The House on the Hill

On a hillside promontory, overlooking the Baldeneysee on the southern outskirts of Essen stands a house on a hill.  It's rolling park-like gardens and wooded glades give it a very rural and peaceful air - you wouldn't know you were in the (in)famous German industrial heartland of the Ruhrgebiet - nor would you suspect you were standing at the front door of the former seat of one of Germany's great industrial families - the Krupps.

So it came to be that yesterday I was standing there - with about 25 other ladies (mainly Americans but with a couple of subversive Brits thrown in to liven the mix!) - waiting for our guided tour of Villa Hügel (literally the Hill Villa).  It had been arranged by the American Women's Club of Düsseldorf and I had been invited along by a friend who was involved in arranging the excursion.

The back of Villa Hügel showing the main house on the left, a corner of the 'little house' on the right and a linking building with arched windows in the centre.

Now I had seen Villa Hügel from the lake below whilst boating around it with the In-Law's last summer, and had passed through it's (very own) railway station en route to Essen centre.  I'd seen books about it and watched a historical drama about the Krupps which featured the house - so I knew a bit about it before going.  I'm also a veteran of the National Trust in the UK - so have a bit of experience of the odd country house (or three) and not to forget I'm a complete expert on all matters upstairs/downstairs having seen Downton Abbey - so I was most definitely prepared for the visit.

Grand Hall with domed glass ceiling

Villa Hügel didn't disappoint - although it's not like it was in it's heyday of course due to continued modernisation over the years, but there was still an air of grandeur, some fabulous chandeliers and tapestries and a sense of awe at the scale of the house.  It was built in about 1873 by Alfreid Krupp - he designed it himself and used a large proportion of Krupp produced materials to build it (a steel frame for example and a steel staircase) - he was apparently paranoid of the house burning down and so wanted to use as little flammable material as possible....
 

Room in the 'Linking Building'

Dining Room in main house

As befit one of the leading industrialists of his time, Krupp's seat was impressive - some 269 rooms consisting of over 8000sqm of usable floor space - a pretty impressive house by all measures.  It was a very extensive estate and at it's peak there were over 700 staff manning the house, gardens, home farm etc.  Villa Hügel also paid host to a constant stream of important visitors - all of whom had the red carpet treatment in an attempt to further the Krupp business.  These included various Emperors (of Germany and abroad), Kings, Statesmen and so on - not all of them were enthusiastically received however, Hitler being one of these - whilst Krupp needed the work from the war effort - and Hitler needed Krupp's steel there was a big social divide - one which the Lady of the House was not willing to cross.

Villa Hügel remained the family seat until the end of WWII when it was appropriated by the Allies used in that capacity until it was returned to Krupp in the early 1950s.  It was however not used as a family house again.  It was opened to the public for use as a cultural centre - and still houses exhibitions today.  It is also home to the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung (Krupp Foundation) a not-for-profit organisation who were passed the Alfried Krupp's estate on his death.

It is a beautiful house and well worth a visit if you are in Essen.  The grounds are beautifully kept and there are apparently lots of things to look at / explore within them - unfortunately, we didn't have time for that yesterday - so another visit is most definitely called for!

(Thanks to Kettwigefrau for the pictures)

Wine of the Month - February 2013

Herr Expat knows I enjoy my wine and so my usual Valentine's treat is a nice bottle - and he didn't disappoint this year.

February's recommendation comes from South Africa, from the Stellenbosch region, well known for its sumptuous reds.  We tried a Jacobsdal Pinotage 2010. Now it retails at a bit more than my usual bargain finds (about 12Eur according to Mr. E - and he found it in Edeka which seems to have a rather good wine selection if you can find a big enough branch - rather like the Co-op used to have in the UK - but I digress.....)

So to the vineyard.  This pinotage hails from Jacobsdal - a family run wine estate in the Stellenbosch which has specialised in the production of Pinotage wines - almost exclusively - until the introduction of a Cabernet Sauvignon in 2004.  And I must say that they do pinotage very, very well.  This wine was bursting with berry flavours, soft, full and rounded on the palate - a shame we only had the one bottle to drink.....

I think Pinotage has to rate highly as one of my favourite reds, this wine and another SA stunner the Delheim (funnily enough that hails from another Valentine's day post....) are two that I can really recommend - but of course, the downside being that they come with a heftier price tag - worth it I'd say.

Prost!

Wine of the Month - January 2013

Yes, Yes, I know it's February - but I bought and fully intended on drinking and talking about this wine in January - but I've been laid low by the lurgy for two weeks and until yesterday had not touched a drop of wine..... I must have been very ill.......

I have some very fond memories of Sardinia, we spent our honeymoon there and it holds a special place in my heart.  Alghero, on the North West corner is my particular favourite - known for its winding alleys, fantastic Lobster and some incredible wine.

When we were there, we stayed in this amazing Hotel, once a holiday home of Itallian Royalty, it sits on its own little rocky outcrop, surrounded by gardens just outside of the centre of Alghero.

Anyway, I digress, back to the point in hand, or rather glass in hand...and a Sardinian Red to be precise.  Today's recommendation is a Cannonau di Sardegna.  Now you may well not have heard of Cannonau, but you will no doubt have tasted it somewhere.... for Cannonau is actually Grenache  - where in Sardinia it is one of the principal varieties used in red production.

This wine is a beautiful plummy colour - almost damson-like, a rich, deep, purple.  It just invites you to get stuck in.  On the palate it is full, rounded and smooth and bursting with the fruitiness it's colour suggests - a real find for Eur5.99 in my local Edeka.

Phone Phobic

I don't like using the phone - well that's not entirely true.... I don't mind chatting on the phone (for hours and hours actually) to friends and family - or even the bank etc as long as I can do it in English.

English.

That is the thing you see, I can do phone calls in German - book appointments, arrange play dates, change all these arrangements most apologetically and so on, but I don't like to.  Being able to converse confidently on the phone in another language is quite a skill.  Indeed, being able to do so in your own language can be tricky - you see, when we talk on the phone, so many of the other communication tools and clues we rely on in everyday life are missing and that makes it very difficult.

In my native language, I'm confident in judging by tone and tempo how a phone conversation is going and what the subtexts of the conversation are - I just can't do that in German.  Indeed, I rely heavily on gesture when I speak German as mine is really not that good and I obviously can't do it on the phone.

According to this some researchers have put non-verbal communication as forming up to 80% of communication - with this comprising body language, gesture, posturing, eye-contact, clothing etc all of which give the participants a myriad of clues as to what is going on - and of course, all of this is absent in a a phone call.

So added to the fact that you miss a lot by relying solely on the verbal, and that my German skills still leave a lot to be desired talking on the phone can be a bit of a trial.  I plan in my head as far as possible what I want to say - but am often thrown by a response which I either mishear / don't fully understand / wasn't expecting - and then try to bluff my way onwards which as I usually rely heavily on hand gestures can be an interesting experience in murdering a language! I generally succeed in getting my point across and booking that appointment.....but I sometimes come away from the phone call not being 100% sure I've done what I set out to do - oh and did I get the time right..... half past and half to is just another one of those things designed to throw me!

So often, I chicken out and pop into wherever it is I need to call and have the conversation in person, I find it easier that way.....