Linked to One Word Sunday: Simplicity.
Dampfnudel und Kartoffelsupp’
Some 50+ years ago this was often what we ate on a Saturday: potato soup and yeast dumplings or sometimes yeast dumplings and wine sauce. It was either and not all together as it is offered here on the window of this pastry shop in Ladenburg, near Mannheim. I had never seen this combination – Dampfnudel und Kartoffelsuppe – in a restaurant before. It was a real blast from the past, evocative of Saturday mornings which were spent in school, coming home to mum’s home cooking. A time when Saturday afternoons were meant for working in the house and the garden, shops closed at 1 or 2pm, and the busy day slowly eased into the weekend. Food on Saturdays was simple and traditional, usually eaten in the kitchen, unlike more formal Sunday fare.
This is linked to A Photo a Week Challenge: nostalgia.
Half-timbered houses
Cee writes on her block: For a great monochrome photo “look for contrast or highly textured subjects to photograph”. — Half-timbered houses then for me!
Linked to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: any kind of house.
Who would I be to argue with a Marx?
“I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.”
Groucho Marx
And so we turned our backs on Britain when we visited. The weather was just too gorgeous.
Linked to Travel with Intent: quotations.
Apricot – field
A field, ploughed and bone dry, in the Odenwald, in Germany.
For more almond coloured photos, click here.
Give a foot or leg fetishist half a chance …
Some people write their favourite poison on their legs (kale?! seriously!?):
Others prefer to write their state of mind:
Or state what they are:
Just simply a:
Linked to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: legs and feet.
One German corner
I was in Koblenz yesterday and in the cable car up to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. In the cabin one has a commanding view of the Deutsches Eck, the German corner, where the river Moselle joins the Rhine. The corner tip was called Deutsches Eck for a long time but was enlarged and a monumental statue of Emperor Wilhelm I on horseback was erected. The statue was destroyed during World War II and until German reunification only the plinth remained – meant to be a reminder of the German separation. A replica of the monument was erected amidst much public discussion in the 1990s.
Public discussion was again fierce when the cable car from the banks of the Rhine up to the fortress was built in 2011. The area where the Moselle flows into the Rhine is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and people were worried that the view was going to be spoilt but personally I think it does not distract from the beauty of the area.
This is linked to One Word Sunday: Aerial.
As every flower wilts
The title is the beginning of the poem “Phases” by Hermann Hesse (Stufen), one of the best known and most quoted poems in German. It goes on to extol the virtues of endings and their inherent new beginnings and ends with “Courage my heart, take leave and fare thee well.”
This is linked to A Photo a Week Challenge: Endings.
A man of many talents
“Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.”
“Man soll alle Tage wenigstens ein kleines Lied hören, ein gutes Gedicht lesen, ein treffliches Gemälde sehen und, wenn es möglich zu machen wäre, einige vernünftige Worte sprechen.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It is impossible to walk through Frankfurt and not see Goethe – he was born there and spoke the dialect of the town (the giveaway are rhymes in some poems which only work as rhymes in this dialect). The silhouette is on the side of a hotel in a part of Frankfurt called Bergen-Enkheim but the sculpture stands in Weimar, where Goethe and the other great German poet, Friedrich Schiller lived and for a while worked together.
In an area of Frankfurt which is a mixture of commercial and industrial buildings this quote by Goethe can be seen on the side of a house. It is the combination of a line taken from “The sorrows of Young Werther”, which Goethe wrote when just 24 years old and which was extremely influential at the time, and the words with which he signed a letter to his wife years later (in English). The quote is a a variation on 1 Corinthians 15; 55: “Death, where is they sting?” Werther (or rather Goethe) continues not: “Grave, where is thy victory?” but “Love, where is thy victory? You are leaving, I’ll remain …”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe combined many different aspects in his life: he was a highly successful author of poems, plays, and novels, he wrote academic papers, undertook research in various fields and made a few scientific discoveries, he was a trained lawyer, a politician at the court of Sachsen-Weimar, a theatre director, a man who lived for a few years fairly openly with a lover well below his social standing before marrying her. By all accounts, he was also a very worldly man who enjoyed food and drink. So it is only befitting that Frankfurt displays his likeness on a special tram, the so-called Äppelwoi-Express (a tram which can be booked by groups to party and drink Frankfurt style cider while driving through the city).
This is linked to Travel with intent: one little song.
pictures imperfect blog 