These weeks I had time to live in our house again.
Here we have lived as a tiny family: father, mother son - for 19 years. Longest time of my life in one place.
Our house was built in 1902. It lies in one of the best residential areas in Hildesheim: a little (half-) island, surrounded on one side by the river 'Innerste' and the 'Kalenberger Graben' on the other side. We have streets that are called "Great Venice" and 'Little Venice' - which says all.
The whole street was the result of an architectural contest - and shows some of the very few buildings that survived the war.
Six years after we had bought it, the complete street was put under "protection of historical buildings and monuments" - which was not always a joy for us, because I had a lot of 'interesting discussions' with the curator of monuments - an out-and-outer for others (in his house of the 17th century he pulled inside down every wall - but at this point, dear reader, Husband would roll his eyes and say: "Have you to keep on and on?" Eh - YES ).
On the photo below the left one is our house: around the windows in the shade you might guess the yellow sandstone I was not allowed either to let paint or sandblast(!). Three floors, every room about 4m high, stucco and beautiful carved doors: one big flat on knee-high ground-floor (175 qm where we lived, now let), 4 little flats (Hans' library-and working-flat is on the first floor, 3 others are let). The four streets of rows of houses form a square full of gardens.
These are houses around us (to be honest: I'm not a big fan of wooden framework) :
On the other side lives the Lord Mayor of Hildesheim:
Son went to study Law at the University in Freiburg. Hans and I went first to Hamburg, then moved to Berlin - he always working at the University of Hildesheim, commuting, me working in Hamburg, and now trying to skive off to free-lancing translation and writing in Berlin.
I think I found an answer to: Why did we leave?
(to be continued :-)
16 comments:
Dear Britta,
What a beautiful town! The riverscape is fascinating. Really impressed that Hildesheim's people have worked hard to preserve its hirstoric charm after the war. Your house is so lovely!
PS Glad to hear that you both came back home!!
Take care of your husband and yourself too!!
Those images are like an itch on the inside, prodding my curiosity about what are no doubt magnificent interiors, Britta.
Dear Sapphire,
yes, Hildesheim is a beautiful city - I will show some gems in the next post. Thank you for your good wishes - today we had sort of a complication, but it will work out. I will take care!
Dear Sue,
then I have to take a few old photos - or those I made in the working flat of Hans. The garden has changed too - I will write about that (in the garden-blog).
Those homes are breathtaking beauties! You are fortunate to own one of them. I love all of those fancy details of masonry and woodwork but can imagine how frustrating it could be when someone tells you what you can and cannot do to your own home. I hope things smooth out soon for you and your husband.
I have just googled Hildesheim to locate it on a map! It looks like a lovely place, the houses are beautifully maintained and preserved.
I think it is like here in Australia, if your house is heritage listed, there is difficulty when you want to renovate or change anything. Look forward to seeing more x
What a pretty city! It must have been hard to leave it, even if you were all beginning new ventures. I believe that we take with us a little big of every house we've ever inhabited, so that ultimately, where we live is an amalgamation of everywhere we've ever lived.
The houses remind me of the Dutch ones,like the design of your house.Ida
Dear Walk2write,
thank you for your good wishes - we'll need them especially tomorrow. Yes, the architects did good work - I only think that it is a strange mixture, woodwork and sort of stucco. But the ensemble is quite lovely. Once students came to write about the whole project.
Dear Plaits and Paisley,
now I have the right word: "heritage listed", thank you. Hildesheim owns even World Cultural Heritage - I'll show that soon.
Dear Pondside,
to take away a bit of the atmosphere - yes, I believe that too, and funny: we almost everytime have the same sort of house/flat: always a possibility to run through all the rooms in a wide circle, always high ceilings, stucco, parquet. The Berlin flat is beautiful too.
Dear Ida,
yes, I see that. Like the ones in Amsterdam, high (but they are often wall on wall in a row). I love Holland!
What a beautiful place to live Britta!
I hope things continue to go well and that your husband's progress carries on...but make sure you look after you in all this!
Healing hugs, Liz
Dear Nutty Gnome,
thank you for the healing hugs! We are glad that Hans is getting better - and yes, I do look out - only sleeping is not so easy. But that will get better soon, too.
Why did we leave? What were we looking for? These are the kinds of questions I ask myself all the time. Look at the beauty of this neighborhood! But we have our reasons. I'll bet you have an interesting answer. ;)
"Life as a whole is a miracle and beautiful." (From your last post.) It is, it is. I'm glad to hear that your Hans is doing better. :)
Dear Jayne,
thank you for your kind words! Yes, sometimes we have reasons that are very clear, sometimes one has to take a good look. As I will soon :-)
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