Fischerhude cobblestone
People who think of themselves as both intellectual and affluent usually like Fischerhude. Some artists lived there last century, among them Cato Bontjes van Beek’s family, it is a cuddly green place in Summer, and once you hear Fischerhude, a vision of lemonade, humming bees and distant voices comes to your mind. People go there, especially on Sundays.
We went there too: my wife and my parents. It’s the long summer vacation (six weeks for students and most teachers), my wife and I aren’t travelling, so we made that trip of a few dozen kilometres – Fischerhude is still within the Verden District.
The scene was as expected. The weather, too. Sunny and hot. Green trees and green water in the canals and ponds, old Houses cowering into their neighbourhoods and the landscape around, fonts next to them, and small bridges, and the usual share of prohibitive signs, and cobbled streets that made you move slowly. My wife fell in love with two cats that reminded her of a cat of her own back in Thailand, and my mother fell in love with a water mill.
We went to the Liebfrauenkirche, which was smaller a building than its name might suggest, and had a look at the Arch angel Michael (made by Amelie Breling, if that name tells you something), the stained-glass windows, and the pious flyers that were lying around.
Underneath the organ, a memorial tablet listed the names of those who had died in World War 1.
For a while, Hans Meyboden, a painter, born in Verden in 1901, lived in Fischerhude. Was quite renowned, as it seems. But not here in Verden. Never heard anyone mention his name here in my home town. He should have painted bugling deer (yes, like this one), but no stuff like this if he really wanted to make it into his hometown’s living rooms.
Tags: art, Cato Bontjes van Beek, countryside, Fischerhude, history, parents, tourism, Verden
