Thursdays and the kindness of strangers

I always find Thursdays hard work. It is something about the conjunction of being almost the end of the week, doing the weekly grocery shopping and so many things still undone on the ever expanding “to do” list. Late yesterday I finally got to last weekend’s paper and there was a feature on Sebastian Faulks. He has an office in which he writes – a top floor flat ten minutes walk from his house. The thought of being able to stand up and walk away from household things in order to write is very appealing on Thursdays.

I was very cheered however by the help of a stranger. Someone wandered by my blog one day who lives in Marburg and I enlisted him to help. I want the Jaeckels to have a bakery in the old part of Marburg, right by the Elizabethkirke. I needed to make sure that there were shops in this area and that it could have been a place for a bakery. I don’t want someone announcing to me “Oh, you couldn’t possibly have a bakery in that part of town.” Even though I always have the response that I am a) writing fiction and b) writing historical fiction, a double “might-have-been”, I try to avoid these little potential hiccups.

Greenhaddock (visit his blog) was able to confirm for me that there are shops directly opposite the church and also that the main cobbled street into the old part of town is very close to the church.

I spent a brief day in Marburg, twelve years ago, and my memory is clear of the church but not the surrounding area. I would love to return one day and properly explore the town. For now, I am going to dig out my photographs and diary to supplement the tourist maps and other information that I have gathered.