It might be the churches.
Too many of them - in a town that is allowed to call itself city, because they counted (very generously) more than 100 000 inhabitants.
Hildesheim is a Catholic diaspora. In Mainz, where I studied, I became aquainted with Catholicism in the form of "laissez faire" (we call it: To let five be an even number) - Hans' aunt Maria, for example, surprised me by saying laughingly: "Who often goes on a pilgrimage will seldom become sacred" (that in the matchless dialect of Mainz). And I, coming from the Evangelic Church of Bremen, indulged in the sheer sensuality of Catholicism in Bavaria: gold and jewels in abundance, Saints for every wish and woe, relics and baroque splendour and frankincense.
Hildesheim has a strange form of Catholicism, Puritan almost - stern, rigorous, austere.
But the churches are beautiful.
Take St. Godehard - the Basilica, which belongs to the biggest buildings in the Romanesque style of Northern Germany, stands on a little hill near the island where our house is.
Godehard was Bishop of Hildesheim from 1022 to 1038 - an art-lover, church-builder and adherent of the reform of Cluny. On June 16, 1133 A.D., Bishop Bernhard laid the foundation-stone of the St.Godehard Church.
I will spare you the many 'Strokes of Fate' - and prefer showing you some pictures of this really beautiful church: the lucidity of its architecture, the structural abundance of the column capitals and the cube and scaly friezes.
The more than life-sized figure of St. Godehard is from 1450. The huge wheel chandelier over the altar was a present of Mary, the last Queen of Hanover, 1864.
By the way: the Basilica is more idyllic than you might have thought from the first glance above:
And the vicarage always reminds me of Jane Austen:
As you know, I take wisdom and solace from where I can find it - so maybe the lighting of a candle and for sure all the good wishes and prayers from friends have helped:
we are very grateful that Hans, being an athletical man, recovers so well that maybe he might leave the Rehab center on coming Friday - and be finally in our flat in Berlin.
