Two Henges and an Abbey

I can’t believe it has been two weeks since last I updated. Apologies. We have been doing a lot, as the next few entries will show, and our time in Bath, and our semester, is drawing to a close.

Thursday, April 23, took us to our next but last student excursion, a tripleheader, as it were, to Lacock Abbey and to Stonehenge and Avebury. It was a crowded day, a bit rushed, but, I think, worth it in terms of the experience.

Felicity, who was our guide in Bath and Bristol, took us through the village and abbey. The abbey dates back to the early thirteenth century and continued as the centre of a prosperous medieval woolen village until Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monastaries. It was converted into a home in the mid sixteenth century and later came into the hands of the Talbot family, who gave it to the nation, through the National Trust after World War II. Because of its age and beauty the abbey and the village are often featured in films, most notably the Harry Potter series.

From there we were off to Stonehenge. What to say about Stonehenge? except that far more has been written about it than we know about it. Suffice it to say that the area has been regarded as special (sacred, holy) by humanity for more than ten thousand years. The first stones erected here were put up probably around 3000 BCE and the complex was created as we see it (at least partially) between 2600 BCE and 2000 BCE. How did they do it? Why? We really don’t know.

The final stop is a lesser known complex of stones, less fully preserved, but larger than Stonehenge, that at Avebury. The sites may have been linked in prehistoric times, and interpreters have suggested that Avebury with its vaguely sexual symbology, may have celebrated life, just as Stonehenge may have had some curative purpose or have served for noble burials. Bottom line—we don’t know.

So, enjoy the images.

Our guide Felicity starts the tour.

This is the tithe barn, one of the few remaining in the area, where folks brought their 1/10 offerings, in this case to the nuns at the abbey.
The gaol, a single dark room intended to punish miscreants in its very aspect.
Going through the village
The lady chapel of the village church was boarded up during the Reformation and only opened in the early twentieth century. As a result the polychrome of the middle ages, which the Victorians assiduously removed whenever and wherever they could, remains.



I took a lot of pictures of it.

The village

This is the abbey itself, built in the late 13th century and in the hands of one family, the Talbots, from the Reformation until after World War II when they gave it to the nation. If the abbey looks familiar to those of you interested in photography, remember it as the home of Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of the photographic negative

Next came Stonehenge. What more is there to say about Stonehenge? It's been there, in one form or another possibly for 10,000 years. Was neglected for much of the time after its building until the 17th century. And is simply a magical, mystical place and irresistible to photography. Enjoy.
Our group, plus an unidentified interloper on the left




What it may have looked like in 2000 BCE

Next came Avebury. Less well known than Stonehenge, it was larger and is less intact. The earthwork, which is the meaning of the word henge, is much more obvious here and the stones are more accessible, as you will see below.




Megan Hart taking a picture of Jennifeer Do atop a stone. Jennifer said she thought I was coming over to scold her for climbing. All I wanted was an image. Getting down was less easy than getting up, but she made it.
And that was it.

Easter

We spent a quiet Easter at “home”in Bath. Because we were just back from Germany and Sharon was sick and provisions were not readily available (excuses) we did not have a Seder, but instead quietly acknowledged the Passover. Usually we acknowledge the dual heritage by celebrating both Passover and Easter. For Easter we did go “all out,” attending Good Friday services at Bath Abbey and Easter services there as well.

Afterward, we joined our students in Royal Victoria Park for an Easter Picnic.

My colleague, Andy Fleck, was off delivering a paper in Washington at a Shakespeare conference (gotta love the timing of these things), so we asked his wife Barbara Zimbalist to join us for dinner.

It was a pleasant day.

We are now in the last three weeks of this adventure (although Sharon and I will stay on for another month independently). I find it hard to believe how quickly the time has passed.


As my students might say, WTF? Look up Sophie Ryder. Her stuff is everywhere in Bath these days and on exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery here. What to think?


I do know what to think about our Easter picnic, it was fun. Let's see if I can ID everyone for you, left to right: Max Moorman, Chris Laine, Zac Wagner, Sharon Propas, Alyssa Solano, Rob Huffman, Ashley Longobardy, Jennifer Do, Megan Hart, Barbara Zimbalist, Michelle Nguyen. Lauren Minkel, Paul Howard. Just about everyone who was there at the time, except Sarah Michelet who is hiding behind Alyssa, not sure where Roxanne Arnold was.
Michelle Nguyen kicks the ball to Rob Huffman
Jennifer Do prepares a mighty pass as Zac Wagner and Chris Laine wait
Sharon Propas and Sarah Michelet discuss make-up, to the right Jenene Castle.
Jenene Castle and Barbara Zimbalist
Megan Hart and Lindsey Huffman
Ashley Longobardy and Roxie Arnold compare rabbit ears.
Rob Huffman tries to figure out what to do with which ball as Michelle Nguyen, Jennifer Do, Zac Wagner, Max Moorman, and Chris Laine wait patiently
Jennifer Do mounts a mighty pass toward Max Moorman, back to camera, and Zac Wagner
Katie Rouse, Megan Hart and in back Roxie Arnold. Lindsey is hiding at the right margin.

Berlin!!!

Berlin. I’m not sure where to start. I have seen a few of the great cities of the world and have images of the many I have not visited. But only in retrospect do I realise that until now I had no image of Berlin. Part of that may be my own ignorance of the city which was the Prussian capital of Frederick the Great and that of Wilhelmine Germany. I had bits and pieces of images of Berlin, snapshots of the twenties when it was not just the capital of a wrecked Germany, but a center of art and architecture and the decadence of the early twentieth century, scenes based on the tortured writings Albert Speer in which he tried to explain his architecture for the Third Reich, images of cold war Berlin, wrecked, divided and under siege. But I had no real sense of the place.

Now I do, or at least I think I do. Honestly, both Sharon and I found Berlin overwhelming. In part it may have been because we arrived, both of us, suffering from colds we had picked up at the beginning of the week. In part, too, we had so little time there, just two and a half days, barely. But more, I think it was because we found a city so greatly in transition, a city bursting at the seams, temporary water mains running overhead through construction zones all over town, a city newly reintegrated, reinvigourated, struggling to reinvent itself while coming to terms with its past, a past that speaks of the agonies of the twentieth century.

But enough of my incoherent blather.

A note on these images, they are not so numerous nor of the quality I would have liked, but struggling with illness, we toured more by bus and less on foot and, I lacked the energy to compose as cerefully or shoot as plentifully as I might have.


Berlin is home to some remarkable architecture. As a whole, we found European architecture to be much more stylish than that in the UK which seems stodgy by comparison, even in London, I fear to say. And we've not even seen Spain and Barcelona, which by repute and from my students' accounts is stunning.
This, of course, is stunning in another way, one of the few (the only?) preserved portions of "Die Mauer" (the wall).

The Jewish Museum is a complex of three interconnected buildings that commemorate that tragic, horrible side of Berlin's past. Th city abounds with such memorials and with such memories. My admiration for the Germans for dealing so openly with these dark aspects of their history has no limits.
From the tour bus, another reminder.
Not all of Berlin's past is marked with contrition. The city's public buildings, many of them in part or in whole reconstructed, commemorate a more majestic imperial past.
The Bundestag was destroyed not by war, but by the Nazis, reconstructed afterward with a striking post-modern glass dome.
The new Berlin Hauptbahnhof is another example of striking postmodern architecture and an example of the scale on which the city is built. With its broad modern streets (dating back to the late nineteenth century) the city has a grander scale than any I've seen.

If you examine closely this image of the the Kurfurstendam you can see a representation of at least three of what I regard as the main elements of modern Berlin. In the foreground is a modernist sculpture in four pieces representing the postwar division of Berlin. Behind it (and there are more images below) is the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächniskirche (Memorial Church). The city has left standing a few bombed out churches as peace memorials. And, of course, the Kurfurstendam is lined with modern buildings that reflect the contemporary vigour of this city.
More examples of the city's modern and po-mo architecture. Despite being ill that weekend, by Saturday morning we had to walk, and so set off down Tauentzenstrasse (we got ourselves briefly lost) toward the tiergarten and the Brandenburg gate.

In the middle of the city is the tiergarten, comprising both the zoo and the grosser tiergarten, a large and delightful urban park. I love San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, but how much nicer it would be if it were located just off Market Street.

This memorial stunned us both. Built in 1990 by the Soviets, it commemorates the Soviet "liberation" of Berlin. What amazed us is that it still stands, more as a testament to German tolerance than to the late unlamented Soviet Union.
This, of course, is the real deal, just a few yards east, the Brandenburg Gate. Off limits to all during the cold war, today . . .
it is not just the historic center of the city but a exuberant memorial to the division of Berlin.

For a fee, tourists can pose in this tableau vivant of Soviet occupation.
For a fee, this fellow will imprint your passport with an old Soviet stamp
These break dancers represent the current culture of the city. Sharon had us standing here longer than I would have. I wonder why.
Another state building
The double row of bricks running across the city marks the path of the wall. I wish I could say that in this image I set out deliberately to capture the monochrome of postwar East Berlin, but regardless I seem to have done.

Memorials to those who died trying to cross the wall.
Two views of "Checkpoint Charlie" guarding the early American sector of Berlin.

Closer views of the memorial church on the Kurfurstendam.

This ain't Berlin. We began and ended our trip out of Schiphol, the Amsterdam airport. Because our flight back to Bristol was early, we decided to spend Sunday night at the airport and cruising the net, the citizen M Hotel looked interesting and affordable. It was interesting, but far from affordable (think Ryanair). The room was sort of a cruise ship stateroom cast in postmodern terms. The downside is that we, who are not technological Luddites, could not get the room's central control touchpad to do what it was supposed to, and had to devise some workarounds. The whole room was one space with pods for shower and toilet. (You do not want to share this room with someone you are not intimate with.) Would we stay again? I'm not sure. Probably not, if only because the one night exceeded 250€ including dinner and parking. But it was interesting.



Apart from a brief visit to Nürnberg in late May, we'll be spending the rest of our stay in the UK, but we are already thinking about our next trip to Germany.

A Visit to Pelikan

About twelve years ago I discovered Pelikan pens after having collected fountain pens for about fifteen years. My first Pelikan was a newly released blue M800 and I soon came to vintage Pelikans, appreciating not just their workmanship but the history of the Günther Wagner firm behind them. I made my first visit to Hannover to worship at the fount of all things Pelikan almost four years ago and as soon as we made plans to be in Germany again this year, I got in contact with the Pelikan archivist Jürgen Dittmer, who had been so welcoming last time and made plans to visit him and asked it this time I might also visit the production facility for current pens (and, in fact, all the company’s products) at Peine, about thirty kilometres east of Hannover.

To make the trip complete, I decided to book Sharon and me into the Sheraton Pelikan, a rather pricey four star hotel, better than we usually allow ourselves. The hotel has adaptively reused the old Pelikan plant that dated back to the late 19th century and which the firm finally gave up only about fifteen years ago. The hotel was sumptuous and we enjoyed it thoroughly, especially as Mr. Dittmer interpreted the old buildings for us.

My day began at 9:30 when Mr. Dittmer picked me up at the hotel. Originally, Sharon had planned to join the tour, but a nasty developing cold kept her in the room except when she joined us at lunch. On the ride out to Peine, I learned that Herr Dittmer has spent all of his career, beginning in 1948, with Pelikan or its related firms. He began as a production worker, but quickly moved into sales and marketing before retiring in the mid-1990s when he became the company archivist.

The Peine facility began its life in the late 1960s as a shoe manufacturing plant, but was taken over by Pelikan in the early 1970s. Since then they have expanded it, and now do all their manufacturing there. In 2003, needing more space, they moved administrative functions to a new plant back in Hannover.

Once we arrived at Peine, a quiet town near the old border between East and West Germany, I met Christian Ehlers, the production director who was kind enough to guide us through the manufactory. Mr. Ehlers, an engineer by training, has been with Pelikan for about six years and before that was with Rotring for sixteen years. He explained to me that in 1973 Pelikan began production at this plant with fine pens and school pens, finally moving all their manufacturing there in 1995 when they closed the old plant on Podbielski Strasse. Today, everythng Pelikan makes, from children’s watercolours, to erasers to limited edition pens, is produced there. The only exceptions are a very few of the limited edition pens and the nibs for the M1000, which are done by Bock. In addition, Pelikan does do some manufacturing of office supplies, in a number of other locations, including China, Malaysia, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and Scotland.

I asked about taking pictures, and was allowed to photograph throughout the facility, though I was asked not to take close-ups of some of the newest machinery. After a few minutes, it was time to go back to the plant.

I was not surprised at all to see a highly modern, automated plant. Elsewise how would they stay in business? but what did surprise me was the level of hand finishing work that is done there.

So, come along and let’s see what I saw:


The tour began in one of the conference rooms at Peine where Mr. Ehlers shared with me a bit of information about his background and that of the facility we were in. Pelikan began producing there in 1973, alongside the old facility on Podbielski Strasse, in 1973. By 1995, however, all their production wasmoved to the Peine plant which had been incrementally expanded over the years.

There are three hundred workers here, two hundred of them involved in production and the rest in research and development and production support.

Here you see the materials and basic construction of the Souverän pens.
The plant is divided into several sections for production of school pens and pens for the wider market, the fine pens and then general school, office and art supplies. Here a worker checks the machine that produces the basic material for the finer pens. The plant operates three shifts a day, 24/6. Workers are able to take advantage of flex time, so that at times of peak production they work overtime and when things are slow they stay at home, but their compensation remains the same, regardless. Virtually everything that goes into Pelikan pens is produced on site in a highly mechanised environment . . .
except nibs. Nibs are taken very seriously. The plant produces 2.5 million steel nibs per year and 60-70,000 gold nibs. Almost all nibs are produced entirely in house (except for the M1000, which will be soon), using highly automated equipment. Even the gold nibs are made largely by machine until it comes to the fine work of aligning and polishing and then people take over. Here a technician is setting up equipment for a new run of M600/605 nibs.

The atmosphere is disciplined, yet at the same time loose and friendly. Especially in fine production where people work as teams
Inside this room the high value pens, the Souverän line and upwards, are all produced. For quality control and security purposes this room is not only separate but is locked down when not in use.
One worker, on the left, assembles nibs while her colleague checks them. In the few moments we were there, two nibs were sent back for adjustment.
These work stations are flexible in their use, so virtually any fine pen can be built in any number, as needed.


Herr Dittmer, with his back towards us, chats briefly with Herr Ehlers during the course of my tour.
The general factory where the mass market pens are produced. To the right, out of sight, is equipment on which three workers can produce a million ink cartridges a day!
Mr. Ehlers demonstrates the section of the new school pen series, designed to take children from kindergarten and crayons to primary school and fountain pens, ensuring that they always hold their pens correctly.
Even erasers are produced here. Here Mr Dittmer and Mr Ehlers hold a strip of synthetic eraser material.
After the factory tour, Mr. Dittmer drove us back to Hannover, where Sharon, who was just coming down with a cold, joined us for lunch. Afterward, Dittmer and I went on to the archives, familiar ground for me, though newly redecorated. Herr Dittmer also had some new materials to share with me, some of which will be scanned and available on the website later this summer. Here we have The PENguin Blog's first video. When we got back Mr Dittmer asked if my camera did video, I said yes rather tentatively, as I have used that feature just once, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Any number of limited editions have come out since my last visit, and Dittmer had to tempt me by showing off so many of them. Those of you who read the Stylus article on my 2005 visit know that it was Herr Dittmer who first put the 75th Anniversary pen into my hands, thus sealing my fate.
The familiar cabinet with 1950s era pens. All of these came off the assembly line and into the archives.

It is kind of thrilling to see this 1937 (first year) Pelikan 100N encased in this glass display, looking just as it did when produced over seventy years ago.
For me part of the experience was staying at the Sheraton Hotel that adaptively reused the old factory.
Note the frieze that incorporates Pelikan pen motifs.
This front tower used to house reception and then later the archives until the facility was given up in 1995. The archives remained for a few years after that and moved into the present quarters in 2003.
In contrast to the preserved exterior, the interior is all modern and high tech. Here our room.The high ceilings of the factory are dropped down in the rooms quite cleverly to create a sort of post modern cocoon.
From Hannover, it was on to Berlin. The last time Sharon and I were together in Germany, Berlin was behind the iron curtain and we, who were young at the time, lacked the nerve to drive the corridor. Now we cruised eastward across a landscape barely scarred by five decades of division

Moving North: Hamburg

Tuesday morning we were off to visit more old friends, Karin and David Parisi and Osman Sümer in Hamburg.

As many of you already know, Hamburg is one of Germany’s largest cities, a port and part of the old Hanseatic League. Today it remains an active center for commerce.
By this time, not only was Sharon coming down with a nasty cold, but both Karin and Osman had colds as well, so our time together was limited and rather than walking the city, in deference to Sharon David conducted a lovely driving tour, giving us ample opportunity to get out and stroll a bit without wearing Sharon out too much.


Karin and Osman then joined us for lunch and we were off on the next leg of our tour, what for me would prove a highlight, a visit to Hannover to see Jürgen Dittmer, the Pelikan archivist, and to tour the manufacturing plant.

An interesting skyline, blending modern and historical buildings. During World War II about 60% of the city was destroyed.

David took us across the river by a fascinating tunnel that began and ended with elevators that took us down and then under the


Creeping Americanism, The Lion King has it's own boat to transport theatergoers across the Elbe.

Sharon and David in front of a statue of Martin Luther at the side of the St. Michael's Kirche
St. Michael dropping the sword on the devil.

The courtyard of the Rathaus
Manholes as art form.
Interior of the Rathaus
Beginning in the early 19th century, the economic power of Germany was driven by its customs union, the zollverein. This customs building is now a museum.

Wiesbaden

There are many reasons to travel, but for me one of the most important is not just to see old friends but to make new acquaintances and form new friendships. From that perspective our weekend in Köln at the penshow and then in Wiesbaden on Monday was perfect.

For us the Köln show ended Sunday morning with a small brunch at the Hotel Falderhof. At breakfast Peteris Seja suggested driving R9, which we took from Koblenz along the river. If I have any complaint about this trip, it is the relative lack of time for unstructured touring, wandering. Sunday we wandered and I did not even take out my camera.

We ended up in Wiesbaden in late afternoon and checked into the Hotel France on Taunusstrasse, recommended and booked for us by our host Knut Dorn.

Knut is the managing director of Otto Harrassowitz, Stanford University Library’s largest suplier of books. For years I have heard Sharon singing his praises, not just as a vendor but as a delightful man, and recently she has gotten to know his daughter Claudia, who is also his assistant and has been a Stanford Library intern. If you have a sense that there is a close working relationship between Harrassowitz and Stanford, you have it.

Sunday night Knut and his wife Renata picked us up from the hotel and took us out to dinner at one of their favourite places a rustic echt
Deutsch restaurant at the foot of the city’s funicular railroad, which sadly was not yet open for the year. Dinner was grand and the conversation was beter. Within minutes I felt as if both Knut and Renata were old friends.

Monday was a workday for them and my camera and I rambled the inner city. Claudia joined us for dinner Monday night and took us off to one of her favourite places a rural hunting lodge just outside the city. Another fine meal and superb conversation ensued.

Tuesday morning we were off to visit more old friends, Karin and David Parisi and Osman Sümer in Hamburg.

Our hotel in Wiesbaden, the Hotel France on Taunusstrasse.



The city's famed Casino, now a museum.

An interesting door at the side of the Rathaus.

The Marktplatz seems to be the center of the old city.
And the Marktplatz church with its Gothic spire, which seems to be typical for the region
Look colsely at this balcony, there are many interesting things going on.