Yesterday I woke up early to find that the sun was shining bright and it was warm outside. For those that know me that usually is a bad sign for me. I love rain and cold. It's perfect weather for curling up with a good book, watching a movie, drinking a cup of tea, playing in puddles, and just marveling at the power and beauty of nature. But it has been so cold here that we can't escape it whether we are inside or outside. It's the beginning of September and Tate and I are both already wearing out warmest coats in the house.
But yesterday the skies were partly cloudy, the sun was shining bright, and it was warm with a nice cool breeze. In essence the weather was perfect. And we decided to take advantage of the good weather by taking a trip into town for a few hours. I have only been in town for church and the night we arrived. I waited for the bus on Friday and it never came. I waited for the bus on Tuesday and again it never came. So I was a bit worried that once again the bus would not come to get me.
Good news! The bus came to the village and I was actually able to go into town. The bus dropped us off at the train station. First Tate and I stopped in a church to look around for a bit. Then we walked through a large shopping area where we stopped to look at Lederhosen and see if they had traditional German dresses. The Lederhosen were super expensive and we decided to keep looking around to see if we can find a better price. The only "traditional" German dresses they had were short and pink and looked a lot more like a "sexy" German Halloween costume than anything else. We didn't even look twice at those.
We continued up the street toward Paderborn's cathedral, and we stopped in almost every church we passed. There are so many churches there and when the bells all tolled and noon it seriously felt like a different world. For lunch we ate Bratwursts at another little stand like the one in Hamburg, but these ones were a bit better. They still don't understand the concept of tomato ketchup but the weird barbecue sauce tasted better to me this time. Maybe I'm just getting used to it or maybe it was the curry that they sprinkled on top. Probably the curry. You guys, I really love curry.
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But what was most exciting to me was when we explored the different churches and the cathedral. Below are pictures from the cathedral where we attended a meditation meeting. Outside of the cathedral I couldn't get a ton of really great pictures because they are currently doing construction on the building, but I can say that it is beautiful. It looks like a castle.
The grounds were beautiful too. A small chapel behind the cathedral sits right on top of a natural spring. Everywhere there is greenery, plants and flowers popping up from between the bricks. The stairs and the buildings are covered in moss and clovers and grass. It is so remarkable to see all that life. Even the construction didn't take away from the beauty too much.
The inside was even more spectacular. The inside was dim and it echoed every sound. There was something both magnificent and a bit ominous about it (plug for Dr. Bishop-it was sublime). Right inside the door way was this amazing sculpture thing. I'm not even sure what to call it and I took a picture but it couldn't capture all the details. I'm not sure what biblical tales or historical events its supposed to even be capturing but it was glorious. It had angels on it, as well as Catholic figures like saints and a pope. And scattered throughout the scenes were people who had skeletal faces and ribs stretching through thin skin. It was sort of terrifying and so so cool.
The arches and door ways were all super ornate and each was a little different too. I mean the architecture in this place was out of this world. The detail was amazing. There were a ton of different material used. They used different metal for the grates and different stone around the arches and if you came up to them at a a different angle you would notice something completely different about it. Of course everything was very symbolic. The windows above were all stained glass and portrayed various bible stories. The one above this one looked like the Widow's Mite to me, but it could have been any story where a poor woman gives everything she has to the Lord.
This Arch was by far my favorite in the whole cathedral. The marble was this amazing coral color and for some reason the architecture and sculptures felt very Parisian to me. It kind of reminded me of the Phantom of the Opera or The Beasts castle in Beauty and the Beast. When I look at the picture now it looks more Greek than I thought it did, but when I first walked up to it I thought Paris Baroque for some reason. (Mom I'll want your expertise on what this stuff actually is). But it was covered in Cherubs and in the grate though it might be a bit difficult to see is the face of -what to me looked like- an angry archangel with a halo above its head.
Underneath the cathedral was another chapel and when we got down there we took a few pictures inside the chapel before I turned around. There was an archway behind me with more steps leading down into the ground and at the bottom of the steps was a saintly Sarcophagus. Yes I was excited that I had just discovered the entrance to the crypt under the cathedral. And of course I did enter the crypt where I took a ton of pictures of. You know me I live for those sort of spooky things. It was so dark and cold down there, which I know is kind of the point of a crypt, but there was this light hanging from the ceiling and it reflected off the tiled mosaic on all the walls which sparkled. It looked so pretty. It was the exact sort of thing that my sister would love if it was in a less morbid place than a crypt.
After we finished at the cathedral and all the other churches we wanted to see. We headed to the grocery store where I filled my basket. Finally I was able to go grocery shopping at a real grocery store. No more crackers for breakfast for this lady. It was a successful day and I am really glad I got to experience it all. I got quite a bit of inspiration for my novel which (this is my idea of a big announcement) is going to be a series of (probably) four books. For those of you who like the gothic, sci-fi, fantasy, or dystopian genres you will probably like this series, because I am discovering that it is kind of all of those wrapped into one. It might sound like a bit much but given who its author is, the genre mashup makes quite a bit of sense. Well its another bright sunny day today so I'm thinking of going for a walk, then back to work. Four books aren't going to write themselves.
Love Always,
The Wanderess
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