We had a very nice day out in Hildesheim yesterday. The weather was no better than when we arrived, unfortunately, and it was all we could do not to blow away out there. But we adapted by spending as much time as possible inside churches and museums!
We passed on the breakfast buffet at our hotel, for which they want €16 each, and found a much better option on the Rathausplatz (Town Hall Square).
One of the most beautiful half-timbered buildings on that square (above) houses a restaurant, which offers a modest breakfast buffet for €4.50 in atmospheric surroundings. We had rolls, eggs, cheese and little bratwursts with tea and coffee and it was a great way to start the day.
The first church we visited was the Andreaskirche. It was pretty plain on the inside but it did a great job of sheltering us from the whistling wind, so we lingered in there for awhile.
Then we made our way to Hildesheim Cathedral, which is a very nice Romanesque building with a big west tower and several interesting treasures inside.
Sadly most of it was destroyed by WWII bombs, but has been rebuilt to its original form.
Interior
This was the most unusual and interesting of the art treasures - the Christ Column from around 1015. It is based on the triumphal Column of Trajan in Rome, only it has scenes from the life of Christ when he was especially "triumphant", mainly working miracles.
3-D scenes like these wind their way up the column.
The other bronze creation dates from the same period, commissioned by the same bishop - the bronze door, which was the first since the Roman period to have sculptures on it.
It depicts the story of Adam and Eve on the left and Christ on the right.
Detail from the bronze door (presentation of Christ in the temple).
And then there is a huge chandelier hanging over the altar, which is very much like Barbarossa's Chandelier in Aachen Cathedral but even larger and older:
Like most cathedrals there was a separate treasury/museum as well, but they didn't allow photography and the admission was substantial so we skipped it.
We did happily pay the 50-cent entrance fee for the cloisters, where there is a thousand-year-old rose bush that is said to be the oldest in the world. The roses weren't much to look at this time of year, but the cloisters were fantastic. There was also a pine tree in the central garden that reminded us of Oregon and the corridors had cozy low ceilings and an upper level gallery.
The 1,000-year-old rose.
From the cathedral a winding stone alleyway led eventually to the city's main museum, which attracted us by having the largest Egyptian collection in Europe. It was a very nice museum and another great place to stay out of the weather. Unfortunately they also didn't allow photos, but we managed to snap a few here and there. In addition to the Egyptian collection they had a temporary exhibit on the Maya from Peru, which was quite interesting.
Then we headed up a moderate hill to our last church of the day, which was also the best - the Michaelskirche, which is one of the main reasons Hildesheim is a World Heritage Site.
It's a very early Romanesque church, founded in 1010. The architecture is fantastic and there is also some really nice decoration inside, including huge carved capitals and a painted ceiling from the 12th century.
General interior view
Painted ceiling from the 1100s
Foofy carved capital. Yes, "foofy" is a technical term.
Stripy arches, reminding us of the Mezquita in Cordoba
Tiny white ambulatory around the back, reminding us of Star Wars
Tomb of a saint in the center of the ambulatory, decorated with piles of whipped cream.
The only bummer about this church is that it is currently under major renovation and a lot of the interior is covered in scaffolding. But it was also interesting to see the renovation in progress - they even had color swatches for repainting the white walls and the red stripes of the arches.
On the way back to the hotel we picked up a cheap dinner of chicken kebabs, which came in a sesame pita bread fresh from a pizza oven. They were very good.
We are now packing up and getting ready to head for Berlin! We're very excited. I had a really hard time finding an available hotel there because there happens to be a convention this week, so I ended up booking a unique choice - a Vietnamese hotel! It's called Thang Long and is on the southern outskirts of the city. Its website says it has free wired internet - hopefully it is as good as we have had here (which was not free) so we can share our Berlin pictures with you.
