Lage Lippe

In Monday night after a couple of connections on the train, Meridith and I arrived in the town of Lage Lippe in Germany to visit Harry and Anna and their children William and Kiara. It's been fun hanging out withd seeing the local sights. William met us at the train station wearing his Team Canada jersey. He and his sister were born in Canada and are proud of it. That night, we feasted on pizza.

The first afternoon, once the kids got home from school, we went to see the hilltop monument of Herman the German - something like Hermannsdenkmal in German. It commemorates a guy named Arminius who led the Germanic tribes in an important victory over the Romans. Arminius was the hero of a specific German guy in the 1800s who dedicated his life to making a monument. He died a pauper, but the monument was built. After looking out at the hilly countryside, we played around on a high ropes course which happened to be closed. So for free, we played on the lower levels.

Because our gracious hosts have young children, jobs, and a building project, they are a little busy. So Anna dropped us off at Westfaliches Frielichtmuseum Detmold (www.lwl.org/frielichtmuseum-detmold.de). It was an open air museum recreating life in this region of Germany a couple of hundred years ago. Farms were set up according to region and time period. Our favorite was a moated farm. The houses were often combined with the milking stalls and other pens. The rich ones had doors to separate the spaces. Poor people could sit at the kitchen table as they gazed at their cow. At least, that's what I interpreted from what I saw. We wandered through the rain, tried to get around school groups, and rode in a wagon where the driver spoke a little English. It was interesting and educational.

The next day, we visited Detmold and its castle. In the downtown is a castle where the princes of Lippe lived. A line of Lippes lasted for over 400 years before it was broken and the current line took its place. The current line is related to the Dutch royal family. Ten or twelve rooms were open to the public. They were pretty ornate for belonging to just a regional prince. There were tapestries that took years to produce and tons of portraits, some of them of really ugly people.

Our time in Lage was great. But the thing I enjoyed most was just hanging out with the family. They were a huge blessing.

I'll end this because I know it's kind of boring. We arrived in Berlin yesterday and man, did we ever see a mullet today. It was like a guy had a poodle attached to the back of his head.