We went back to the Talle church to meet with Annette, the church custodian (I think that's her title). She was a delightful women with grown children and only adequate English. Even with communication problems we talked with her for a couple of hours.
The church:
She helped in interpreting and translating a couple of the gravestones we saw yesterday. In particular, she said the stone for Johan Stock says he was from Matdorf, which is now the village of Matorf and is very close by (we had found a modern Matdorf and it isn't close). We wouldn't have known about the name change without her.
The stack of gravestones:
Annette told us about the age of the parts of the church. The tower is about a thousand years old. The front altar area is about 800 years old. The nave was built about 1450. It has been renovated a few times since then, the last time three years ago, so it doesn't look old.
The church is in honor of St. Peter. This image of him is from an earlier version of the church.
I didn't have my camera with me during the church service yesterday. So it is only today that I took a picture of the peace sign I mentioned before.
Annette share some apple and berry dessert bars (Germans call it Kuchen) with us and included real whipped cream. Then she talked a bit about herself and her family.
We took back roads to Bückeburg and its Palace. We had lunch in front of the palace, served by the palace restaurant. Then we had a tour – alas, in German. At least we got to see some really cool rooms, even if we didn't understand the commentary. I decided not to buy the photographer's permit. Brother did. So I don't have photos of the interior, at least not until I have a chance to see what he has.
The admission price also included a view of the stables – with several horses in residence. The palace also runs a horsemanship school. After that we walked around the grounds for a bit. We stopped in the restaurant for a snack before leaving the palace.
We went back to Minden to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial. It wasn't so much to honor the old guy, rather to enjoy the view from the hilltop is memorial is built on. This hill is one part of Porta Westfalica, a gap in a ridge of hills. South of this ridge is a lot of hills. North of the ridge is the North German Plain – it's pretty flat from there to the North Sea coast. This photo is of across the gap
I realized I had lost my hat along the way. Niece assured me I had it when we entered the church in Talle. But it wasn't in the car or on my head. If I'm going to leave my hat behind doing it in my three-great grandfather's church seems appropriate.
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