Blade Museum, Solingen, Germany

Sorry, took so long to update.

As I promised AW after my trip to Solingen about a month ago, and after the discovery that he'd been there, too, before I'd met him, I drove us both back there, this time to visit the Klingenmuseum, or Blade Museum (or Knife Museum) as blades of all kinds are what Solingen is known for.  Of course, you can't include kitchen and table knives without displaying the spoons and forks as well.  The extras show some specimens that were particularly impressive, including a pair of chopsticks!

We left a few minutes before 12 noon, and met two thick traffic jams after the border.  The first was in the area of Duisburg on the A40, road construction work that I'd already seen yesterday.  The second one was on the A3 as we headed towards highway 46, also familiar as I'd already experienced it when I was in the area a month ago.  AW was very patient despite some back pain and we entertained ourselves by reading German license plates, including 'nerd', 'hard', 'dumb', and 'duck'.  'NE' is from Neurenburg, 'HA' is from Hamburg, 'DU' is from Duisburg.  It was also quite nice to show AW the new exits and minor highways that hadn't existed yet when he used to drive but which I am now familiar with.

Again, no GPS, but arrived without missing a beat at about 15.00, so we had two full hours to enjoy.  AW would comment like 'That looks like the one I bought in such-and-such 20 years ago' and 'Now doesn't that look like my bolo?'  There were indeed knives and axes similar to what we have at home.  I never thought I'd ever be interested in a museum like this one, but as we walked around and oohed and aahed, I realized that it is true that even in the making of weapons and tools, a nation's culture is expressed.  Solingen didn't get its reputation for nothing as it has been forging and manufacturing all kinds of knives and blades for centuries.  A most interesting two hours.

A lot less traffic on the way back, and we had dinner at Sevenum, between Venlo and Eindhoven ... yummm!  The shot you see here was a surprise.  The windows at the museum were full of light and all the glass cases and display cabinets reflected this in various ways, so images were constantly superimposed in many of the shots, but I liked this the most as it also reflects the rather high adrenaline levels I have these days, now that work has begun again.  I am reminded, though, of Lady Macbeth ... hahaha!

Our weekend has had a good start!  You all had a good one, I trust.