The wedding

Friday 15th April
Today’s the Day!!! After a cold night, only 3 deg, it proved to be a fine, sunny day. We had breakfast at a cafe/bakery called Peter’s, then I went to the hairdresser’s. I managed to bamboozle one of the staff with my German but fortunately the chief stylist could speak English and was very friendly. I had been wondering how I would explain how I like my hair in German! We were given cups of coffee and a couple of tiny bottles of African liqueurs made from the fruit of the marula tree (elephant tree). We decided they’d make good presents for Judith’s parents.
Our cheap lunch at a nearby Imbiss wasn’t very nice. Bruce had chips which were served with a huge quantity of mayonnaise, and I chose a salami roll but it was too fatty and had heaps of butter as well. The coffees were very large but so bitter! We had fun talking to a young boy who turned up there to eat some chips. He was most interested to hear that we were from NZ.
Friends of Jeremy and Judith drove us to Duisburg and it took less than half an hour as there was very little traffic on the autobahn. It was hard to find a car park near the town hall though, it was really busy.

We had a bit of a wait outside the imposing building until it was time for the wedding party to go inside. Each wedding takes place in a special room called the Trausaal and is allowed half an hour. Then it's the next couple's turn.
It was lovely to meet up with Eleanor and Anthony again and also some of Bruce’s family – Maurice, Ruth and their two children Naomi and Stephen, also Ruth’s parents (they were all going to travel to Holland afterwards to visit relatives) – and our nephew Kelvin and his wife Christina who live in England. We met Judith’s sister for the first time – in ‘punk’ mode with a mohawked boyfriend – they really stood out!











It had taken Jeremy and Judith quite some time to find a venue that would seat enough guests – 40-50, most only seat 20-30. The room was nicely panelled and had interesting pillars too and looked quite ancient. All the guests sat at the back, but Jeremy and Judith had seats set back a little from one end of a long table. At the far end was a massive carved chair for the celebrant. Jeremy said it was quite daunting looking down the length of the table at her, and he was also worried about remembering his vows in German. Judith chose to say hers in English (centre pic). That's an optional part in a civil ceremony in Germany, as are witnesses. All you have to do to get married legally is to say, "Ja" at the right time and sign your name afterwards.
You don’t choose or meet the celebrant beforehand which can have its drawbacks. They were a little worried as they’d heard tales of the strange poem recited by one to friends of theirs. Fortunately they ended up with a very nice lady, who gave a little talk about the importance of marriage and read a nice poem about how to be happy. I was able to follow along and keep Bruce up to date on the procedure. It was obviously quite an emotional time for Judith during the vows and she even started signing the register with the wrong name – not like her usual organised self!








After the ceremony we trooped out to a central courtyard, where drinks were served. It had been decorated with red, heart-shaped balloons. The RH picture shows our nephew Kelvin and his wife Christina, who we hadn't met before, as well as our younger children Anthony and Eleanor.
When the next wedding party appeared it was time to head back outside again where we waited, for what seemed to be quite a long time, for the newly-weds to emerge onto the rose petals that had been sprinkled by a previous wedding party. It made a very pretty path to walk out on.
Returning to Essen took twice as long as getting to Duisburg as there was heavy traffic on the autobahn. As it was still nice and warm, we all waited across the road from the Alte Lohnhalle at the outside tables of a beer garden. We went with Maurice and Ruth for a cuppa at the bakers, knowing that dinner was some hours away.
Eventually the happy couple arrived, having completed a series of photographs at various venues. It was starting to get cold, so after taking some photos with family and friends, we all went inside for the reception.

The variety of entrées was rather overwhelming, and some were rather hard to identify. Some things that caught our attention were decorations of red chicory, and melon sliced finely and rolled up like ham. The mains were really nice, based on chicken and lamb, but also some vegetarian options for people like Judith.
Naturally there were quite a lot of speeches between courses. Jeremy and Judith had put together a very interesting one. Jeremy would say a few phrases in English then Judith would say the same plus a few more in German - so they were constantly overlapping and carrying the story on. Bruce was very nervous when he came to give his, and was surprised it wasn't translated as previously arranged - but they reckoned most there could understand enough English.
Jeremy and Judith went up to the serving tables and waited a little (RH pic) whilst the lights were dimmed. A cake covered in sparkling candles made a dramatic entrance. It appeared to be a little difficult to cut but definitely met the taste test!

After cutting the cake there was a bit of a lull in the proceedings so I took some photos of Judith's family.

The catering staff had tried to make a few pavlovas for the dessert but unfortunately the one I tried tasted extremely salty and was rather flat and cracked. It was covered with thin cream and kiwifruit.
An amazing piece of work was a cake iced to look like a Kiwi dressed up in flying kit complete with helmet and goggles. It had been made by friends from Heidelberg. It wasn't cut at the wedding but taken home by the Kolbes.
I'm sure all us overseas' folk were glad that the German speeches were translated, especially Ludger's long, but well-written poem.

After the poem, the final speech, there was a funny game that is quite popular at German weddings. The newly weds have to take off their shoes, and each gives their spouse one. The idea is to answer a series of questions by holding up the shoe which represents the person who is the best at doing something. If both agree, it is hoped the couple will have a harmonious relationship! Jeremy and Judith's answers were nearly all the same apart from one or two. Next, a video was shown about Judith going off into the wide world - she had to travel to the other side to find the man of her dreams.








Then their friends from Heidelberg sang some songs. Quite a large contingent had travelled up to join in the celebrations. Judith went to university there.
Eventually it was time for Jeremy and Judith's first dance together as a married couple. Bruce and I decided to go to bed after this as the music was really noisy and it was by now close to midnight! However, we didn't manage to get much sleep! It was noisy until nearly dawn although they turned the sound down a bit. At one stage some of the merry guests decided to dance a conga up the stairs past our room onto the balcony. I could hear Jeremy trying to persuade them to desist! It was quite amusing really.

To Essen

Thursday 14th April
The day dawned fine in Koblenz, but as we travelled northwards, it grew colder and the sky clouded up. It's just one hour by train to Essen, crossing the Rhine at Cologne. Once we arrived at the railway station we had to catch a bus to the hotel, the Alte Lohnhalle, part of a former coalmine.



It was the rather imposing building where the miners received their pay, (Lohn) but after the coalmine was closed eventually was bought by people who saw its potential as a reception and accommodation centre. It stands next to the last remaining tower from the Bonifacius mine. Former administration buildings have new uses also. The layout of the lohnhalle is interesting. Inside the large arched doorway is a curving staircase to the left ascending to the second level, which is build on a kind of mezzanine floor above the ground floor. The central portion is open from the ground to the vaulted ceiling, which is high above the guest area. The reception counter and dining area are under a normal ceiling further back on the ground floor and there is an extra wing with more accommodation out to one side of the building.
After making ourselves known to the receptionist, we were provided with a welcome cuppa before being shown to our room, as we were a little early and it wasn't quite ready. Once we were able to leave our bags, we went out for a short walk to find some lunch - there was a really nice cafe/bakery just around the corner - yum!
We had been surprised on our first visit (2009) to the Ruhr Gebiet, the great industrial heart of Germany, how green it was. Many of the former iron foundries and coal mines have been turned into industrial parks, the trees even growing on the roofs high above the ground and almost completely hiding some of the multi-tracked railways. So when we went for a walk in the afternoon after our arrival, at first we were a little disappointed when the streets became scruffier and the buildings rather down-at-heel. We'd reached Gelsenkirchen to the east of Essen.
As it was rather boring, Bruce decided to return by another street parallel to the one we were walking on, but instead of just going one block north, he went two, not realising that the road would start to head northwest!
The surroundings became much more pleasant, however, with plenty of treed areas breaking up the buildings. What really did surprise us was that there seemed to be no shops, just tall grey buildings!
Eventually we reached a much larger, busier road and headed in what we hoped was south. We crossed a street called Bonifacius Strasse but didn't know whether to turn left or right onto it. After going a couple more blocks, we reached a bridge over the railway line so realised we'd gone the wrong way. We tried asking some people near a small dairy but they couldn't help us. A second encouraging sign was that we'd arrived on a 170 bus route - which we knew would stop near the hotel - but it was a little difficult to decide exactly where we were on the map at the bus stop. After a bit more walking, we came within sight of the mine tower and soon found our way back to our room.
After a bit of a break we went out to the nearby shopping centre we'd discovered and had chicken doners from a Turkish takeaway, and tiny Italian ice creams from a nearby Gelato. Jeremy popped in on his way to Duisburg to meet up with Anthony and Eleanor who were staying there for the night, so we made a few plans about what to do after the wedding.

The fascinating city of Koblenz

Wednesday April 13th
We wrapped up warmly after breakfast and went for a long walk. Koblenz was in the throes of preparing for a major floral festival that would last for 6 months, but we wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. The town was full of bustle and bunting, teams of workmen were everywhere, sometimes obstructing the streets and thoroughfares and causing some of the usual sights to be closed off.
We found that there was a really modern shopping centre, well-laid out for pedestrians, quite close to the hotel.

Near the bank was an interesting fountain (pic 1) designed as a fantastical mythical ship, I think the caption read that it was from Gulliver’s Travels. Interestingly enough, there were still some old buildings about, such as these pics of some fascinating buildings, one at each corner of a crossroads (pics 2-4).
We soon reached the old part of town, and would have liked to have gone inside Liebfraukirche, one of the many twin-spired churches, but the morning service was on. We passed other interesting buildings and churches before arriving at the Mosel River (pic 1). We followed it downstream to the point where it flows into the Rhine - Deutches Eck. This was partly obstructed by the workmen putting up a huge marquee and other things in time for the festival opening on the Friday. We were still able to visit the huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The original one had been destroyed during the First World War, but it was rebuilt some time later. It is colossal and you climb up lots of steps into the structure and get marvellous views over Koblenz and the rivers (pic 3 view up the Rhine). The wind was biting though so we didn’t stay too long.







We walked alongside the Rhine past monuments and many different types of buildings including the Kurfürstliches Schloss (2) to Pfaffendorfer Bridge which we crossed to reach the old town of Ehrenbreitstein. There are wonderful views up and down the Rhine river - pictured view towards castle and fort. It was fun to reach the other side several storeys higher than the street underneath.
To drive the cold away, we had coffee and cake at a really interesting café which doubled as an Italian Coffee Machine Museum. The proprietors had been involved in coffee-making in Italy and had emigrated to Germany time ago with their collection of machines and books. They also had an incredible variety of gateaux - but I've no idea what the different ones were called!
We wandered around the oldest part of the small town, and were rather sad that we were just one day too early to visit Beethoven’s mother’s house (pic 3).
Before climbing the hill to the castle and fort, parts of which date back 1000 years, we visited the museum briefly and I was quite amused when the lady on duty asked me whether we were Dutch (I must have a very strange accent when I speak German)!
A route was marked on our map through a tunnel above the museum. A plaque just inside explained that the tunnel had been dug as an air-raid shelter and could accommodate many people. We followed it a little way in, expecting at any moment to see a sign to say that it was closed, or a light switch, but neither appeared, so we went back to the opening, only to find that some workmen had closed off the path down the hill as they were resealing it – they rather grumpily allowed us to pass.
So we started the climb by following a road up the hill. The climb is reasonably steep and winds around a very craggy hill. The castle and fort stand on top of steep precipices – a good defence. The road is walled on the outside edge and there are many small apertures that make good frames for photos across the river.

Unfortunately, owing to the preparations for the floral festival, we couldn’t visit inside the buildings, so had to content ourselves with looking at the views before going all the way back down again. Another way up to the castle is a cable car from the other side of the river, but on this day they weren’t in use apart from ferrying some of the many workmen up and down. You can see them crossing the river in the following photo, also you can see the statue at Deutsches Eck. The second picture is of a historic building in Ehrenbreitstein, then one of a little marina on that side of the bridge.

Back down the hill, we found a Turkish café in Ehrenbreitstein where we enjoyed doner kebabs before walking back to the bridge to Neustadt. We took a different route back through the old part of town before returning to our hotel at 5. The first pic is of the Town Hall from inside the interior courtyard, the second of some lovely old buildings in a nearby square, then Florinsmarkt.








The Hoegg Hotel caught my eye with its lovely paintwork and form.
As we were still feeling rather full after our Turkish lunch, we bought a couple of buns at a nearby bakery to eat in our room later on for supper, and just drank cold water before going to bed.