Where the Heart Is

Written by eklastic

I left my home when I was 19 and I didn’t just move to the next town but to the other side of the world, to South Africa. I spent the next 25 years in Africa and the Middle East, another 10 years back in Germany, and then 10 years ago I ended up back where I had started out in Weinheim an der Bergstraße. Maybe because I’ve been away so long that this is my go-to place. It’s where I know most places, at least in the old part of town, the people here speak like me and I feel close to them. In the photo below I can see my parents’ (and now my sister’s) house, I can even see the window of my old room.

But even when I was little I knew this place was special to me. There is an old half-timbered house in the old part, probably the narrowest building in the whole of Weinheim, with a verse in the local vernacular written on its wall.

The verse reads, roughly translated: “When in the distance the two castles, Wachenburg and Windeck, can be seen, the heart grows peaceful, all the sorrows disappear. Then one calls joyfully as if in a dream: At home! That is the home!” I always remember that arriving home after a holiday, even as a child, I would look for the familiar castles and the yellow quarry that makes the hill so distinctive.

At the back of my parents’ house is one of the three medieval towers still standing and I always felt close to this particular one:

The view that most tourists get to see is from the other side: the tower with the two castles to the left.

Either way, I know I’m home.

Lens-Artists Challenge #345: My Go-to Place

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14 thoughts on “Where the Heart Is”

  7. Home is always there, no matter how long and how far away we are. I have the same feeling and soon I’ll be living away from Portugal for longer than I’ve been there. But it’s still home. I love your photos, especially the tower with the two castles. And thank you for sharing your story.

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