Terrace  


We've moved to town! Yep, the Hofschen family, formerly of Hangenham, now resides in the big city, Freising. Well, okay, Freising is not exactly an enormous metropolitan area, but compared to Hangenham its pretty populated. Like Hangenham, Freising has a long history Freising got its first bishop in 720, his name was Korbinian and he is the first famous name of the city. His cathedral on the hill would eventually look over a nice little walled city. The double spires of the cathedral which now sits on that hill are the most prominent feature of the city. 1,282 years after Korbinian settled down on the cathedral hill, we've come along and settled into the next hill over in what's called the 'Neustift' area of the city. That translates roughly to 'new foundation'. In this case the area was set aside by one of Korbinian's most famous successors; Bishop Otto of Freising, for a new religous foundation. The cloister was built a short distance outside the city walls in 1141 and the neighborhoods that grew up around the cloister make up the city section called Neustift. Our street is the Alte Poststraße, it goes along behind the former cloister to what was the eastern gate of the city. The street was part of the old mail route between the city of Landshut to Freising; thus the name 'Old Post Street'. In 1803 the Neustift cloister was closed down by the state in a process called 'Sekularization', The cloister's treasures were scattered, but many of the fine old buildings survived. These remaining buildings currently house county offices. The former Abbey church became the parrish church of St. Peter and Paul at Neustift and is considered a masterwork of Barock architecture, regular services are still held there and I love the sound of the bells.
We still pine a bit for the fine fresh air of Hangenham ( and the occasionally overwhelming perfume of the cows! ), and I miss my kitchen window full of apple blossoms and alpine vistas, but life on the Alte Poststraße is quite pleasant. Best of all, we are just a few minutes walk from downtown and can get most everywhere we need to go by foot or bicycle.
Our apartment is built into a hillside, so we still have a tall set of stairs. In the spring and summer the front terrace is a wonderful little green oasis with a wonderful climbing yellow rose.
Anika and I call our part of the street the 'Rose Street' because there are so many beautiful rose bushes along it. When they bloom it is really something special.
© Hofschen Family, 1998-2008