In the middle of…Hexham
Illustration: Marc Herold
Father, mother, two almost grown children on the way with backpacks in England. Wandering from place to place, nothing but meadows and bleating sheep, a different bed every night. “Why are you doing this to us?” the boys nag. Then a lodging on the road to Hexham. Old stone on the outside surrounded by a huge garden, on the inside your feet sink into carpets. Spines of books embossed with gold, Chinese vases, water from crystal glasses. Framed photographs of living spaces hang in the bedrooms. The pictures are so different from the hostess interior. well, why? Oh, darling, the lady explains, I furnished the houses and yachts of the Russian oligarchs in London. “No taste at all.” No taste at all. oligarchs? Suddenly the kids are wide awake. This is England too. Sabine Buchwald
In the middle of… Berlin
Illustration: Marc Herold
“Bibimbap” could be the name of a Korean band, but it’s a rice dish. Lunch in a Korean snack bar on Dresdener Strasse is the basis for a long evening: Nick Cave is playing in the Waldbühne, it can get late. It then becomes an emotional concert in which Cave celebrates his greatest songs like a high priest in front of 22,000 parishioners. When it gets dark, he announces the title “Mercy Seat”: He wrote this song on Dresdener Strasse when he lived in Kreuzberg in the 1980s. It was quickly researched online where Cave lived: In a loft, Dresdener Straße 11. That’s exactly where the Korean snack bar from lunch is now. Bibimbap: Wouldn’t that be a good title for a cave ballad about kimchi, Kreuzberg and karma? Titus Arno
In the heart of… Aix en Provence
Illustration: Marc Herold
Parking Retonde is the car park of choice in Aix-en-Provence, just by the roundabout where Boulevard Cours Mirabeau begins. The rental car is parked on basement level -4 after finding the entrance in a roundabout way and having almost hit a tourist bus beforehand. Southern French spring above. One wonders whether a light jacket would still be appropriate, then one sees that a man and an elderly woman, perhaps a mother and son, are sleeping on the front seats in the yellow vehicle next door. For a moment they stare into nothingness, then their eyes close again. The license plate is from Ukraine, with Cyrillic letters of a car dealership from Kyiv, 2500 kilometers away. Two tired people from the war in the basement of Provence. When you come back from the city walk, their parking lot is empty. Peter Burghardt
You can find more episodes of the “In the middle of …” column here.