USEFUL GERMAN INFO

                                     German Tid Bits

            In Germany I marveled at how clean the cities were, how nearly all parking was underground, and how we’d seen almost no utility lines or billboards to spoil the lovely scenery.

            Berg refers to a fortress or castle while Burg refers to a hill.

            We were wished a happy fahrt (pronounced fart) all along the way on our bike trip from Munich to Vienna. But before you get all excited, fahrt in German means journey, roadway. So we were being wished a happy journey! We observed farht in many words such as abfarht meaning exit.

            Small villages are charming and very walkable, but full of cobblestones, so good walking shoes are essential.

            A good guide will give you more history than you ever thought possible, and they know it all by heart.

            River boats do get grounded—the river is either too low or too high. It has happened to me twice, once each way. With low water there isn’t enough water to float the boat; when the water is too high there isn’t enough clearance for the boats to get under the bridges. Water levels produce a domino effect all along the river. Boats that have berths stay in them, so even if you could move you’d be stuck for berthing space at your destination. Fear not though, companies who are in the riverboat industry always have contingency plans.

DELFT PORCELAIN

                                       Famous Delft Ware

            I would guess that most of you are familiar with the well known blue porcelain known as Delft Ware. And it is not a far reach to figure that it might come from a place called Delft in the Netherlands. Today I’ll talk about the porcelain.I talked  about the delightful city in early November '13..

            During the 13^th century Delft was a   long-time home port to the Dutch East India Company.

Several small Dutch facilities produced tin-glazed pottery known as Majolica in the 16^th century. The Dutch East Indian Company began importing porcelain from China in the seventeenth century, and it, especially the blue and white, became very popular. The imported Chinese porcelain meant competition, so the Majolica-producing factories started to imitate the Chinese porcelain, plus travel time meant long waits for specific pieces of pottery from China.

            The famous blue and white porcelain known the world over was first produced in the 17^th century. From about 1615, the potters began to coat their pots completely in white tin glaze instead of covering only the painting surface and coating the rest with clear ceramic glaze. They then began to cover the tin-glaze with clear glaze, which gave depth to the fired surface and smoothness to cobalt blues, ultimately creating a good resemblance to porcelain. By 1640 Delft potters began using personal monograms and distinctive factory marks. Many factories were established in beer breweries that had stopped production after a large explosion.

            Delftware ranged from simple household items--plain white earthenware with no decoration to items with fancy artwork. Pictorial plates were made in abundance. Delft potters also made tiles in vast numbers over a period of two hundred years, and still today many Dutch homes still have tiles that were made in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

            Today artists work 3-5 years training to paint the porcelain before they are allowed to paint on their own. Delft ceramics have been an important export product for more than 400 years.Royal Delft, established in 1653, is still entirely hand-painted according to a centuries-old tradition. In the1600s there were 39 factories producing Delft pottery; today three remain with 20 painters.  

            We visited one of the small factories, De Candelaer, where the owner explained the pottery process. Especially interesting was how to spot a fake opposed to  real delft.

            The fellow told us, “Clay for genuine delft is imported from Cornwall, England and arrives in powder form. The first firing takes 9 hours at 2000 degrees. Then it is 24 hours before the mold can be opened. It takes 8-10 days for a piece of pottery to be completed. It is microwave and diswasher  safe.”

            Before leaving the facility and the interesting presentation on the famous blue porcelain most of us helped the city economy. I did my part by doing some Christmas shopping!