We have to factor into our retirement plans the challenges of keeping in touch either using technology tools or by visiting and getting really up close. We are lucky enough to have 3 children who have taken up the travel challenge. Nick and Cécile are back in Christchurch at the moment but we loved staying with them when they were in Zurich and getting to know about their lives there and explore their places. Duncan and Ellie spent time in London and Oxford and we had an excuse to meet with them there. Jean and Cam are in Canada and that is now on the must visit list but on this trip we are only catching up with Ellie and Duncan who are now in Oldenburg.
Visiting your children is fun but it also reminds you of the change of role. These people are not your “children” anymore they are very special adults and it is a challenge to make sure you remember that. I am trying. This is their space and we are the guests and it is a wonderful feeling. Mama with benefits.
Ellie had arrived home from her choir practise when we arrived and Duncan was also home from his daily commute to Aurich where he is working for Enercon a wind turbine manufacturer.
The apartment is in Cloppenburger Strasse and again I tried to restrain my smile at the name. Cloppenburger sounds sort of solid but filling. The flat is huge and on the second floor or a building facing a fairly major street with lots of trees.
They have a lovely balcony which faces out from the back of the building and overlooks the gardens and trees of many other houses as well as a cycle/ pedestrian access way to streets further back. Still private but with a view. A clever bit of urban design in the ways the buildings and access ways are arranged. About 5 minutes’ walk away there is a supermarket, small by Halswell standards but with most things you need- and more . I love exploring supermarkets overseas.
The Supermarket has an in-house bakery which is much better than that at Halswell and the medium sized almond and jam biscuits made my grocery expeditions easy to manage.
I did not restrict my tastings to these though but they were the best. Some bakery offerings are tricks though – they look absolutely delicious and end up being pastry with a bit of something on top. A taste con! I bought one back to the house and Ellie wisely said “you will be disappointed with that” She was right.
On our first trip to the supermarket with Ellie we had to return a crate of beer bottles. Beer is quite an important food in Germany and although available in cans the majority of that drunk at home is from bottles. Re-used bottles. When you buy the initial ale you pay a tax which you receive back when you return the bottles. You can see the white wear marks on the bottles to show they have been through the cleaners a few times. What a pity NZ gave up this scheme. Returning bottles and getting the money back was a very lucrative fundraiser for scouts, schools etc and Geoff and Murray reminisced on the feeling of real glee when you found a motherload in someone’s back garden or shed.
The apartment position is excellent for other reasons as well, easy connect to the Autobahn for Duncan for his commute, and easy and very pleasant cycle ride onto the old city centre for general shopping, museums, choirs and restaurants and the railway station to other parts of Germany. The fact that there are at least three restaurants within a 2 minute walk is a real positive when you just feel like a night whithout cooking. Take your pick, Italian where the owner speaks to Ellie in Italian and smiles at them when they enter as they are locals, the Greek restaurant is the same in the local treatment but the beer bar next door with its bowling alley does not feel the same. The age group of the regulars is a bit older than our two kiwis.
Oldenburg is not an obvious destination for young Kiwis flying from home but it is a beautiful small city. 30 minutes by regular train from Bremen and about 1 hour from Hanover. When Ellie and Duncan were looking for things to do in the city as part of becoming involved and meeting people they found there is a whole book of clubs to join. So many choirs but Ellie found one to suit her. It is a Youth choir and she thinks she is one of the older members, but that doesn’t really matter. Some of the others are still students but also studying her kind of subjects so obviously good people. Duncan has joined a rugby club but when we were there he was “looking forward” to his appointment with the Dr which would give him an appointment with the specialist so he could then get a date for his knee operation. After a number of years of not playing rugby because of study commitments and wonky feet he was finally back into the game and then his knee failed him!
It is fantastic having the bikes with the van. My bike is good for me and although Geoff’s looks a bit small for him it is still much more useful than not having it at all. From the apartment it is a 15-20 minute walk and a 6-7 minute bike ride along some quiet streets and a bit of small city stuff but on BIKE PATHS. You go out for dinner or to some event and take your bike and so long as your have a light and can steer the trip home is as safe as you want it to be. I love the light feeling of grabbing the bike and setting off into town, knowing it is not too far and there are no hills. Wind may be an issue around their area though. 
Ellie and I did an Ikea visit on our bikes and returned with full baskets and carriers, but did delay the big stuff purchasing until we had the van available.
Oldenburg is quite flat, in fact very flat. Very much like Holland where the big hills are onto the big dykes. Ellie and I went for a walk one day to the hill. The men were watching a Super Rugby match and we left. The hill was once a large waste disposal site and has since been planted over and paths have been added. There are views for the top of the whole area but as it is only just above the trees height the views are very green. Still lovely though. It is an obvious running area for people but Ellie did say that when she would run there in the colder seasons the grass was not long and so the detritus of late night visitors was very obvious. On our visit the grass was long, the wild flowers were blooming, enough for my flower girls to pick bunches to take home and to practice bunch gathering and to discuss the flower options for her wedding at home in January. I loved it.
When Ellie was little she would gather a variety of flowers on her walk home from school and present me with her special bunches when she walked up the steps. My flower girl. Oldenburg has one of those wonderful central areas in the old city. Beautiful big old church, cobbled streets, cute old buildings and small narrow pedestrianized streets, a classy old Schloss and some good market square places with lots of cafes surrounding the market to make the people watching easy.
On our first morning we rode into town with Ellie. I needed walking shoes for the mountain but we wanted to explore her place. A farmers market was in the main square and it was excellent. We wandered and then Papa and daughter sat and chatted and I wandered more. The bread, cheese, fungi, Honey, flowers etc. etc. – A wee bit too close to heaven.
The church which is very grand and striking and dominating from the outside is a real let down once you step inside. The perils of changes of ownership and focus. The interior is boring and over simple and for me there were none of the respectful and calm feelings you get in many of these grand churches. One of the many “bosses” of this area decided to change it to suit his particular preferences at some stage. So much change so often just because someone feels like it and wants to put his, usually, stamp on things. A bit like us with our houses probably but just on a much more grand and public scale. It is so often not “add to “but is instead, change utterly.
Why is it that clothing, in particular good looking outdoor useful clothing is so much cheaper in Europe than in New Zealand? Sorry Macpac and Kathmandu, you are just a wee bit boring as far as colour design and range of sizes and style. We found a very good outdoor shop which had the full price but may be at sale price stuff on one side of the street and then the outlet site on the other side of the street. A huge range of possible footwear for me and everything else I could ever want but luckily could not fit into my pack even though I have now found a home for the New Zealand food parcels. Geoff found his Meindl boots not significantly cheaper than NZ but a good range of other options as well. Geoff and I went back the following Monday and I bought a very good pair of Meindl walking shoes with the good heels that the assistant advised would be necessary on the mountain. Insoles for Geoff to provide the cushion for his older man heels and soles – as advised by our neighbour David. Shopping is not a frequent joint experience for us so for us both to buy something in the same shop was a bit of a coup. Making hay while the sun shines and don’t push your luck Wendy. One purchase per expedition is enough for Geoff.
I know I walk fast and in my own direction when we are in different places and that means I get ahead of people but one of the good things about that is stopping and waiting and looking back and seeing the current child we are with wandering along with their father chatting. A very good picture in my head. It can also mean we all lose sight of each other and the finding can take time but that is a small price to pay!! Oldenburg has a magnificent beautiful lemon coloured old Schloss at the entrance to the old pedestrian city.
That Schloss also had a beautiful garden which has been retained although a road now runs through it. The city this year is celebrating 200 years of the garden and so the focus of the central city was on gardening. Your garden is the world. Perfect. There were small demonstration gardens around the central city depicting different styles of garden which have been popular over the last 200 years. So many flowers, so well cared for and providing strong coloured displays throughout the city as an addition to those in window boxes, on balconies and hanging off bridges.
Ellie had some pot plants on their deck and the lavender and rosemary were really healthy. She wanted some more --- I think she did, but it could have just been me encouraging her to have more, to add to these and the herbs and roses in the big pots. We went to the garden shops which are easy walking distance from the house. One in particular had beautiful healthy plants and felt good as it also sold Fairtrade bunches of flowers ---- not imported ones from exploited growers. Gardens are often about memories and so it was not a surprise that we ended up with some small spicy sweet smelling pinks which my mother used to grow, a red fuchsia like I have at home, a good tomato plant, some more herbs and a range of other whites and yellows – cottagey but fitting for the deck. We also sniffed many roses to get another one with the right smell. Roses are beautiful when they are in flower but they have to earn their place to compensate for the prickles and the perfume is a good payment.
We did not but one of the “fairy toothbrush” plants the shop had for sale even though there are memories attached to that as well. This plane can easily become a rampant weed in New Zealand and seeing it for sale reminded me of the ad I have from an old Farming newspaper which advertises ulex europaeus plants at 1000 plants for £1. Ideal hedging plant!!!
It was fun and so satisfying to help her add to her garden on the deck – just as if we lived just down the road from each other. We bought some bigger pots and some cleaner for the deck to help remove moss which has accumulated over time with a lack of care by previous tenants. When we returned a few weeks later Ellie had applied it and scrubbed very hard and the deck looked much better and was a lot less slippery.
During our Ikea visit – I do like that place- just for the huge range of things they have and I quite like the meatballs, we bought some solar lights to add to the deck and pondered over ,may other things but were wise. Near the end of our Ikea visit a woman came up to me and said “Are you English? I have been listening to you as you walked around and wondered.” She was English and had recently moved near to Oldenburg after many years in Warsaw. I think she was a bit nostalgic for a real English sounding voice so I obliged and chatted. She had been to New Zealand – only the South Island and spent time in Christchurch and bought one of the wizards upside down maps for her son. I do love these small bits of serendipity when travelling.
Geoff had a bit of work to do when we were in Oldenburg but we did go exploring the neighbourhood one evening. Just walk and see what you see and where you end up hoping you remember the way home. Google maps are not fool proof! Lots of small alleyways which lead nowhere and shared narrow roads which are more like shared driveways. It was a surprise though to find cigarette and toy vending machines on the corners of someof these small suburban streets.We explored the local eating places and many beers were tested. A large range of alcohol frie and alcohol full. The Greek restaurant over the road, the round Mexican one in town with the wonderful collection of historic photos of Oldenburg, real German sausage and beer place on the first night, Italian over the road and many of the little cafes and bars scattered around the city.
The World Cup was in full swing and although none of us are mad soccer fans the players are impressive and it is easy to get swept along with the enthusiasm of the event, even if there is a cloud in the back of your head as you remember the huge costs of staging it and the minimal amount of the prosed benefit the local people in Brazil will get from it. Duncan had stated that he would stop watching as soon as someone took a dive, referring to the amount of what appear to be stoppages for fake injuries etc. A bit much drama from the players. He showed greater staying power though and Ellie bought out the flags and garlands in German colours.
We had tried to coordinate part of our Oldenburg visit to coincide with part of Murray and Sue, Duncan’s parents visit to the town.
It worked and Ellie and Duncan had two nights with both lots of parents on the premises. A big family experience. Murray and Sue arrived on the Friday evening after flying to Bremen via Paris from Provence. Their luggage was delayed as it missed the flight in Paris. It could either be delivered from Bremen but someone would have to be at home to take delivery or someone could drive back to Bremen to pick it up. That was the preferred course of action so Duncan and Murray drove out later in the evening while Sue, Ellie Geoff and I wandered into town to a food and wine festival. The rain had mainly cleared by this time but had caused a minor drama earlier in the evening when a big downpour caused ponding on the awning on the deck where we were all sitting. Geoff took into account where everyone was sitting and pushed at the awning to remove the water. His calculations were slightly awry though and the water splashed much more than expected and the new arrivals with only the clothes they were wearing felt the effect. Ah families!!! No pictures of the wet family but Sue looks as if she has forgiven Geoff in this one of our visit to the food festival. Thank goodness! There was more rain to come.
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