old houses – Trina's North Germany

We found her during a difficult time in our lives in November 2005. My sons were having difficulties adjusting to living far away from Hamburg, they were unhappy and bored, my partner was struggling with health problemsthat made it impossible for him to continue with his business and I felt guilty about dragging my sons away from Hamburg and for not being able to spend enough time with all of them as my job and commuting took most of the day.

Laika brought sunshine into our lives. She was a very lively puppy and the boys loved playing football with her. We started taking long walks in the countryside which brought us all closer together again. We loved watching her run after a ball and digging up mice and while striding along we talked about things on our minds.

She is now 12 years old. The boys have left home and my partner is not able to accompany me on long walks any more. It is just her and me going on walks and she likes to take it a bit slow these days.

I think we are both happy with our move to Lüneburg. For her there are a lot of new streets and places that smell interesting and there are plenty of dogs to meet and greet. I find inspirtation walking the old streets and exploring the new parts of the town and I see many things I like.

This morning when I walked the dog I came across this nice apricot colored house and I looked twice when I saw its entrance. They remind me of the figureheads of old sailing vessels, and made me smile. It’s amazing what effect a little bit of paint can have on a simple old doorbell, isn’t it?

The two ladies in the window next door observe the surprised faces with amusement.

We are having beautiful summer weather and I was lucky that the other day my job took me to Schwerin in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern . Coming off the motorway I passed some nice rural landscape with idyllic small villages. In one of them a sign pointing to a monastry caught my eye. I was lucky that the conference ended early and on the way home I stopped to check out that small place called Rehna.

It turned out to be a sleepy little town with nicely restored old houses. What impressed me were the artfully painted doors, of which you will see some in the gallery:

The entrance to the monastry, which dates back to the early 13th century was easy to find. There was a small building where some information was available and the man in the shop encouraged me to just take my time and explore the monastry on my own. He was a member of the local society looking after the monastry and its garden, and he took his time to explain to me how the old cranes (you will find a photo of them in the galery) were used to build the tower. He also mentioned, that even though very old mural paintings were discoverd already in 1960, the party (Rehna is in the former GDR) used it as a shooting stand for the young pioneers. The restoration of the monastry is not finished yet, but everywhere I looked I could see how caring and lovingly the people of Rhena are looking after this treasure.

I spent about three hours in Rehna, finishing the trip with a big icecream and a firm resolution to return to this part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern soon to discover more of its beautiful places. I hope you will enjoy the photos of the monastry: