October 16, 2007

• Quick update on my aunt and neighbor for those interested.  If not skip the next short paragraph and move on to the Fall travel report  

  Cassie is back in the hospital. The radiation treatment really did a number on her. I don’t know when they are going to release her but they will. She’s still fighting her cancer with all available treatment options and I support her decision.  Aunt Pearl also took a nose dive this past week. All the brothers and sisters went back to Oregon and she promptly rallied, ha! I told mom that they need to just stay there and she’ll live forever. She is not taking any treatments at all and I support her decision.  This is all my emotions can handle as far as updates, I thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers on our behalf.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~We now end this medical update~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  We went to Michelstadt on Sunday. They had their annual stitching fair, I guess the closest equalavent we would have is a textile fair.  Besides getting to see the various booths just being in Michelstadt is a treat.  Michelstadt is in the middle of the Odenwald which is what you would call a national forest. It is also home to a 15th century town hall that is unique even to Germany.  This is our third visit to Michelstadt and we always enjoy driving through the forest and walking around the historic district.

  

   

  This is the front and back of the Altes Rathaus or old city hall.  It was built in 1484 but they don’t know who the architect was. What they do know is that it is the only one of its kind in Germany.  The oak supports for the building are just massive.  The open hall at ground level was used at one time for court. This preserved the old tradition of holding meetings in the open air under a tree.  

  The first floor was sort of an all purpose room. It’s at one time or another been used as a church, hospital, council chamber, classroom and polling station as well as a place to hold civil marriage ceremonies.

  The next floor was an open loft and at one time held the tithes that towns people paid to the city. So it was basically a storage depot.

   

   

   

  

   

  These were the only two people we saw dressed in period costume.  They were doing demonstrations of dying and printing hand woven cotton fabric using techniques from the middle ages.  You can see how bright and pretty the fabric turns out.  This is another case of, I would love to own some, but what in the world would I do with it once it was mine?

  The huge textile press in the back of the third photo is from the 16th century and is a permanent exhibit not just for the stitchenlein.

  I don’t know if you can see in these pictures how big the supports for this building are but they are at least three feet in diameter.

   

   

   

  

  We saw quilting, embroider, lace making, weaving, spinning, tatting, knitting, crocheting, hand sewing, machine sewing,

  if you could imagine it in cloth it was here.

  There was also every type of thing for sale, including some really neat gadgets that made me want to take up all sorts of new hobbies. I resisted.

  Barry was thrilled by my fortitude.

  I did buy my mom some quilting thread that was awesome. It’s a rainbow thread that she can use for stippling.

   

  

  The first picture is a detail of one of the stained glass windows in the church. which is right behind the old city hall. I love the old medieval churches.  This church is an odd mix of old and new.

  For instance it still has old 15th century alabaster crypts and it has the old 17th century organ but the pews are really just chairs. They look like they are from the 1970 or 80s.

  I don’t know if the stained glass windows are original or not. I know that Michelstadt escaped the bombings in WWII as it wasn’t very important militarily and it wasn’t big enough to be bombed to break morale.  Sometimes it’s really hard to tell what has been reconstructed and what is original because they did such an excellent job of reconstruction and they don’t always label something as being a reproduction of the original.  But since it wasn’t ever bombed I’m guessing they’re original 15th century stained glass, which makes them all the more remarkable.

  The second picture is across the square from town hall. The building on the right was the forge from 1562 to 1803.   The building on the left was originally built in 1551 and was a pharmacy until sometime in the thirty years war.  (1618-48)

  The fountain in the center was a gift to the city from Count George II in 1575.  It was an important source of water for the people for hundreds of years.  At the top is St. Michel which is not a reference to the name of the city. St Michel is the patron saint of the town but the name of the city is from an old high German word and actually means large. 

   

   

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