Röbel/Müritz ist eine Kleinstadt im Südwesten des Landkreises Mecklenburgische Seenplatte in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern am Westufer der Müritz.
The above I googled. It means that Röbel is a small town belonging to Mecklenburg/Vorpommern. I think ‘Seenplatte’ means that a lot of lakes are in this area. You find Röbel on the west side of Lake Müritz. Lake Müritz is the largest lake in Germany.
I loved our stay in Mecklenburg Vorpommern. As I said, we stayed at the place of my brother Peter Uwe and his wife Astrid. We had a really good time with them as you can see from all the pictures. A lot of their surroundings and their lifestyle reminded me a bit of our life in Australia. They took us on many outings. We saw quite a few castles in the area. Castles like the ones in Meck Pom for sure you cannot find anywhere in Australia. It shows how there is a totally different historical background. To experience a bit of their history by visiting these castles was quite intriguing. A lot of the castles are lovingly restored and are great tourist attractions.
Wherever we went we were able to get good tasting meals at reasonable prices and with excellent service. Astrid proved to be a wonderful cook too whenever there was a chance to cook something at home. Remember we were on the go a lot. When we had been eating out during the day, Peter Uwe and Astrid served for supper usually some lovely rye bread and a choice of wurst and chesses. Astrid often prepared a salad to go with it.
We had the unit on the second floor right next to our hosts’ unit. For breakfast early in the morning we would go over to their dining room. They usually had breakfast already waiting for us. Peter Uwe always helped his wife with the preparation of breakfast. We had our own well supplied kitchen in our unit. However we never had to use it for cooking. But it was good that we were able to make us coffee or tea.
In the evening we usually stayed with Peter Uwe and Astrid in their unit, just talking about a lot of things, looking at photos or watching a movie. We didn’t spend all that much time in our own unit. But when I felt a bit tired after a long outing during the day I could lie down and rest for a while in this very quiet beautiful bedroom of ours. By the way, the bedroom had a huge wardrobe and ample drawers to put things away. There were more bedrooms above our unit. But of course, we did not need to use them at all. The place was large enough for four to six people, so my brother told us. When Corinna, Peter Uwe’s daughter, visits with her whole family, there’s always enough room. In summer extra guests can be accommodated in a little hut further away from the main-house.
Where the little hut is there’s also a laundry. Under its roof there’s space to dry the washing in the open. On average plenty of sunshine reaches this hut. This is why solar panels were placed on the hut’s roof rather then on the roof of the main-house which doesn’t seem to get quite as much sun. Peter Uwe explained to us that these solar panels save on electricity costs for all three building. Yes, there is a third building, which used to be a barn and which is a huge comfortable dwelling for one family now.
I still didn’t publish anything yet about the Bode Museum in Berlin. But before I do this I want to finally start publishing something about Mecklenburg/Vorpommern where my brother Peter Uwe lives with his wife Astrid. We spent some lovely eight days with them just before it was time to travel back to Australia.
Peter Uwe picked us up from the Hansa Viertel in Berlin with all our luggage. This was on Thursday, 8th November 2012. They live in a small village in Meck/Pom. In my post about Berlin-Borgsdorf I published a sign near a street in Borgsdorf which indicated that this street was a bike-track leading right through to Kopenhagen, Denmark. Well, this bike-track leads actually also through the little village where Peter Uwe and Astrid reside.
If people want to take a week’s rest in beautiful Meck/Pom they can book in at my brother’s place. Peter Uwe used to have a number of units available for holiday makers. But most of them he has rented out now to permanent residents. The unit, where Peter and I stayed, is usually reserved for holiday makers. A board indicates when it is vacant. One day we noticed the ‘vacant’ sign was still up. We pointed this out to Peter Uwe. It took him just a sec to turn the sign over indicating ‘occupied’. Peter said, that they had made sure anyway that the unit would be reserved for our stay with him and Astrid.
Towards the end of November 2012 we spent a day in Sydney. Hyde Park is in the center of Sydney. Peter took some pictures in this park. It’s great fun that I can publish them here now.
It seems we didn’t take many pictures in January. There aren’t any pictures from our visit with friends and the friends visiting us. But there are a few picture from the funeral of one of our friends, also a few pictures how things in the garden have grown.
Des Herzens stillem Glück
3 pm Sunday 3 February 2013
Goethe-Institut – 90 Ocean Street, Woollahra (Sydney), NSW, Australia
A fund raising concert with songs from the 18th to the 20th century by Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, Haydn, Gounod, Wagner, Puccini, Bax, Floyd, Rorem, Heggie. Besides our friend Siobhan a friend of Siobhan’s, Alison Manifold, participated. Alison is also an accomplished Soprano singer.
At the Piano was Francis Greep, two Cello players were guest artists.
After the concert cups of tea were offered and the artists mingled with the crowd to talk about the concert. We were able to take some pictures with Siobhan.
The last two songs had the titles: “I will always love you.” and “My true love hath my heart”.
Thanks to the generous support of the Australia Council for the Arts, Siobhan is able to move to Vienna in March for a fantastic career opportunity.
Peter and I as well as our daughter Caroline enjoyed the concert very much. We wish Siobhan all the best for her stay in Vienna!
Siobhan has a Graduate Diploma of Music (Opera) from the Westerm Australian Academy of Performing Arts and an Honours degree in Masthematics from Jams Cook University. Her experience spans opera, Oratorio, music theatre, cabaret, string quartets and Irish bands.
What it said about these two women from the Middle Ages I found very remarkable. This is just one of the many interesting things we could read about in the Jewish Museum. It made me reflect on people’s attitudes towards religion many centuries ago! Here now I do not want to hesitate to add this picture from the Jewish Museum . I’m glad I looked through the pictures in our files once more and found it. I remember I was very moved by it when I saw it for the first time. I still think it is an outstanding document about a time past.
A few weeks after Yom Kippur Peter and I went again to the Jewish Museum together with Corinna, my niece. This time it was open, of course, being visited by a large number of people including school classes. Lots of young people, who worked there, (I think some on a working holiday from Israel), were extremely friendly and assisting whenever one needed help with something. We spent hours and hours looking at the various displays.
I was amazed about the extend of information at hand. It was an enormous eye opener of Jewish life in Europe over hundreds of years. I am glad the pictures that Peter took are still in our files and that I can publish them now.
This is displayed near the Field of Stelae. It Says: Europe Foundation Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe.
We only found out about Yom Kippur when we saw this sign at the entrance to the Jewish Museum which we had planned on visiting. We walked to the next Underground Station, got off at Potsdamer Platz, took pictures and then walked on to the Field of Stelae.
AuntyUta 