European Adventures - 4. 2nd Cousin Marcel - Hüls

2^nd Cousin Marcel - Hüls

I don’t know why there are flies inside a house or restaurant. There are never flies in the U.S. but there sure are flies in Germany. 

Breakfast at the hotel was great, abundant but also somewhat abundant with some annoying flies. Carol does not like flies on her food. So her selection of what she took from the breakfast table was limited.

The breads, the rolls, were super fresh; soft and still had that bakery smell.

I had made arrangements for the day to see my cousin’s child Marcel. So Marcel is my 2^nd cousin. I have a rather complicated family, spread out throughout Germany. Well now the family, on my father’s side, is spread out. Years ago my grandparents were living right next door to where I grew up. 

Everything is different today.

Open Air Market In Moers

My meeting with Marcel is for dinner at 5 PM so we have lots of time to explore Moers. 

In the center of Moers they had the weekly open air market. People, do I call them farmers, from the surrounding areas were selling their foods, vegetables, or whatever was in season, on temporary stands, set up on the Marktplatz (Market Square). Bleached asparagus was in season and was offered everywhere. They even had a ‘peeling’ machine for this delicacy. I never knew you need to peel asparagus; I always cook asparagus just as is, just breaking off the hard parts at the bottom of the stem. 

Market

Strawberries were another item offered, they looked so good, but where do we put them in the car? How do we store them, how do we eat them, in what bowl do we serve them, etc? It was not convenient food for Carol and me but it sure looked yummy. We stocked up on some apples and bought some bottled water instead. 

Walking around the Market was fun, though. to see the different foods offered and watch how a  German Hausfrau shops differently than American shoppers in a Supermarket.

An Irate Policewoman

Ticketed Car Being Removed

Walking back from the Market, our water and apples in hand, we watched as a tow truck removed a wrongly parked car. They used a crane-like apparatus to just pick up the car, deposit it on the back of a truck and then drive off. It went fast. A police officer just stood and watched it happen. Or was she a parking attendant? She sure got mad when I took a picture of this procedure. German fashion she strode over, demanding I remove the picture form my camera. It is against the law she said, to photograph ‘official’ personal while on duty. 
Well, blimey, I never knew that! 

As you can see I don’t listen very well to threats.

After the market we drove to the Moers Castle, or what is left of it. The town of Moers, very close to Krefeld, was ruled by a different duke.

While Krefeld had a very liberal religious mind, Moers was more Protestant. While Krefeld was owned by Prussia, Moers was more Dutch belonging to the House of Orange (Holland). And the total distance between the towns is only 22 km, so close yet so far apart in beliefs and history. They even talk differently in Moers.

Moers Castle, Now Grafschafter Museum

The castle in Moers was built around 1200 using stones from the old Roman buildings still in existence then. 

Yes, Moers was founded by the Romans in about 12 BCE. There is a lot of history here.

We met Marcel at his apartment, he waved from his balcony, we could see already from the street he had been waiting for us, but we were on time. 

We did not enter his place; we instead went to a restaurant, set up like an American Café, or diner. Burgers and French Fries was their menu.

The last time I saw Marcel was in NYC, in about 1998; about 20 years ago.

2nd Cousin Marcel

In 1998 Marcel visited me with his father, Detlef, at my design office in NYC. I had an apartment in my brownstone building and they stayed there. At that time Marcel was just starting off in life and still worked at his certified profession as a Fliesenleger, a tile setter. Today, Marcel is a well known tattoo artist in Germany. His trade mark is his hair style, his art of choice when tattooing is the ‘Dark Side’.  

Marcel is an extremely nice guy, well and soft spoken, with a smattering of English. But most of our conversation was in German, but once in a while Marcel switched to English for Carol's sake. Marcel has his own point of view. He told me: "The world would be boring if all people did the same thing; if they all thought alike and lived like copies of each other." 


Marcel sure is living a different lifestyle from the way I dress, the way I see the world. But… he is my cousin, he is a nice guy and that is all that matters in this case. I don’t have to agree with his world view, nor does he have to see the world like I do. 

It was good to see Marcel; he told me he is extremely busy in his world. Works now only 6 days a week, instead of the 7 he used to work. He has been doing his tattoos now for 15 years. He is self employed and has a steady income. He is getting older too, he told me, which made me smile. But, Marcel said, he is so busy giving tattoos, visiting conventions, designing new art work, that a 9-5 job is not enough. He works all the time. Sure he could go back to laying tiles, but no, he thrives on his art, on his friends, on his way of looking at the world. He has no debt, he has his savings, he is thinking like a business man. He even tried to interest me in some real estate deals but I had to tell him I will pass. No more business for me.

Marcel

What I did find out was that Marcel misses his dad, Detlef. Detlef, about 17 years ago, just one day up and left the house, left his wife, left his only son. Marcel has not heard from his dad since then. Once in a while he hears a rumor that his dad is somewhere in the Ruhrgebiet, but Marcel does not hear from Detlef nor does he know where his dad is. It’s heart-breaking to hear, but the Muellers side of the family has always been very independent and ruthless. I don’t know what drives some people like Detlef to leave all of a sudden. I don’t know Detlef’s life but then…is it really my business to know? Despite all of the emotional issues Marcel is a nice guy, he keeps on working at his shop, doing his thing. 

While we were sitting at the diner a friend of Marcel’s showed up and slipped Marcel 200 Euros. Nothing was said, but I saw the transfer of the money. Marcel just stuck the money in to his pocket. His friend did not say a word; he just smiled at us and nodded. 

Marcel told him to come back a little later to meet him at Marcel’s apartment.

We spoke some more and I gave Marcel the gifts I brought along, like a few knives I had sitting in the drawer and did not use. Marcel loved the knives. 

We had our dinner, but then it was time for us to leave. We each had said our thing and it was time to process the newness we each had learned. 

His friend showed up just as we were leaving the diner. All of us piled into our Rental car and I drove all of us back to Marcel’s place. We did not go into his apartment but stood outside saying our goodbyes. 

At this moment Marcel said: “please excuse my friend for not talking, he stutters badly, especially with new people that you would not understand him anyway.’

It turned out that this friend was also a client of Marcel’s and just had a tattoo done that covered his whole back. He showed us the tattoo at the urging of Marcel. It was a huge raging bull design.  Since this Raging Bull Guy did not have any money to pay for the bull tattoo, he gives Marcel, each week, some money to pay it off. That was the transfer of money I saw.

The Raging Bull Guy tried to talk to me and it was true, his stutter was very severe. I kind of know how the stutterer felt, because when I was younger I stuttered for a time, too.

I did not feel sorry for Marcel’s friend, but I liked the idea that Marcel considers the Raging Bull Guy a friend and that he did his tattoo work for friendship, not just for money. 

The Raging Bull Guy, Marcel said, does not stutter as much if you don’t look at him and if he feels very much at ease with you, then he can talk fairly well, but with new people it was a terrible handicap, this stuttering.

We had a good afternoon/early night with Marcel. I concluded that he will do his thing, I will do my thing.

We are family… cousins, 2^nd cousins whatever we are…. It’s good to see family.

When we got back to the new hotel in Moers the room was so hot that Carol asked the hotel for a fan. They had one, thank God.

We slept a bit better that night, having a cool breeze kept us semi comfortable.