An interesting practice at a downtown Osnabrück mall: it’s December 27 and the large gingerbread house that was set up in this mall as Christmas decoration, has been opened to public plundering! Just like Hansel and Gretel, people are ripping the edible tiles and stucco off the facade. But where’s the wicked witch?
Osnabrück is a beautiful old German city that has distinguished itself by hosting the peace talks to end the 30-year war back in — wait while I google this in Wikipedia — 1648.
C. showed me the “Friedensssal” where the end to the 30-year war was negotiated. This process alone took 7 years due to messages being carried to other kingdoms on horseback and back. This begs the question whether that war may have been finished after 23 years if they’d had email or tele-conferencing back then, but I am not so sure. I actually bet they had to be more concise in their communications than we are today.
We also visited the diocesan museum belonging to the Dome of Osnabrück, where church treasures from medieval to more recent times are stored. It is a beautiful museum, although I was hoping to see some icons there, which they didn’t have. I am interested in icon art, not out of reverence but because I would like to do something subversive involving the icon visual tradition. Of course, about 100 other artists have already done it by now.
In the evening, our friends treated us to a nice dinner at the traditional German brewery Rampendahl.
The door handle at the entrance to the Friedenssaal, Osnabrück. The city now tries to carry on its tradition and hosts peace-making related events designed to foster understanding and conflict resolution.
Looking out from the Friedenssaal in Osnabrück, but I don’t know what this church is. Hello my friend G. — maybe you can help!?
View from the “Kreuzgang” inside the Dome of Osnabrück. I would have liked to sketch this as well, but a) there was not much time, and b) it was too cold.
View down an Osnabrück street. This would make a great sketching motiv for one of my extreme vertical sketches. One day… provided I come back in warm weather.
