Our day in Cologne

Zero and I enjoyed a very successful trip to Cologne last week. We arrived in the city at about 10.45 (their time). The main railway station is next door to the Cathedral, so we first paid our respects to the relics of the Magi. Thought this was not that easy, given the number of tourist visitors/tour groups in the Cathedral at the time. The area of the Cathedral before the "jewelled Madonna" had been set aside as an area for prayer, our visit occurring on the Solemnity of the Assumption.

There is a representation facing on to Roncalliplatz, next to the Cathedral, showing Pope John Paul II handing over to Pope Benedict XVI the logo for the 2005 World Youth Day, held in Cologne, soon after the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

After an early lunch, we then crossed the Rhine to visit the Koln Triangle. We went for the view, not for the experience of the innovative technologies. The views are very good, but the images on the website make features such as the Cathedral appear much larger than they appear in reality. An idea of the views from the panorama can be gained by watching the video at this page (but note that the construction work shown is now complete, with a nice modern building hidden behind the somewhat modernist facade). Our official visit photographs were taken here.

 

 

The address of the Koln Triangle is 1 Ottoplatz, and it is on the edge of the area of Cologne known as Deutz. The Otto involved was the engineer who, working in Deutz in the 1870's, invented the four stroke piston engine .... without which we would not have the engines in most of our cars.

We re-crossed the Rhine to visit the Cologne City Museum (sorry, no English language site). This portrays - in reverse - the history of the city of Cologne and, on the second floor, something of the different elements of the life and culture of Cologne. There is an English language audio-guide, though it does not cover all the displayed items. A display case showing the Catholic culture of the city includes as an exhibit a "pilgrims rucksack" from teh 2005 World Youth Day, as modelled by Zero in the photograph above. A very telling pair of photographs show the city at the end of the Second World War compared to after its re-building - some 80% of the city's buildings had been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by Allied bombing. At the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church condemned actions "designed for the reasoned and methodical extermination of an entire race, nation, or ethnic minority" (Gaudium et Spes n.79), actions that Cologne experienced during the Second World War with the deportation of some 11 000 Jews to concentration camps.  Similarly condemned were those acts of war "directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants" (Gaudium et Spes n.80), again something experienced by the city of Cologne as a result of Allied bombing which killed 20 000 people during the course of the Second World War.

There was much more to see in the museum, which is a good visit if you want to gain some sense of the history and culture of the city of Cologne.

Our return to the airport from the main railway station was smooth enough for us. However, some of the inter-city trains were being shown with delays of up to two hours .... It would appear the cause of these problems might have been staff holidays at Mainz.

Where on earth?

 

A real challenge this week! And, yes, photographs taken yesterday while Zero and I were on a day out.

 

This is not quite the clever photograph for the week .... but if you look carefully you can see through the Church (that is indeed what it is) to the trees behind it.

 

This is the clever photograph for the week. I will be discrete about what Zero chose to read (or, if I am honest, I can't remember, no short term memory ...), but do look at the reflections in the window.

Yours truly meditating on the mystery of life. St Catherine of Siena has an important reflection on the Christ as the bridge reaching between heaven and earth, across the waters of the deep, with a hostelry of Holy Church on the way across. What I was actually doing, though, was listening to the sound of the water running over the weir beneath the bridge ....

 

And the last for readers of a certain age, and as a hint as to where on earth we were....

Navestock

Zero has been complaining that readers may believe that she has ceased to exist, since she has not been referred to for some time.

This photo, and close up, was taken yesterday, in the Church yard of the Church of St Thomas the Apostle in Navestock, Essex, as we started off on a 6 mile walk. In the background, and at the right hand edge of the main photograph, you can see a low fence around a dip in the grave yard. This marks the place where a landmine was dropped during 1940, causing significant damage to the Church.

Our walk took in a visit to the Diocesan House of Prayer at Abbotswick where we sat in the garden to eat our lunch and had a chat with Sr Gabi before leaving to complete the walk.

The day was cold, but with bright sunshine all day. Navestock is perhaps 10 minutes drive from where we live.

Cuckoo

This is the Roding valley, in the countryside near Fyfield in Essex, at somewhere around noon today. Hidden in the trees, hedges and water course along the edge of this field is a cuckoo. We did hear it - twice.

As I post, the clouds have arrived, the thunder is rumbling and the downpour is about to begin ...

Lambourne End

It should really be a film title, shouldn't it? It was the start and end point of the walk that Zero and I did last weekend. It is worth remembering that all of this is just 10 minutes drive from where we live.

The first part of this walk is in Hainault Forest. An emergency call to start with, necessitating a diversion from the planned route:

The route of the planned first part of our walk shown in red, the diversion in blue:

Next, it was the meadows behind the rather posh houses of Chigwell Row (in effect, their back gardens):



Didn't get a photograph of the waterworks, though, as the map above suggests, there are lovely views across east London from that part of the walk. The section of the walk from Old Farm up to Pudding Lane takes you up a hill that also gives good views behind you across east London and, to your left, over towards the southernmost end of the M11.

And ending here, back where we had begun, for dinner:

Muddiness rating: moderate.

Zero's 50th birthday

Some people celebrate a 50th birthday by doing adventurous things like a weekend in Paris.

Zero went to Ingatestone, for a muddy walk.

This was NOT the muddiest section of the walk - too busy negotiating the pigs and the whole of the boots immersed in mud to take photos at the muddiest part!

Boots after emerging from the farm yard, pigs etc.

Early in our walk we visited St Mary's Church, Buttsbury, a short distance from our starting point of Ingatestone Hall.

The Church in today's lovely sunshine.

View from the Church looking back towards Ingatestone.

A view inside the Church.

After the meander through muddy fields, farm yards etc, we arrived at another Church, St Giles, Mountnessing. With the sun going behind some cloud, the temperature had dropped somewhat by now so it was too cold for us to sit long over "lunch" (3 pm, by this time - the unscheduled sausage roll and tea break BEFORE we started walking - at about 12 noon - original estimated time of start was 10.30 am! - also helped cause this). We have visited St Giles on previous walks from Ingatestone, so no new photographs.

It was then to dinner at Margaretting.

And from there to home, for the ceremony of the cutting of The Cake.

First, Zero dressed to match the colour scheme of The Cake. (The £20 note also happened to match the colour scheme, and so was enlisted into the photograph.)

Then, the lighting and blowing out of candles.

The Cake was splendid to taste!

Welcome, Zero, to the "second half century" club!

Zero's birthday cake

Romford's Royal Heritage

Well, not quite Romford, more like Havering-atte-Bower, which is the former site of a Royal Palace. On Friday last, Zero and I braved the mist and gloom - well, actually, most of the day was quite sunny - to undertake this walk. It isn't anything like the 8 miles suggested, and you never escape the noise of the traffic from surrounding roads - the A12, A127 and M25 are all proximate. Some lovely views at different points of the walk. At this time of year it is definitely a "muddy boots" walk!

The don't make gate posts like they used to! According to the walk leaflet, this is one of the pair of gate posts that is all that remains of the Pyrgo estate. Staying here, according to legend, Henry VIII decided to reinstate his daughters to the line of succession having dined with them here.

About 2 pm, on a north facing slope. The mist never quite cleared from here!

About 40 minutes later!

Heading off along a "permissive way" (as opposed, I suppose, to a "right of way").

As we were heading for home from Bedfords Park, the mist had come down again.

All of this is within a few minutes drive of where we live at the eastern end of London's urban sprawl - so we are quite lucky!

A blonde joke

I haven't done one of these before, but am following the example of an expert. I am having a go now, in the interests of gender equality...

Q. How do I know that my car has been built for a single male driver?

A.When my front seat passenger (that's where the blonde comes in) has to wait until we reach our destination before winding down the window and using the rear view mirror to complete the application of lipstick, since there is no mirror mounted on the back of the sun shield.

At the seaside ...

A day out yesterday to Frinton, to paddle in the sea. Lots of families out on the beach and in the sea.

Home via Holy Mass at Ingatestone; and ending here for dinner ...

Bluebells ... and Coggeshall

We started our walk at St Paul's Church, Bentley, which is part of this three-church benefice in the Church of England. It looks a bit different in rain than it does on the website.

If you go walking in the rain, it is always wise to be waterproof - even down to footwear! This is in Mores Wood, just outside Brentwood.

These next photographs are from a walk from Kelveden to Coggeshall (and back) three weeks ago. The building in the background of the second photograph is part of the remains of Coggeshall Abbey which, as you can see, are in use as a stables.

There is a much better quality of signage on the roads in these far flung corners of the Essex countryside. I suppose you have to just toss a coin to decide which is the best way back to Kelvedon!

Thursday is the new Saturday

Delayed post, this one, as my brain has had difficulty working this week.

Saturday last a midwife, an English teacher, two Physics teachers and two teenagers went out walking. We went out on this walk, though the weather and conditions underfoot were a bit different this time.

There was no rape, so this view was now possible where it hadn't been in May. This was just about the point in the walk where we had heard the cuckoo last May.

The Church is that at Buttesbury. Ah, isn't it cute!

Meanwhile, the teenagers nearly got away, as the grown ups set off in hot pursuit!

Can we assume that they were engaged in a deep debate about the meaning of life?

The bright sunshine disguises the fact that it had been freezing overnight, and shady parts of the ground still had a crisp crunch to them. The water in this dyke was still covered by ice, though a physics teachers attempt to be artistic with a photograph wasn't altogether successful.

At this point you have to imagine the bluebells that were here in May.

A fair amount of rain during the previous week ensured that some points of the walk had ample helpings of that delightful phenomenon ... MUD. Somehow, it seemed to attract the teenagers ...

St Giles Church, Mountnessing ....

.... was followed by more MUD as we crossed fields (on the public footpaths, I might add). Eventually, a democratic vote was held as to whether to continue across the fields or take to the road. Needless to say, a tie - 3 votes for each way. Teenagers voting for the MUD, of course. In a true sense of libertarianism, each did there own thing - three ventured through the MUD and three walked the road.

The midwife and the English teacher ... another attempt at an artistic photograph, trying to capture the Mountnessing sign between them.

Next comes the mill at Mountnessing, used at one time for grinding corn.

I think the shadows of the people in this second photograph are quite artistic. Except, perhaps, for the photographers shadow in the bottom right hand corner ......

The clouds apparent in the first of these photographs was a foreshadowing of the heavy rain and sleet that was to arrive within about 30 minutes of this photograph being taken. We had by then made it back to Ingatestone Hall and the cars. In daylight, too, not after spending our last half hour blundering along in the dark.

Ingatestone was only an excuse to be near Margaretting - the next village out along the A12. We did have time, however, to return home to Romford and drive back out again for dinner.