It rained pretty heavily overnight and it was still doing so, albeit in a more desultory fashion, this morning. We debated whether it was worth getting into Schleswig, remembering that it was a good walk from the centre to the museum, our principal destination  and we would get pretty wet. However, the forecast was for an improving situation so we decided to take the gamble and make for the 09:40 bus and indeed, by the time we got to Schleswig by around 10:30, the rain had pretty much stopped, leaving a lowering ceiling of grey cloud.

Having found the tourist office, it was confirmed to us that the museum was about a 15 minute walk away around the banks of the Schlei, not an unpleasant prospect given the improvement in the weather! Firstly however, we needed coffee and we were directed to a nearby café, adjacent  to a car park specifically for motor homes. For once this collection of vehicles on tarmac didn’t look too off-putting, in that their situation, adjacent to the Schlei, was quite a pleasant one, no real difference in terms of outlook than the nearby yachts in harbour.

It was really quite a chilly day – the forecast stated that the temperature would only be 11°C and moreover, due to the dank conditions, it would feel more like 8°C!! Undaunted, we braved the conditions and set off at a brisk pace, to the Schloss Gottorf, a building dating back to the Renaissance and one  which proclaimed the importance of the Gottorf dukes who reigned here. The museum is reputed to be one of the best in Germany, having had its’ collection augmented by Kiel’s contribution as many exhibits were moved from there to escape destruction from allied bombs. Kiel was pretty much flattened in WW2, apparently.

I might as well confess now that we should have read the Rough Guide to Germany before we actually came here, as it transpires that we missed quite a lot! It’s particularly galling as I stated after our last visit (see blog 2010, Sept 5th) that we didn’t do the museum justice and here we are, 9 years on, repeating the same mistake! The museum consists mainly of two sections, one devoted to more modern times (16^th Century onwards) and one which concentrates on archaelogy and just like the last time we visited, it was the latter we went to first. One of the most interesting, if slightly ghoulish, exhibits – in fact there are three, are bog bodies ie bodies that were discovered in a remarkable state of preservation as the slightly acid and anoxic conditions of the peat bogs where they were interred do a wonderful job of preservation. What is slightly chilling is the manner of their deaths, it could well be that they were executed, either as a sacrifice or as punishment. The fact that the best preserved body, that of a young boy of 15 or so, had a blindfold, tells you something. In fact, all we could do was conjecture, as we didn’t even have the advantage of the German-speaking museum-goers, all of the descriptions on all of the innumerable artefacts were in German only, so it was of limited value to us. This is unusual in this day and age, most museums have at least a couple of addition languages to help their audiences.

Perhaps it was because of this that we missed so much. The remainder of the museum  housed some fascinating exhibits, ranging from rooms full of furniture of the times, paintings, carvings and so on. Quite what their significance was, passed us by, ignorant of the language as we are so I’m afraid I can’t add much more here.  Again, perhaps it was because of a sense of frustration or because of the weather or something, but we decided we’d had enough and rather than heading for the cathedral to have a look there, we opted instead to catch the 14:40 bus back rather than wait until 16:00 and after a bit of shopping on the way, we were on board CW again by 16:30, now in pleasant sunlight. This was useful as it enabled us to take the cockpit cover down and stow it as it was nice and dry, in preparation for our departure in the morning.

Julie has yet to have any herring, so that evening we did just that, visiting one of the nearby restaurants to have bratkartoffeln, herring and salad for €8.50, a bargain, especially given that we were each provided with 3 whole fish!  Bratkartoffeln, by the way,  are boiled potatoes, cut into slices and fried in bacon fat with onion and tiny bits of bacon – tasty but very calorific! It fascinates me that herring, such an oily fish, in fact has a delicate flavour and for me, not a fan of most fish, quite edible.