Visit To Mülheim 5th to 13th September 2000
We left Darlington at midday on Tuesday 5th and travelled to Hull for the 1900 sailing to Rotterdam,stopping en route at Beverley for a couple of hours. Travelling with Hodgson's Coaches of Barnard Castle, we soon found a good rapport with our driver, Reg Spence, which was fortunate for me as we would be spending a lot of time together as guests of the same German hosts, Ingeborg and Karl Rudiger-Schaefer. Most of the party had pre-booked meals on board the 'NORSUN', and these turned out to be excellent value, as i feasted for almost three hours sitting with Reg, Norman and June, through a substantial menu washed dow by vedry good albeit reasonably cheap red wine. After leaving the restaurant in what had by now developed into a holiday mood, we went to the bar on the next deck up, where we met Floris, Reg the Elder and Young Vin for a nightcap, (or two or three), before retiring at about 0130 only to rise again at the ungodly hour of 0600 for an equally substantial breakfast, to which I was unable to do much credit. If i hadn't been sharing a cabin with Vin, who is real value as an alarm clock, I wouldn't have made breakfast at all.
Leaving Europort at 0900 we made painfully slow progress for an hour because of the tremendous volume of traffic trying to exit Europe's largest port, however thereafter had a pleasant journey through the Dutch and German countryside, before arriving at the 'Handelshof Hotel' in Mulehim where the majority of our party were staying. at about 1300 Reg and I were met by Ingeborg who drove me back to her home in Monningstrasse, which was about 3 miles from the town centre in the direction of Duisburg., whilst Reg followed in his bus for which there was ample parking near our new Deutschheim. After depositing our baggage and breaking the ice with our hostess, (Karl was on his way back from South Africa and did not arrive until later that evening), we returned to Mülheim to be officially welcomed by the Mayor Lisa Poungias at Castle Broich, the oldest remaining Carolingian castle complex north of the Alps, which is now used for official receptions and as an adult education centre. We were then given a guided tour of the castle, seeing excavations proving the exsitence of previous fortifications built to guard against Viking s advacing in 883.Later that evening we were invited to dinner at the "MOlchmer" restaurant in the Rathaus, given jointly by the Mülheim TTA and the Verkehrsverein, which is the local organisation for the upkeep of tourist attractions, facilities etc. This was in the precence of the Oberburgermeister DR Jens Baganz, who again welcomed us, a suitable response being made by Isobel. Having fortunately discovered that Reg was teetotal ,Ingeborg allowed him to drive us home in her car, a job that he was to keep and treasure during the next few days, for as he himself said when would he ever again get the chance to drive a top of the range Merc.
On Thursday we rose at 0730 to a typical German Frúhstuck, Muesli andd fruit, cold meats, cheese and various breads including Schwarzbrot, which was excellent. We then went to the Handelshof to collect the rest of the party for a guided coach tour of Mülheim ending at the Aquarius Water Museum at 1200. In this old water tower on different levels in themed areas, the facets of water knowledge are displayed and enjoyed through hands on experience of computerised video simulations of the history and control of water systems on the Ruhr. From the top of the tower you also get a tremendous panoramic view of the whole area. Lunch was provided by the Rheinisch-Westfallisch Wasserwerksgesellschaft in the form of a gorgeously chunky local meat stew. After a much too short look around the museum we were taken by coach to the Wasserbahnhof where at 1500 we boarded the Weisse Flotte vessel "Friedrich Freyer", for a river trip to the charming village of Kettwig, passing beneath the impressive Ruhrtalbrucke, (built 1963-66), on the way. We strolled through this pretty village for a couple of hours before returning to our hotel by coach. Following a quick wash and brush up a few of us boarded the train to Dússeldorf for a pub crawl arranged and led by Rudi. A very imposing city with expensive shops, great pubs and retaurants, especially on the Rhine frontage. Local schnapps excellent and beer to die for!
Friday was a free day and after breakfast we toured Duisburg by car eventually arriving at the harbour area, Ruhrort, which is at the confluence of the rivers Ruhr and Rhine. We had our beer on the east bank of the Rhine whilst watching the steady flow of barges floating south towards Strasborg or north to Rotterdam. In its heyday Duisborg was the largest inland port in Europe, exporting the products of the industrial Ruhrgebiet worldwide. After this very pleasant morning Ingeborg took Reg and i for lunch at her tennis club wher the Jaegerschnitzel was first class. In the afternoon Karl and his neighbour took us to "Der Ball ist Rund" exhibition which was being staged inside the Oberhausen gasometer, specially converted for such use. It celebrated the centenary of the German Football Association and exibits had been sought from throughout the footballing world, as well as TV footage of bygone famous matches including the unfogettable Geoff Hurst "in off the bar"" goal in the 1966 World Cup Final. This goal was replayed evewry 30 seconds to groans of all visitors except two! They even had a photo of the Stadium Of Light to add culture to the proceedings. From the roof of the Gasometer you could see for miles in all directions the remnants of heavy industry mixed with the subtle environmental changes following on the decline. We then visited the Centro O shopping centre and leisure complex in Oberhausen before returning home. That evening we attended a buffet dinner at the Handelshof at the invitation of the local twinning association and the Vehrkehrsverein, which was followed by a slide show of their visit to Darlington in 1999. On our way home we called at the local wine festival being held in the square behind the hotel, this obviously being an event not to be missed.
On Saturday a full day excursion to Aachen was arranged, and as many of the locals wished to go we were provided with a ;larger coach giving Reg a free day. Karl suggested that rather than going on the coach we should take the car and meet the others there, as he said a half day in Aachen was sufficient and then we could go to Cologne on the afternoon, a place I was eager to visit. We set off at 0900 and on the way passed Baesweiler, an old mining town which my mother-in-law had visited in 1977 with the Easington Twinning Association. We were given a guided tour of Aachen with it's magnificent cathedral started in the late 8th century by Charlemagne, our guide being Dieter Fuchs a Mülheim geography teacher and member of their association. During the tour he plied us with trays of various types of gingerbread to the delight of our sweet toothed party. Yhe unending hospitality continued with lunch and drinks at the hotel "Zum Wehrhaften Schmeid", where we were joined by the Schaefer's son Arne, who is in his final year of medicinal studies at the local University, and his girlfriend. At 1400 we left Aachen and drove to the historic city of Cologne, which i had longed to visit since watching 20 episodes of the BBC learning zone programme "Deutschland Plus", all based in this city. On the way we were entertained by Reg with one of the most hilarious comedy routines of life in a 1960s holiday camp. I was not diappointed with Cologne, and besides seeing it's cultural aspects was introduced to Kolsch beer, which is the pride of Kóln but evidently abhorred by Dússeldorfers! We toured the Cathedral and lazed for a while on the riverbank in sight of the impressive array of bridges, before strolling through the old marketplace wher we had enormous ice creams. On the return to Mülheim we passed Bayer Leverkusen football stadium, and in the ensuing conversation discovered that Schalke 04, presently top of the Bundesliga ., are based in Gelsenkirchen not far from Mülheim. Maybe they will be playing Sunderland in next years European Cup. Later that evening Reg and I went looking for a pub near Monningstrasse and soon found a quiet bar in which there were only two other customers. I inquired of them in my best German as to whether there were any other bars in the vicinity, and the man laughingly retoeted in an Irish brouge that the only other bar would be closing soon. His name was Dave McCann, an ex British jockey who had been living in the area for 24 years and had been riding that afternoon at the local Raffelberg racecourse, only half a mile from our lodgings. Once he was assured that I had a good knowledge of the racing game we drifted into the dim and distant past swapping yarns about the colourful and sometimes dubious sides of the sport of kings. We toasted each other in turn with beer and schnapps chasers until the sensibly teetotal Reg was able to drag me away. I was unable to take up Dave's kind invitation to the next days race meeting at Krefeld, where he sais he would introduce me to the other British jockeys such as Billy Newnes and Kevin Woodburn, and would probably point me in the direction of a few winners!
At 0900 on Sunday we set off on a coach tour of Essen, twinned with Sunderland, before later arriving at the Zollverein Coking Plant, just north of Essen, which closed in 1993, but instead of being demolished was renovated for the "Sun, Moon and Stars" exhibition which we were here to se, and would be the future home of subsequent exhibitions. At night it basks in the glow of light visible from far away. It's message is the dependance on, and profit we gain from these heavenly bodies through culture and the nature of energy, but also of the destructive forces they can unleash on our planet.with devastating consequences. Again our gracious hosts provided us with lunch and metric jugs of beer in the Kokerei Cafe, before we continued our coach journey to the castle of Linn at Krefeld, in the grounds of which a "British Days" country fair was being held. The setting was pretty but the fair reminded me of Catterick Market, except that the young girl on the Newcastle Brown Ale stall didn't understand,"Whats that ganna cost us hinny?", and proceeded to charge £3 a pint! She turned out not to be from Geordieland but from Leverkusen! We returned home at 1800 and had dinner on the house terrace, just Ingeborg, Karl and myself, as Reg was off to stay with friends he had made on a previous visit to thr region. A succulent meal of sausage wrapped in cabbage and oven baked, along with a yellowy tinted mashed potato, was enjoyed accompanied by a considerable amount of beer and schnapps, and while Karl and I put the world to rights discussing the merits of Von Daniken, early retirement, football and numerous other subjects, Ingeborg listened intently to what she later described as stimulating and intelligent conversation fading away into rubbish as the alcohol set in! The remainder of our party had gone that evening to the 10th Saarner Orgeltage, (with the organist of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris), but I had gracefully declined the invitation as i had heard his mate on the bells and was not impressed.
Spot on 0900 on Monday we left on a trip to Xanten, the only place name in Germany to begin with X. We arrived at the roman archealogical park at 1030 and were immediately amazed at its size. It is the only Roman town north of the Alps that has not been built over since the collapse of the Roman Empire, its ground plan remaining intact nunder the fields and pastures. It has been reconstructed by archaeologists on a scale of !:1 before being made accesible to the public. This was the northern extremity of the Roman Empire and Xanten had about 10,000 inhabitants in Roman times. On leaving the park we had a guided tour of the immensly pretty village of Xanten,including the Cathedral, and then had an alfresco lunch at one of the many inexpensive village hotels. A place well worth visiting if you are ever in the area and i only found out when reading Bernard Levin's journey up the Rhine that it also has a small harbour which should not be missed - too late! We returned at 1730 in time to do some shopping for presents to take home and also for our hosts. In the evening we had a joint farewell dinner at the Handelshof, for once at our expense, to give some little recompense to our friends from Mülheim fo the overwhelming hospitality they had shown us throughout the whole visit.
As we drew up in the coach outside The Handelsholf for the last time we could see that many of the smashing people we had met during the last week, including the hotel staff, were gathered outside to wave us off. A tearful goodby but AUF WEIDERSEHEN Mülheim. We travelled that morning to Arnhem, entering the town across the Bridge Too Far, and spent a couple of hours sight seeing, mainly from a table outside one of the local bars. Then on to Rotterdam and the NORSUN for the return crossing, and another fine meal after which i returned to my cabin at 2130 for a short restprior to hitting the bar, only to wake up just in time for breakfast, and to be castigated by Vin for my lack of staying power. We arrived at Hull docks to find them blocaded by the ful price protestors and after taking two hours to get off the docks decided to take the pretty route back to Darlington to avoid further trouble, reaching the town hall at lunch time.
The three of us that had been intent on improving our knowledge of the German language on the trip, namely June, Norman and myself had performed adequately apart from the occational howler viz; Norman - whilst on the tour of Essen in a discussion on the hobbies of miners had seen 'fliegende trauben', (flying grapes). Tauben = pigeon. June - 'Ich habe mein Tisch veloren', (I have lost my table). Tasche = purse. Tom = 'Ich mochte Kaffee mit Kuechen bitte' (I would like coffee with kitchens please). Kuchen = cakes. What a difference an umlaut makes = about 20,000 marks. We also invented a few words of our own; Der Deutsche mispreche = pidgin German; Der Tauberschuppen = pigeon cree; Kneipen Kreichen = pub crawl.
The visit to Mülheim exceeded my expectations. I was very imperessed by the friendlyness and hospitality of the people and of the tremendous efforts they made in revitalising and improving a previously total industrial area, whilst being able to hang on to their heritage as some of our visits plainly showed. I had always wanted to visil Aachen and Cologne and was not disappointed, seeing them both in the same day! My German has improved and I have made many new friends, both German and English. I will return.
Visitors to Mülheim 2000
Floris Allison, Pat Baker, Jo Baker, Vince Burgess, Joan Emerson, John Emerson, Marion Flowers, Ray Flowers, Dorothy Gilbert, Wilf Gilbert, Isobel Hartley, Norman Horton, Joan Jones, Cliff Jones, June Murphy, Tom Nutt, Wyn Richardson, Ann Ryder, Reg Ripley, Alan robinson, Hannah Straiton, Betty Taylor, Tom Taylor, Laura Thornton, Magaret Tornbohm, Pat White, Reg Spence (Coach Driver).
PLACES VISITED
Muelheim, Aachen, Cologne, Duisburg, Duesseldorf, Essen, Kettwig, Krefeld, Xanten and Arhnem (Holland)
Report by Tom Nutt October 2000.