked "where's the cheese sauce?" and got a toe-cheese concoction that was inedible.  Even the wasp wasn't interested in the food and tried to commit suicide in Werner's beer!

Back on the road - to another stone age grave site, this time in someone's front yard. Can you imagine - you buy a house and then discover a 5,000 year-old grave site you have to take care of.  Cool.

Note the boulder in the center, just enough over the edge of the lower one to keep it up.  How did they do that?  How does it last 5,000 years?

Along the way we saw fences of huge boulders. The guide had told us the ancient sites had been plundered for their stones, for building foundations, for fences and even whittled down for road pavers!  Ya gotta wonder where these stones came from.

Off again for a longer bit on the bikes to the charming little village of Dötling, where we visited a charming church where they were just ending a charming wedding.  We'll have to go back.  As much as we've toured and visited and looked, there are still little jewels to be discovered practically at our back door.

The last stop was a "memorial" cemetery first established in the 1930s - again something to atempt to connect the modern Germans to some ancient (superior) race.

Even at the time, the Nazi regime thought it kooky and banned it temporarily.  If it weren't for all the negative associations, I'd find the place quite appealing.  All the graves are of natural stone, all religious symbolism is forbidden and the landscaping is all native - heather, wild berries, evergreens.  They unfortunately didn't respect the ancient burial sites and have made more archaeological investigation difficult.


So, the end.  We bade goodbye to the group as they headed off to the train station and the trip back to Bremen,  We decided to bike back home - only another 15K.  It was a bit more challenging than some parts of the trip and my knee and our hind parts were talking to us.


Half way home we found an ice cream shop, so at  7:30 we had dinner - chocolate and mint chip for me, mango and currant for Werner.  That works!


And we arrived at the ferry just in time to see a sunset over the Weser!  Great day!  The ADFC can expect to see us again on a tour.