My last day in Flensburg began from a walk in its historical centre.
After admiring the architecture for a while, I made my way to the Nordermarkt, one of the two main marketplaces in downtown. It is probably the oldest marketplace that was created around 1170. The Neptunbrunnen (The Neptune Fountain, photo below) which dominates the Nordermarkt today, was built in 1758. In the beginning of 2000s, some crazy souvenir hunters were stealing the gold-plated (at that time) trident that King Neptune is holding in his hand. The sculpture remained vandalised, sprayed with paint and with broken trident for years, till it was completely renovated in 2015. Today, the trident is made of cast iron, there is video surveillance and a wreath with sixty centimeter long steel spikes – to protect the cultural monument!
There is a goosebumping story connected to the Nordenmarkt. A legend has it, a young girl named Mette Osthave was charged with theft by Mayor Peter Pomering and sentenced to death, even though it was a minor offense or maybe she was even innocent. When the unjustly convicted girl was led to the Nordermarkt, which was to serve as a place of execution, she protested loudly that she was innocent and asked God to punish the unjust mayor. After that, the ordeal began. She was buried alive under the erected gallows and impaled alive. The pole was driven straight through her heart and later she was finally buried in the moat. The whole of Flensburg was terrified by this cruelty.
The pole on the Nordermarkt, which was used to impale the innocent girl with, could not be permanently removed – it grew up out of the ground again and again. The Mayor had to saw it down every night, but it kept growing back. After his death, Peter Pomering found no rest in his grave – he would run around in the moat as a ghost in the shape of a big black poodle and would look for the girl’s grave.
The mayor Peter Pomering actually existed. The trial against Mette Osthave was also conducted. The case files have been preserved. In the Middle Ages, there is evidence that convicts were actually buried alive and then impaled. The impaling through the heart was probably intended to prevent the executed from returning as vampires.
However, archaeologists have so far not been able to find any remains of people who were impaled in Central Europe in the Middle Ages at execution sites, which is why it is assumed that the skeletons were either already too badly decomposed, so that the piling was no longer detectable, or their bones are to be found elsewhere. The Café Mette on the north side of the Nordermarkt is reminiscent of Mette Osthave. A copy of the original verdict on the execution of Mette Osthave hangs on the front door in a frame to commemorate the injustice that occurred, or to attract customers with a terrifying legend.
The A.H. Johannsen rum brewery, established in 1878:
I tried to read their web site to find out more, but the site was simply terrible, and after a couple of clicks I gave up – if they don’t bother to make a decent site, they won’t have any online visitors. In the first half of the 1900s, there were 200 rum houses in Flensburg. Today, there are only two left – A. H. Johannsen and Braasch in Rote Strasse, where I buy it. My favourite is dark cane – it’s excellent, highly recommended. Braasch also makes delicous dark chocolate with rum – my guilty pleasure, I like it more than rum.
Later, I went to the eastern side of the Flensburg fjord, the Flensburg marina with many restaurants, sun decks, lots of people. I love sailing, another time in Flensburg I need to go on a sailing tour…
Food & drink stalls, and 3 of them – dedicated to the former Danish West Indies (a Danish colony in the Caribbean; today US Virgin Islands):
I visited those 3 Carribean islands for about 7 years ago, and have many good memories from there. They are very different from each other; St. Croix is a combination of pleasure and sightseeing, St. John – pristine beaches, St. Thomas – overwhelming jewellery shopping, big noisy cruises, and lots of Danish history (many streets still have Danish names).
When there was time to go home, I took a bus to the airport. I was full of nice experiences, but wanted to stay longer! At the airport, my Aeroprakt wasn’t the only one under a canopy cover; other aircraft owners were using them too:
I was glad, I had put my canopy cover on – it was pleasantly cool in the cockpit, when I removed it. I’m in progress of creating wing covers as well; see more here.
Gliders were landing back after a good day of flying:
I took off from their runway, and soon waved goodbye to the Holnis Nordspitze and hospitable Germany.
Screaming-yellow rapeseed fileds on my way were so cheerful:
Svendborg and the bridge connecting islands of Funen and Tåsinge:
At home, I had a glass of pilot’s champagne (sparkling water) on arrival:
By the time I was leaving my flying club, it became dark. The sunset was colourful and peaceful:
I wish I could stay in Flensburg longer!