Rainy day in Essen

We had a great day today, despite the persistent rain. Herr Lozinski picked us up at the hotel and drove us to Essen to have lunch with Ingrid Trocka-Hulskin and Thomas Schleper. Thomas officially thanked us for our partnership with the LVR-Industriemuseum and told us he hopes we can continue moving forward. We will all be thinking of the possibilities . . .

We also thanked Thomas because without him and his team, Born of Fire, followed by Feuerlaender and now the Transatlantic Bridge project, would not have happened. We hope to see Thomas again soon - maybe next time in America.

After lunch, we drove to the Margarethenhoehe - a settlement of worker's housing established by Alfred Krupp's wife Margaretha (Alfred Krupp was like the Ruhr's version of Andrew Carnegie). It is a beautiful garden community and one would never know it was designed for workers. The foundation behind it wanted there to be gardens and trees and for each house/apartment to have it's own garden. The Ruhrmuseum owns an apartment there, so we were able to see inside - it was for a family with two children - it was very small, but had a lot of new technology for the time, like a washing machine, bathtub and an indoor toilet! The neighborhood also had its own stores - just like the company stores for the steelworkers and coal miners that we hear about in PA. They even had their own form of money. It's amazing the similarities between the Ruhr and our own region. The same stories I heard from my parents and grandparents, we are hearing here.

After coffee and cake in a nearby restaurant, we headed to the Ruhrmuseum. It tells the story of the region from prehistoric periods through today. It is housed in the old coal plant of Zeche Zollverein. Across the river was the coke plant. If it wasn't for the rainy weather, we may have been able to tour the entire site, but instead we just focused on the exhibits indoors. It is a relatively new museum and it was very impressive - one could spend many days there taking in all the information.

Tomorrow, we visit Heinrich Boll School and see Herr Bugdoll and Frau Reiber, in addition to observing a French class. Gute Nacht and Bonsoir!