December 24, 2015

Christmas time in Cologne

Around Christmas time a lot of cities and towns in Germany have the long time tradition of the Christmas market. Last year Ellen and myself wanted to go to the big city of Cologne, but the weather-forecast was so bad that we stayed home. However, now things looked fine enough so we decided to go. Every year, the city centre of Cologne is touched by the (commercial) magic of the festivities in the run-up to Christmas. When the Christmas markets in Cologne open their gates on the last Monday before Advent, millions (!) of visitors from around the world delight at the (often expensive) goods on sale at the quaintly designed huts (or “Buden”). I must say, Christmas music, arts and crafts, toys, Christmas decorations and the scent of the Christmas bakeries all create a wonderful atmosphere. Pewter pourers, wreath binders and glass-blowers demonstrate their art and the aroma of mulled wine, hot chestnuts and gingerbread fills the air.

Christmas market in front of Cathedral

And yes, Christmas MarketS, there are several scattered throughout the vast city centre. Like the one in front of the impressive backdrop of Cologne’s landmark, the Cathedral, with 150 attractively designed wooden pavilions and a stage where children’s choirs and so can perform. Or the oldest Christmas market, held on the Neumarkt with an angel theme. These are one of the highlights here. Dressed in white and sprinkling glitter powder they waft through the alleys spreading good ol’ jolly Christmas cheer (no not the tobacco…). Once a week, Santa Claus, together with an angel, makes his grand entry onto the Neumarkt on horseback. The lucky bastard! But probably the most attractive Christmas market is the one on the Alter Markt in front of Cologne’s city hall with a gnome theme. Legend has it that the Heinzelmännchen (house gnomes) performed all sorts of different jobs for the locals of Cologne: they prepared the sausages for the butcher, sewed the clothes for the tailor baked the bread for the baker etc. So the winding alleys of the “house gnomes Christmas market” are themed just like the guilds of days past. From treats, toys and items to waken that feeling of nostalgia to handicrafts and Christmas products.

But Ellen and myself did not come only for the Christmas markets, we wanted to visit some museums and the Cathedral. You know, sniff some culture in stead of tobacco. Talking about the latter, of course I also wanted to stop by a couple of tobacco shops. The journey to Cologne went smooth, we started off with some rain but as we neared our destination the weather improved and we even saw some rays of sunlight! In fact, it was pretty hot for December standards, 15°C! At first I wanted to park the car near one of the museums but since the store of Peter Heinrichs is located close to the edge of the centre we opted to look for a parking spot there. Driving in busy city centres is mostly nerve wrecking for me so I was glad I found a parking garage at the Neumarkt. But it was closed! Arrghh! After a few minutes of evading pedestrians and bicyclers in the small streets we found a smaller parking garage with only 3 places left. Luckily I was there just in time before some German motorists, sorry guys!

Inside Peter Heinrichs

Peter Heinrichs was our first stop, pretty easy to find beside the Hahnenstraße. It was nice to see this shop since I have been several times in his bigger store in Bergheim, pipe-smoking valhalla! From the front the Cologne-shop did not seem big, however, from the inside it seemed a lot larger. The wall-cabinets were fully stocked with all kinds of pipes and in the middle of the store stood a large table complete with all of the Peter Heinrichs house-tobaccos. First thing I noticed were the large number of of employees, almost more than there were customers! Second thing I noticed was the warm smile and silent welcome of Peter Heinrichs himself, he was busy on the phone. Almost immediately I was greeted by an employee with the question if he could be of assistance. No thank you, I just wanted to look around, which was fine. Then another employee asked if we would like a cup of coffee. Yes please! While sipping on the hot dark liquid I asked the first employee if he had a tin of Peter Heinrichs Nr. Nr…… 30? The one with curlies… “And a bit of latakia.” The man quickly answered. He fetched a tin from behind. I wanted to fill the corncob I brought with me with some aromatic. “Do you have something with vanilla?” I asked. Immediately the employee recommended one of the house blends. I smelled it and asked if he had a blend with even more vanilla. Also a direct answer here and I filled my pipe with a pleasant sweet mixture. The knowledge of the employee was pretty impressive, I mean, they have about 170 house blends! Peter Heinrichs himself must give them one hell of an education!

Inside Peter Heinrichs

I also was looking for a tasty plug. Once again the employee was helpful and produced a bag of the well-known Curly Block. “Ehmm.. That is a curly, not a plug.” I answered. “I mean (while making square movements with my hands) a square piece of pressed tobacco.” The employee rushed to the front of the store and fetched a plug of Peter Heinrichs Reserve Crue No.6. That was more like it! On the upper floor of the shop were cigars and I could not resist the temptation to ask if they had my favourite cigar: My Father Cigars La Antiguedad. Immediately I was guided into the (surprisingly large) climate-room and yessss… A box of the rolled tobacco leaves was produced. But I only took two. I smoke cigars in summertime and a whole box is just too much (and too expensive) for me. I thanked the employee for his help, paid for the goods and we were on our merry way again.

Painting inside the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum

It was time for some culture so we walked to one of the big museums in Cologne, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. It houses an art gallery with a collection of fine art from the medieval period to the early 20th century from painters like Vincent van Gogh, Peter Paul Rubens and Hieronymus Bosch. We started in the lower level of the building where there was an exhibition of Godfried Schalcken, mostly portraits with candlelight. Because of that the rooms were sparsely lighted and everything was really quiet. Until my mobile phone began to loudly rang. Arghh!! I dug it up from one of my pockets, immediately turned off the hellish noise and silently apologized myself.. One of the fun things about museums for me is to discover paintings with pipes or pipe-smokers in them. And I can say, I found several in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. I am not going to say where and which ones, find it out yourself.

Busy crowd before the cathedral

Next stop was the eternal landmark of Cologne, the cathedral. Although I saw it from the inside several times now (I’ve been in Cologne a couple of times before) it never fails to impress me. The enormous space inside, the stained glass windows etc. All really beautiful. What is also beautiful is the Cathedral treasury which one can reach from the side of the big building. Here all kinds of religious artefacts are displayed under which the famous wooden sarcophagus of the Three Kings (the gilded one is placed above and behind the main cathedral altar). Quite fitting was that I brought a tin of Cornell and Diehl’s We Three Kings with me, the Christmas blend from last year. I held it up to the sarcophagus and asked the holy remains of the three wise men to bless the tin. Afterwards it still tasted the same.. A good but not remarkable blend of red Virginia, bright Virginia and Katirini orientals with flavours of allspice, cinnamon and vanilla.

Salvador Dali’s La Gare de Perpignan

Behind the cathedral is the Museum Ludwig which houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. To be honest, I am not a fan of modern art but Ellen loves it. However, there is one painting there which changed my life. Many years ago as a boy I visited the Museum Ludwig on a school-trip. Uninterested I strolled through the hallways of the museums from room to room until I saw a large painting which impressed the hell out of me: Salvador Dali’s La Gare de Perpignan (Perpignan Train Station). For some reason I still don’t know it spoke to me and I sat down in front of it. It wasn’t until then that I noticed the image of Christ on the cross, floating in the centre of the composition and I just was in awe about how that was integrated in the painting. This changed the way I looked towards art and to this day I am still a huge fan of the works of Salvador Dali.

Wolsdorff Tobacco

Well, Ellen had her fill so it was time to visit another tobacco-shop. A couple of streets from the Cathedral the Wolsdorff Tobacco GmbH Tabac-Collegium store is located. I now realize that Ellen has a fine nose regarding tobacco-shops. If she wants to wait outside, the store is mwahh, if she goes inside the shop is good. She went for a walk further down across the street so I should have been warned.. Well, warned.. The assortment of the store was fine, nothing to complain. Pipes and tobaccos from a lot of brands galore. Like most German pipe tobacco shops they have their own brand which means the same blends as every other tobacconist, only with a different label. Also on a shelf were some Samuel Gawith tobaccos and my opinion is that a pipe-smoker never can have enough of that excellent English brand. I saw a tin of Perfection (the favourite blend of Samuel Gawith’s Bob Gregory) and asked the lady behind the counter if I could have one. “Perfection? Samuel Gawith?” “Yes, brand is Samuel Gawith, blend name is Perfection.” I answered. She looked at me questioning and asked another lady behind the counter: “Do we have a blend called Perfection?” The other lady shook her head. “No.” I had enough of it and pointed with a forced smile to the tin on the shelf about a meter from the lady. “Oooh sorry!” *sighs* I also bought a tin of the great Bothy Flake from the Kearvaig Pipe Club, good to see that one on sale in Germany.

Sadly I did not find these lovely figures..

Darkness was falling rapidly so we headed to the Christmas market on the Alter Markt in front of Cologne’s city hall. On a picture when I was looking up info about the Cologne Christmas Markets I saw a stand there that sold wooden Sherlock Holmes figures with a pipe in the mouth. Although the market looked absolutely wonderful we did not see everything of it and I did not find the stand. Problem was that it was very, very, very busy. I hardly could take a look at the wares sold and we had to shuffle and squeeze our way through the vast crowd.

Yummie!!!

So we went to look for a restaurant where we could sit down and eat something. And preferably smoke of course. The latter would not be problem since the wind had gone down and it was… Warm outside! A bit strange for the end of December but ok. Sitting down proved to be more difficult, every time we found a table folks sat down at it before we could reach it .. Grrrr… Suddenly Ellen saw an empty table at a restaurant opposite the Christmas Market. We rushed over there and yessss, we finally could sit down. It was an Austrian style restaurant called Servus with waiters walking in traditional “Lederhosen“. I filled up one of my corncobs with Dan Tobacco’s Sweet Vanilla Honeydew while we waited for the foods and drinks. I learned that German (and Dutch) people appreciate the smell of that one. What smelled (and tasted) even better was the 300 gram steak on my plate! Yummie!!! Ellen had some kind of sausage with mashed potatoes. All by all we ate wonderfully for little money, one of the things I love about Germany. Afterwards the way back home also went smooth. The day had been great with lots of culture, fine foods and drinks and good tobaccos!

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UPDATE 4-11-2016:
Today I sadly heard that Peter Heinrichs passed away. Also see this link. May he rest in peace.

December 24, 2013

Christmas time in Düsseldorf

Christmas market on old market square in Düsseldorf

Around Christmas time a lot of cities and towns in Germany have the long time tradition of the Christmas market. The city of Düsseldorf boasts it has the biggest and most beautiful of them all. And I must say, the Christmas market with 200 (!) lovingly decorated nostalgic huts transforms the city into some kind of winter fairy tale. Illuminated streets, the fragrance of roasted almonds and cinnamon.. Yummie! The huts are set up at seven different locations, all with their own theme and all within easy reach of each other on foot. You can find glittering Christmas tree decorations, carvings from the Ore Mountains, handmade candles and light decorations as well as hand puppets or tin toys. There also are plenty of tasty seasonal treats too including roasted chestnuts, gingerbread, “Dampfnudeln”, festive “Feuerzangenbowle” and hot chocolate milk.

Last year my girlfriend Ellen and I went to the Christmas market of Münster, this year Düsseldorf was the destination. It is advisable to arrive after noon because in the morning there is not much going on and all the huts are still closed. Well, we certainly managed to arrive in the afternoon because of all the “Stau” (traffic jams).. From my home-town it is a 2 hour drive but thanks to a burned out lorry and a car wrapped around the front of a truck the ride took an hour longer. I hope nobody was injured.. In Düsseldorf the system for parking your car is pretty good.. If you follow it.. Of course I was too busy paying attention to my old TomTom and I drove right by the parking garage I wanted. Argh!! I could not turn back because it was all one-way traffic and Ellen had to laugh hard because I started swearing and cursing immensely. I very much dislike driving in busy cities. So we made a short trip around the centre of Düsseldorf and that time I did find the entrance of the parking garage.

August Otto Schmidt

First I wanted to go to the most well-known tobacco store in Düsseldorf: Linzbach. A little history about this wonderful place: It was August Otto Schmidt who founded the company, that later became known as Linzbach, on the Graf Adolf Strasse 78 in the centre of Düsseldorf in 1902. In 1938, shortly before WWII began, Peter Linzbach took over the business from his predecessor. When he returned from Russian captivity after the war he found his house and store destroyed down to the basement.. With his wife Elizabeth he began with the reconstruction of the tobacco store, according to his ideas.

Elizabeth and Peter Linzbach

In the years 1947 to 1960 Linzbach focused on the import, wholesale and retail with own subsidiaries and distribution of pipes, tobacco and cigars. Linzbach became the first tobacco store in Düsseldorf with a Davidoff depot and had Germany’s first walk-in humidor. In 1974 the was among the co-founders of John Aylesbury. This is a group of select independent shops with the common goal to offer customers expert advice, a high quality and yet a worthy price range. By 1977 the core business had grown to its current size . Then Peter Linzbach decided to close all stores and abandon the direct import and wholesale. This proved to be a visionary decision for the now well known Düsseldorf store.

Heinrich Linzbach and Margaret Schmitz

In 1983 Peter and Elizabeth Linzbach withdrew from business life and daughter Margaret Schmitz and nephew Heinrich Linzbach took over the store. In 2000 Peter and Elizabeth Linzbach died at the age of 93 and 89 years. Until then they were always helpful with strategic advice. An example is Germany’s first walk-in humidor I mentioned earlier and its expansion to a total of over 130 square meters to Germany’s largest and most versatile assortment for tobacco and cigar imports from Cuba, Spain, Jamaica, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. In 1995 Linzbach grandson Werner Schmitz claimed the domain “www.tobacco.de” as the first internet address of a German tobacco merchant.

Werner Schmitz

In 1996 Margaret Schmitz became the sole owner of the shop and her son Werner became junior partner. Just as her parents had sent her at the age of 19 to England for a pipe-making training, she sent her son to the Dominican Republic to Davidoff . Also Werner was the first German tobacco retailer who had a unique opportunity to a 4 month training in Cuba in which he learned the entire process of tobacco production. In 1999 Ms. Schmitz asked her niece, Christina Lüdtke (who already had led her own small shop) to join the family business.

Christina Lüdtke

In 2004 the third generation, Christina Lüdtke and Werner Schmitz, took over the business. Heinrich Linzbach died in 2013. He had devoted his whole career to teaching his experiences to the family. Ms. Schmitz remains connected to the business today with her vast experience, strategic skills and presence in the store.

When you see the front of Linzbach you don’t expect the store is pretty big. It is not so wide, but very long. Upon entering we were directly greeted by a member of the staff. Normally I dislike this a bit because I first want to nose around in peace and quiet. However, Ellen was with me and she is not too fond of tobacco stores. So unfortunately I was in a bit of a hurry.. Luckily the friendly staff member offered us a cup of coffee. Just what we needed after a hellish ride. We were taken through the immense cigar humidor to a smoking lounge. Not that you are not allowed to smoke in the rest of the store but it was just a place where you could sit, smoke, drink and relax. I packed my new forum pipe with some Penzance, lit it and we both enjoyed our coffee. At the back of the lounge was a stair which went down. Being curious I looked where it went and to my surprise there was a sort of basement where people could also sit and smoke. Definitely a good place for a pipe-smokers meeting. Pictures of the store and the smoking lounge are at the bottom of this post.

When we had finished our cup of coffee we went back to the store, I wanted to buy some tobaccos. I asked if they had the Honoré Flake and the staff member was in doubt if it was in their assortment. After asking several other members of the staff and some searching a tin was found to my delight at the bottom of a shelf. I also wanted a tin of the marvellous McConnell (formerly Ashton) Old London Pebblecut. Once I smoked a tin of it and I downed that one in a record time. Seeing their immense collection of John Aylesbury house-blends I just had to have one and ended up with a tin of Golden Flake. A nice light Virginia flake in the vein of Dunhill Flake. However, I do have one remark for them: keep your tobacco samples in airtight jars. No customer likes trying to smoke a dry sample. At the counter when I wanted to pay I received some goodies from Werner, a John Aylesbury magazine, another magazine about men-culture and a Linzbach lighter. Very nice! I definitely will be back at this store with some more time on my hands.

Not far from Linzbach began the famous Königsallee, the big shopping street. Since most of my budget was blown on tobaccos we pretty quickly walked through it. Ehmm.. And even if I still had my budget, most shops on this street are just too expensive for people with a moderate income. I mean, Cartier, Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Swarovski.. Come on.. At the end of a side-street of the Königsallee we encountered the first Christmas market. Ellen and I both were a bit hungry so we decided to buy some crêpes at one of the huts. Beside us stood a group of Belgian folks who clearly did not speak German. They were looking at the menu card and could not decipher the word “Zimt”. So I asked Ellen out loud (while pointing at the word) if she wanted a crêpe with cinnamon. The reason I know this is because last year when I was at DTM for the forum tobaccos I was interested in creating a blend with a slight cinnamon flavour.

Ferris wheel, Schlossturm and on the background the St. Lambertus church

After having eaten the delicious crêpe we moved on to the Altstad. Unfortunately Düsseldorf was heavily bombed during WWII so the Altstad is a mixture of old and new buildings. The eye gets most attracted to the old (1209 AD) St. Lambertus church with its twisted spire. A folk-tale tells the story that an angry Devil twisted the spire in an attempt to destroy the church. Another eye-catcher is the Schlossturm, which partly dates back to the 13th century. In this time of the year yet another attraction is clearly visible, the “Riesenrad” (Ferris wheel). This piece of engineering should give you a beautiful view of the city with all its Christmas lights. We did not go on it, it was a bit too expensive, €7 per person. Well, for €14 you can eat and drink a lot in Germany so.. We did make a stroll across the Rheinufer-promenade along the Rhine river, a nice walk with beautiful far-sights of the city.

Christmas market at the old market place

Back into the Altstad-centre it was getting dark and more and more people gathered in the Christmas markets. The atmosphere was getting pretty cosy, especially on the marketplace near the old Rathaus. You really could notice it was the time for the German inhabitants to flock together after their day-jobs and chat, drink and eat. It was around dinner time so Ellen and I decided to look for a restaurant.

Me smoking on the heated restaurant terrace

I must say Düsseldorf really has some inviting looking streets stocked with all kinds of places to eat. I was searching for somewhere I could have dinner and smoke a pipe afterwards. Just a little time ago this was possible but due to a smoking ban I could not lit up a pipe indoors. But outdoors, no problem. Big kudos go out to the owners of the restaurants because almost all of them had made heated covered terraces in front of their buildings. So in the end we found a comfortably heated place where we had dinner. Unfortunately the food was lukewarm, it was just hot enough to eat. Also I did not eat all of my vegetables ( I know, I know, I am a bad unhealthy man) for which the waiter foolishly remarked, while pointing at the green stuff “What? Too healthy?” He did not enjoy my smile when I gave him a tip of only €0,50 cents which is a bigger insult than giving nothing at all. That will be the last time he gives a smart remark to a cheap Dutchman.. After dinner Ellen and I regretted not having booked a hotel room, we still had to drive home. This because the nicely lit streets with all the pubs looked very inviting. But sitting there without having the opportunity to drink a nice glass of heavenly Altbier (no drinking and driving folks!) would be too much to bear. So we walked to the parking garage and drove back to The Netherlands.

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Dutch Pipe Smoker

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Christmas time in Cologne

Christmas time in Düsseldorf