Metz oddities 2

Metz has several tour walks through the city. Some are historical, others are entertainment focused. Heinrich liked the one with the dragon design. There were triangles with the dragon symbol in the side walk. To follow the tour one just goes from triangle to triangle like a treasure hunt.

The dragon is a symbol of Metz. There is a story about an old dragon that lived in the city and was a protector of the area. There were lots of places with a dragon on the building or in the design. Heinrich really likes the weather vanes in the shape of the dragon.

While Heinrich was following the pavement tours he found a welcome station. There are scattered through the city some pavement toilets. They are tall round stands. When you put money in the door it slides opens and reveals a toilet inside the tower. When you go in the door slides shut, you do what you need to do, then the door slides open again. On a cold winter day of walking a bathroom break was a really good idea.

On the edge of town is a branch of the Pompidou Center. In Paris the main Pompidou Center is a modern art museum with some very playful art work. In Metz is a branch with its own collection of modern art.

The influence of the modern art seems to ooze into the city. Heinrich found a utility box that someone had decorated like a little Charlie Chaplin with a curly moustache. It was a nice visit in Metz. Heinrich decided he would have to come back on a little warmer day.

 

Metz Oddities Part 1

After visiting the cathedral Heinrich toured other parts of Metz. He found a much more modern church in the city. The steeple for this church was not attached to the building but soared very high into the sky. It seemed to be a hundred feet tall.

Nearby were the botanical gardens. It was a pretty cold day and after walking for several minutes in the chilly gardens, Heinrich discovered a glass walled building. When he went in he was very happy to discover that the building was warm. It was a green house with lots of beautiful plants. One of this favorites was a Christmas cactus that was in full bloom. Heinrich really liked the Purplish red flowers.

Further into the building Heinrich discovered a citrus tree that was full of ripe fruit. He was going to taste one but the lady he was with didn't think that was a good idea and wouldn't let him try just one.

 

Not only was the greenhouse full of beautiful green plants there were also beautiful bird songs. Heinrich kept looking until he found where the music was coming from. He found a very large bird cage with many colorful parakeets. He enjoyed the plants, and the birds and especially the warmth, but too soon it was time to wander back out in to the chilly weather.

Metz Creche

Inside the Metz cathedral are some beautiful pieces of art work. Some of them are stained glasses windows, some are statues. One of Heinrich's favorites are the Triptychs. These are small worship shrines that can be opened or closed. The doors that open are shaped like the center portion and often have very decorative upper edges.

Heinrich was visiting during the Christmas season and found a niche of the cathedral where a very large nativity scene or crèche had been constructed. In the center was Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph.

Heinrich read a banner that was on the side of the presentation. It described how the crèche changed during the holiday season. Different characters were added and then removed as the holidays passed. The program is called the evolution of the nativity.

 

The week that Heinrich visited was the week that the shepherds had been added to the scene. The following week the shepherds were removed and the Wise men were added to the scene. It helped tell the story of the Birth of Christ and made it exciting to see what was going to be added week by week.

Metz Buildings

Metz is a city in France that is close to the border with Germany. In different wars the city has passed back and forth between the two countries. The road coming into Metz from Germany passes by a very old gate in the wall of the old city. It is a beautiful example of a defensive gate house. There are towers and walls on both sides of a bridge and the ancient road into the city had to pass through the small fortress to get into the city.

The gate is called the German Gate, not because it belonged to Germany, but because a long time ago the towers were used as a hospital run by the Teutonic Knights. Since most of the knights were from Germany the gate was named after them. Heinrich liked looking out of the fortress windows. There were some pretty views of the river that ran under the bridge.

In the center of the city is a huge cathedral. Part of the cathedral was under repair but that is true of almost every cathedral in Europe. They are very old and very big so it takes a lot of work and a lot of time to keep them in good repair.

The entrance to the Cathedral had some very nicely carved sculptures. The largest figures were of Saints and Prophets. Each one has an identifying set of symbols to help people who couldn't read to recognize the sculptures. Under the people were carved animals and faces as well.

On the other side were a second set of sculptures. These statues had different hair styles and hats. It helps understand how people along time ago dressed and how they used some of their tools. Under one of the statues is a carved elephant.

Superbowl

There are many things that are different in Germany from the United States. When Germans talk about the Football Championship they mean the World Cup Soccer tournament. No one here cares about the Super Bowl – Except the Americans. Now because of the time difference the Super Bowl started at 30 minutes after midnight and went to about 4:30 in the morning. To get a good seat Heinrich went early. He got a soft couch couch in the very front of the room. The Club had a big screen TV and about 400 Airman came to watch.

Heinrich was in such a good mood that he decided to buy a pizza. It was delicious. 

  

 

And everyone knew that Heinrich was in a good mood because he even put out for a pop. Since he has to run a lot and the pop cuts his wind Heinrich doesn't drink carbonated drinks very often. But what the heck, it was the Super Bowl. Most places in Germany don't offer refills. One drink – one fill up. But at the club its free refills. So Heinrich probably had 9 – 10 cups full. And no he didn't wet the bed that night.

During the game they had several drawings for prizes. Heinrich was very lucky. He didn't win the $1,000 but he did get some fun gifts and a couple of authentic Super Bowl Programs. He was probably most excited for his Brie cutting tray. The people giving out the gifts didn't think anyone would take a cheese tray – but they don't know Heinrich.

Berlin Aquarium

While Heinrich was walking along the pavement he came across a beautiful door way. It was painted with colorful fish and sharks and sea life.

 

As he looked closer there was an aquarium in the wall with fish swimming inside. One of the fish was large and had a huge yellow forehead.

He had found a large sea life museum and aquarium. The line was pretty long to get inside but Heinrich did get his picture taken with a friendly seahorse that was standing near the main entrance.

Fascade Nurnberg Cathedral

Heinrich visited the city of Nurnberg in southern Germany. It's an old city with a huge and impressive cathedral or Dom. Heinrich learned that a long time ago most of the people weren't able to read. So if they were going to learn about Bible stories the church leaders needed to find a different way to teach them. They had Bible stories carved into the walls of the church to teach about Jesus.

 

In the front of the cathedral over the door is a large and intricate set of carvings. There were lots of people and images carved into the stone.

The bottom two panels teach about the birth of Jesus. The first half show the shepherds in the bottom left, the wise men in the middle bringing gifts and an angel with the star of Bethlehem over Mary. Above them is Baby Jesus with his mother Mary on a bed.

 

 

On the bottom right shows Jesus being baptised in the Temple and his flight into Egypt with his mother Mary on a donkey. Above these two scenes are the images of Herod's men hurting the babies in Bethlehem.

The section above teaches about the death and Resurrection of Christ.

Along the bottom are the events leading to the crucifixion. From left to right is Christ appearing before Pilate, the beating of Jesus, the soldiers pressing the crown on his head and Jesus carrying his cross to Calvary.

In the middle is an image of Jesus being crucified.

 

On the right hand lower panel are the events after the crucifixion. The body of Jesus being taking down from the cross, The anointing and burial of Jesus and finally Christ rising out of the tomb with the soldiers sleeping around him.

The top portion of the panel shows the triumphant Christ during the Last Judgement. Under him are the scenes of the Good and Bad receiving their awards.

The first part of the Judgement is the raising of the Dead. You can see them coming out of the graves.

The Good are on the left hand of the scene (and the right hand of Christ). St Peter is preparing to lead them to Heaven. In the carving Peter is see holding the keys of Heaven.

On the other side is the image of the bad people being led down to Hell. You can see the mouth of Hell like a big gaping monster swallowing up the damned.

Sun Dial

Heinrich found a famous and huge tavern that was on a market Plaza in Rothenburg. It has a famous story about how the city was saved by a mayor who could drink 3 liters of beer in one drink. To celebrate the story the city has mechanical clock that opens up and shows a drinking statue. The statue appears in the window on the side of the big clock.

If you look closer you can see the main clock with the big golden hands. Above that is a different kind of clock. It shows what day of the month it is. And if you pay really close attention you can see a sundial at the very top of the pile.

Sundials are very common around Germany. Before clocks were popular the people relied on sundials to tell the time. They have them in lots of places. There was a big one in a vineyard that you could see from all across the valley.

Heinrich also found an old building with a really cool sundial on two sides of two corner walls. The stones were inlaid right into the brick wall. On one side is a round scroll with the numbers. On the other side is a long scroll with two kinds of numbers to tell the time.

 

Spital

Heinrich discovered an interesting old building in Nurnberg. It was a medieval building that was built over the river. It actually stands on two arches that form a little bridge for the water to flow under.

There was a carved wood sign on the side of the building that tells about the hospital being built between 1332 and 1339 with a pharmacy added in 1486.

 

The hospital has been around for a long time. And even though its been renovated several times, the apotheke (pharmacy) has been there since 1486.

 

These buildings teach how languages can come together and stray apart. A long time ago English and German were very closely related. Back then "Spital" was a place to care for sick people. The German word for house is "Haus". So these buildings were called Haus Spital. When the two languages separated English kept the combination and called a place for sick people "hospital". In German they dropped the Spital and they just call it "haus" or "Krackenhaus" (sick house). It was interesting to see how languages changed over time.

Shopping at Nurnberg

Shopping has been an interesting experience for Heinrich. Some of the things he has learned come from a long time ago. When he was in Rothenburg he found the old City Hall. On the wall next to the entrance gate are the official measuring rods. This included an iron rod that was the official one foot, the cubit (from elbow to finger length) and a rod (an important old measure for property).

 

Heinrich also found some stores that only have one kind of product. He found a fancy store that specializes in Christmas decorations. There were lots of really cool ornaments and German Christmas items. It was like a German Frankenmuth.

 

Heinrich also learned that there are some places that have very expensive and very fancy stores. In Nurnberg the fancy shopping street is Kaiserstrasse. That means the Emperor's Street and supposedly the Emperor (or Kaiser) used to shop on this street.

 

 

Heinrich was very confused when he got to Kaiserstrasse. For being such a famous and important shopping district there was almost no one there. That's when Heinrich learned that most German stores do not open on Sundays and he was visiting on a Sunday. That's why there was no one there on the day Heinrich visited.

 

Rothenburg Gate

Heinrich inspected the city gates of Rothenburg that are still very impressive. The initial guardhouse protected an entrance area where attacking enemies could be trapped. They are now little visitor centers and a small museum.

Over the gate was a huge tower that could see for a long ways around the city. It was impossible for an enemy army to sneak up on the city.

Near the top of the tower are the city's emblem, the red castle. That was like a rebus for Rothenburg. Since the name means the "red castle" a picture of a red castle was the city's symbol.

Over the inner section of the gate is a face carved into the wall. If you look close you can see the black marks under the face. The hole of the mouth extends all the way into the tower and was a place where hot oil could be poured on attacking troops, or as the tour book said, "boiling Nutella".

Under this section of the city wall is the old thick city gate. Every night this gate door was locked tight so that the city would be safe. But if a farmer or trader was late coming home, he could still get in. For a little bribe to the night guard, there was a much smaller door in the gate door that could be opened. It was big enough to let an unarmed man wiggle through but a knight in armor could never fit through the little opening. People must have been smaller back then, cause a lot of people now could never squeeze through such a small opening.