Blankets, Germany, opera and democracy

Nuremberg, Bayretuth, Pottenstein and Augsberg. Nazism, Luther and Leopold Mozart. It was quite a journey.

I may have missed my cousin's wedding but I had my knitting goal - could I finish a 2nd baby blanket?  A few trains helped get the knitting done.  It's amazing how you can knit and gaze out of the windows!

Pictured in Augsberg

The second is waiting for its final square and to be sewn up but it is much better travelled!  In fact it has had a rather splendid year.

First stop was Germany. Nuremberg, Bayreuth, Pottlingen and Augsberg.  

It was quite a journey.  I have a history degree and have studied the Nazis but I wasn't sure whether in Nuremberg I wanted to visit the scenes of the Nazi Rallies but I am glad I did.  These days the stands are crumbling, covered in undergrowth and lacking all of their Nazi symbols but shows that evil regimes can crumble.  For me the really moving place to go was the Courthouse where the Nuremberg trials were held.  I hadn't realised how remarkable they were.  The emphasis on justice, OK so the defendants were less familiar with English / American cross-examination and had less access to documents than the prosecution but every effort was made.  Some were found guilty, two innocent.  The Soviet judges pressed for the death penalty for all but each case was considered and not all sentenced to death.  It was logistically astonishing with simultaneous translation for the first time and provision for the press.  The whole trial lasted for less than a year.  It puts the recent crimes against humanities trials in the Hague to shame.

I had mixed emotions about visiting Bayreuth.  Friends had obtained tickets for the Opera and kindly asked me to join them for one.  So many more knowledgeable people have asked the question how can you separate Wagner, his music, and the music's symbolism.  Can you appreciate one without the others?  I think the answer is no.  

The music is extraordinary and having heard Tannhauser at Bayreuth and Paris less than 12 months apart I remain struck by its power, beauty and resonance.  Yet at Bayreuth there were plaques to those that suffered under the Nazi regime.  You cannot escape from the knowledge that Cosima was anti-semitic in her choice of performers while Winnifred was a member of the Nazi party and according to Bernard Levin threatened her own daughter with execution.  By all means appreciate the power of the music but do not underestimate the impact it has had on the world.

In contrast, Augsburg was philanthropy, Reformation and free speech.  Leopold Moazart a PR guru for his children?  A lightness to Wagner's dark side?

Back to the blankets the first is complete and has visited Lords, Wimbledon and the London Olympics.  There are squares knitted on the South West Coastal path and countless NetWork South East trains.  I am rather proud of it.

 

The 2nd has wrapped its way round my heart as it has now witnessed democracy at work as I travelled round the States.  It's possible to knit on a long distance flight provided it's with wooden needles.  Alternatively take a blunt tipped pair of scissors and tidy up all those loose ends - probably causing a lot of annoyance for aircraft cleaners!  Tine well spent.

One more square to go.  The twins may get the blanket before their first birthday but I will miss it!

Knitted in the USA & Presidential elections

This Autumn I had a ball.  I spent 2.5 weeks travelling from Boston - Chicago, down to St Louis and out of DC.  On planning the trip decided I would be one of the few travellers to New York State not to visit New York City. New York, New York two very different places!

Trip wasn't quite what I planned as I got waylaid by Hurricane Sandy and instead of travelling by train to DC went further into the midwest.

The Old Capitol, Springfield Illinois

It was one of those trips in a lifetime that I, a Londoner, learnt a little bit more about the complexity of the USA.  The election campaign was fascinating.  So many different points of view, so many elections, so many commutations but do you need so many adverts?  The visit to Springfield, IL was unplanned but in many ways a highlight.  I didn't really touch upon Lincoln in my history degree course so the Lincoln Presidential museum was a revelation.  I had known about the sacrifices and casualties of the Civil War (a visit to Richmond, VA taught me that) but the museum brought these stories to life.  It also shows Lincoln as a person, a battler, a giant, a man who suffered.  He lost his son to typhoid while at the White House and his grief was enormous.  

While in Springfield I was still reeling from some of the comments from would be representatives regarding abortion and that there was no such thing as a dangerous pregnancy.  It was there that I had the most extraordinary conversation with the bus driver.  He had no concept of the theory of evolution and knew that everything was created by God or why would all be different?  What was even sadder was that after only 45 years of Civil Rights and 147 years after the abolition of slavery and the death of Lincoln he saw no point in voting.  Is this what American Democracy has come to? Instead of disenfranchisement there is disenchantment?

The first reading of the American Declaration of Independence

Two weeks ago, I finished my petrol blue kid classic sweater /  jumper and I have been wearing it ever since.  I knitted most of the front and back while on that trip and whenever I wear it I smile.  I also worked on a well travelled blanket!  Knitting it while an earthquake hit Boston and during the 2nd Presidential debate.

Knitting rather than walking?

By now I had intended to add a blog about walking but somehow or other I haven't got out there.  I could blame the weather, Christmas but the reality is that it;s been my procrastination.

The thing is that I work a lot of late nights and then it becomes a struggle to get up early enough in the Winter to get a decent walk in.  It's also easy when you know you can get a train to the start and another from the finish but when you have to factor in buses suddenly it becomes a strain.  The daft thing is that I have planned the next stage of the North Downs Way several times but still haven't done it.  I suppose that is another disadvantage of walking on your own.  The only person you let down is you!

How's the knitting?  Well one more sleeve left of my US sweater.  It's turned into a tunic.  Knitters often regard the sewing up as boring or difficult.  My Mother put it differently.  She said it was the exciting bit because now you get to see what it looks like and to get the pleasure of wearing it.  She's right.

I haven't had many conversations on buses recently about my knitting.  Reading a kindle hasn't helped!  But people smile.