Very slowly getting into a rhythm

Well, almost, it still feels like (fairly extended) vacation, but I’m starting to allow myself to take time for my own stuff.

But talking about vacation, first we went back to Walcheren for another week, which despite the rain, and there was a lot of rain, was glorious. I also took a lot of photographs, so in terms of my retirement plans that also was quite productive.

During our vacation we also visited Arnemuiden, which today is a fairly small, fairly modern looking suburb of Middleburg. Go a few centuries back Arnemuiden was an important harbour on Walcheren, sitting at the mouth of the river Arne which linked Arnemuide with the Verse Meer and thus with international trade. History of Arnemuiden

What piqued my interest is that Arnemuiden was an important trading center for salt. Originally Zeeuwse Zout was made by burning turf, but in the 16th century Iberian and French sea salt was refined on Walcheren.

Part of this salt was used to salt fish, some of which was traded down the Rhine and was then offloaded in Cologne, see Trading Goods of Cologne and especially Ventgüter.

Another part of this salt was traded directly, partly down the Rhine to Cologne, where it was either traded on, or used in the salt fish trade which provisioned large parts of the southern Holy Roman empire with fish for lent and other religious fast days.

In a (not really) surprising twist, cruising the History of Arnemuiden I happened on this page, Rheinisches Steinzeug

Coming back to photography, there was also time for a visit to Cologne Zoo.

Slowly getting there

The first Cologne trading good I’m looking at is stoneware. It was produced in the wider area around Cologne from Raeren in Limburg down to Höhr-Grenzhausen in the Westerwald.

The goods were traded from the Alter Markt in Cologne and went all over northern Europe and from The Netherlands and England to Africa, Indonesia, America (North and South) and to Australia.

Steinzeug

My first trip went to Frechen, though I have to go back as I managed to miss the kilns.

Stoneware from Frechen

The next trip will then probably go to Siegburg.

#retirement #history #cologne #cycling #photography

I did my first cycling trip to a source of a medieval trading good, traded in Cologne. This is part of my retirement keep active plan. Combine local history, cycling and photography.

Steinzeug or stoneware is a type of pottery that has been taken up to 1.300 C or more and has vitrified. Stoneware is impermeable to water and much tougher than normal pottery. Stoneware was first produced and traded from Cologne from the 14th century onwards.

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Basically I really liked the Keramion, especially some of the modern stuff, but they also have a good selection of historical pieces.

The second part of the trip was me following the Keramikweg. In theory this would have included some of the locations of historic kilns, amongst other things. Unfortunately I did not find the kilns, have to go back and do some better research before I go. The other things take the stoneware tradition of Frechen via construction and industrial stoneware to today. My wife used to work for a company that exported stoneware sewage pipes throughout Europe.

Total trip, 43 km

I am going to use the hashtag #HistoryCycle on Mastodon and Micro.blog for this whole endeavour going forward.

pictures

Link to a summary of pottery in Cologne

www.fabriziomusacchio.com/weekend_s…

#HistoryCycle #stoneware #cycling

As mentioned before, as part of my retirement I want to combine some local history with cycling trips and photography. See my latest update on all that.

Anyway, being somewhat methodical and also easily distracted, I choose to have a look at trading goods, where they came from and where they went. The idea being, if the from and to was close enough, I could go there by bicycle, and take photos. But, of course, there is no ready made list of trading goods (that I could find).

Therefore, back to being methodical. I started collating a list of goods and started with the so called Stapel Goods, basically any trader passing Cologne had to unload and offer their goods to Cologne traders for three days (thereby creating harbour, unloading, and inspection fees, tolls, not to forget, as the trader had to spent three days (and nights) food and lodging).

Here is the draft list of Stapel Goods

The columns:

Deutsch - the German term
English - yes, the translation
Road Name - Road/Place/Street name in medieval Cologne
Source - Where the goods came from
Destination - Where the goods went
Visit? - Future plans to visit a source/destination
Remarks - remarks

Anyway, while researching, I also found a category called Ventgüter These were goods that were not only unloaded, offered for sale and then loaded again, no, these goods were also, for a fee, unpacked, inspected, marked as inspected and repacked or destroyed if they did not pass.

• This was good for Cologne because of opportunities, fees and reputation
• Semi good for the trader, as they could get somewhat better prices for inspected goods
• Goodish for customers, as they got quality goods but for a higher price

Here is a good German article from museen.koeln on all of this Erfolgreich gegen die Wirtschaftskrise: Mittelalterlicher Protektionismus

It’s been 6 weeks since starting the #pension #adventure

It still feels like an extended holiday. Which, as far as it goes is fine. BUT it also means that I’m mentally waiting to agree what to do today with E. which does not help with establishing new habits.

Here’s a short recap of what happened

clearing out the work flat

Done, was as much fun as it sounds like

vacation

We did spent a week of vacation on Walcheren, which was, as always, very nice and relaxing. Though because of weather the kites stayed in their bag.

cycling

September was not a good month, I was still working half of it and then we did clean out the flat.

Oktober is much better, I’ve done 375 km so far, and there is still a week (with a lot of rain forecasted) to go.

photography

Still getting to grips with the new camera. I’m quite happy with it. I’m now about 1800 pictures in and starting to appreciate the possibilities. Also I’ve started sorting through our photos and putting them into more of a system than one big bucket.

Still open to do’s:

• Finish the organizing
• Finish sorting into family photos and “good” photos
• Start grading the “good” photos and distill what lessons there might lurk for future photos
• Finish scanning the pre-digital photos. Both ours and the photos I inherited from my parents

local history, cycling and photography

The library membership was achieved, first books lended and almost finished. The books I took out look at Colognes early medieval and medieval history. I’ve also looked through a lot of online sources and am compiling a list of goods that were traded in Cologne.

This compilation has already given me some future cycling destinations, so the basic idea seems to work.

I also had some ideas on visualising the flow of goods and have recruited the daughter to help draw / map this.

other stuff

My plans for retirement also included

• Learning the ukulele (pending)
• Start archery (pending)
• Start Tai Chi (pending)
• Languages (pending)
• Volunteering (pending)

But, other, useful stuff got done

We renovated the kids rooms and now we each have our own room to do stuff in without regard to the other. Which will be helpful, as, see above, I’m still feeling a bit like vacationing. I’ve also cooked a quite a few new dishes, some of which will go into rotation

Yesterday I got my new library card in the big city next door. They have a whole floor with history books, that should help with the research on Cologne trade goods.

I’m also going through a book on Colognes medieval street names, looking for trades and goods.

A preliminary list of bike excursions is growing.

#history #photography #cycling #ebike #Cologne #Köln #retirement

What ever will I do now?

This is my first week of retirement, and mostly it was spent emptying out the flat (that I had in lieu of commuting 300 km a day).

Next week we’ll spend on Walcheren.

But then project cycle, look at historical stuff and take photos is a go.

I have been quietly researching (or beginning to research) Colognes trading goods through the centuries. These will inform the destinations.

Or so the plan goes.

#history #photography #cycling #ebike #Cologne #Köln #retirement

As my retirement is nearing I’m considering (additional) hobbies.

Some should be solo activities, others should encourage social interactions and new contacts. Some should be sustainable even when physical activity is getting difficult. Some should promote physical fitness.

So, a preliminary list:

• cycling
• photography
• (local) history
• archery
• tai chi
• volunteering
• Volkshochschule
• Languages

Suggestion welcome

#retirement #hobbies