Germans have a term for home sickness – “Heimweh”, sometimes also translated as just nostalgia. It’s a bit more romantic and more compelling than the English term, at least I think so. It usually describes the feeling for a whole area rather than a specific home. My hometown has a very specific silhouette due to two imposing landmarks, two castles, one 100 and one 1000 years old that was used for our town’s logo (that’s the featured photo). We also use the moniker “Zweiburgenstadt” (two castle town). There is even a small poem in dialect that describes the feeling of ease that overcomes anybody who is from here and returns after a significant time away.

When in the distance Wachenburg 
And Windeck can be seen,
All aches and pains die down, 
All troubles dissappear. 
Then one can call, like in a dream: 
Yes! There's nothing like being home!

I can attest to this feeling evoked by the image. Coming from the west, the flat Upper Rhine Valley, seeing these two landmarks on the hills is a very special emotion that to me spells home.

So for John’s Lens Artists’ Challenge this week, Landmarks and Monuments, I’ve decided to show six photos of these two castles, from different angles and at different times of the year.

And the last one (from the castle grounds – yes, there is another castle) includes a third monument, one of three remaining towers of the medieval town wall. This one is of particular significance for me because my parents’ house is on the other side of that wall.

Lens-Artists Challenge #419: Landmarks and Monuments

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