Our Airbnb host picks us up at the train station. It takes forever to get back to his flat near the harbour front & old town. There's a festival happening and a midway. We barely unload our bags and are walking to the harbour and learn that this is a festival for steam-driven engines.
Steam-driven machines and transport here include:
- a sawmill
- a rock crusher and compactor
- a peat pellet maker
- a steam pumper
- various farm tractors & a miniature one that the owner rides up & down the street
- big ships
- little launches
... all in working order
Some are driven by coal and some either by wood or compressed wood chip logs.
Most of the engines are astonishingly quiet & smooth running. Many have steam-powered whistles that are either quite pleasing or very harsh.
SAWMILL:
This was making the sawdust fly! It produced boards of remarkably even thickness and smoothness on both sides.
ROCK CRUSHER & ROAD COMPACTOR:
PEAT PELLET MAKER:
A STEAM PUMPER:
VARIOUS TRACTORS:
A SHOWPIECE:
BIG STEAMSHIPS:
To D. Trump, here's a reminder of what coal power is like:
BEAUTIFUL LITTLE STEAM LAUNCHES:
There was a whole kids' hands-on section where they got to make musical instruments on a foot pedal operated lathe; plane wood by hand; & even learn to milk a cow.
Some vendors had displays to explain their specialized skills such as thatch roof building.
Wondering if this is becoming a lost art, as so far we have seen only 2 buildings with thatched roofs - below photo on right is one (taken from a train window).
...and Rope-making:
Then there is the fellow who makes these delightful figures ... none are for sale:
There were the usual carnival rides ... but the midway food had a wonderful German twist
FOOD:
- BBQ sausages (buns) of all kinds on a huge round grill over charcoal:
- smoked weiners of some sort
- a whole roast pig served up in various ways with sauerkraut, potatoes & fried onions
- hand made kettle chips served hot & crispy with a choice of seasonings
- various German bakery delicacies; candy
- fruit juice bar
On day 2 walking the harbour boardwalk we look at the water and see so many jellyfish you can't count them. They are swimming vigorously, some deep & some right at the surface. Creepy.
...and they are much thicker on the other side.
There were 3 stages with music from oom pah pah to the blues.
There were many vendors, but one that caught my eye had dried pods, flowers, fruit and seashells for doing crafty things with. They were doing brisk business:
Flensburg Brewery has the town of Flensburg sewn up. There were many places to buy beer and it was exclusively Flensburg beer. Glad it was good! They also sponsored this 2 days of magic.
We see cigarette vending machines all over the place. Even in the Scandinavian countries, especially Copenhagen we saw smokers everywhere, with many public establishments allowing smoking inside.
The party's over. Big ships from Norway, Sweden & Denmark begin pulling out of harbour about 17:00 hours. As each ship left & sailed by the 2 big ships from Flensburg left in the harbour, they were given 3 long farewell blows on their steam horns, followed by one short horn, which the parting ships then returned.
The parting ships had crew and friends on board yelling and waving their goodbyes to Flensburg and had musicians on board playing a parting song...everyone was singing and clapping quite a visual and aural experience.
Most of our two days were spent at the waterfront, but we managed to stroll Flensburg's very long street that makes up the historic old town. It was a relaxing place after the harbour. We enjoyed a bakery and later a beer ... outdoor seating.
RANDOM PHOTOS FLENSBURG:
We could not figure out this illusion by these 2 guys from Spain. The bottom guy holding the middle guy with 1 hand and even the middle guy holding the doll.
The Internet is global and seemingly omniscient, while iPods and phones are all microscopic workings encased in plastic blobjects. Compare that to a steam engine, where you can watch the pistons move and feel the heat of its boilers. I think we miss the visceral appeal of the machine.
Scott Westerfeld
No comments:
Post a Comment