Tag: Frankfurt am Main

Verschon mein Haus, zünd andre an

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Saint Florian is the patron saint of fire fighters.  One often hears the above saying following his name, literally translated it means:

Spare my house, burn down another one.

Sankt Florian

This statue of the saint, appropriately placed in a fountain, stands across the old fire station in Munich.

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This old marker used to stand in front of the fire station no. 2 in Frankfurt:

54 fire fighter 1

whereas this modern fire fighting truck is part of the fleet of the Weinheim fire brigade.

54 fire fighter 2

For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge.  For more photos of fire prevention like fire fighters, fire brigades, fire stations click on the CB&W badge:

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The creature of the green belt

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Grüngürteltier

A few years ago I came across this sign in Frankfurt. I found it intriguing and yes, odd.  I had no idea what that animal, if it actually is one, was supposed to be.  I’ve since seen a few more signs with the same creature in different poses, unfortunately I don’t always carry my camera.

Yesterday – finally! – I found out the story behind it.  The creature was sitting happily on a pedestrian bridge crossing the river Nidda.

Grüngürteltier

And a sign beneath it proclaimed it to be the GrünGürtel-Tier.

GrünGürteltier

This is a play on words which needs to be explained: Gürteltier is a actually an armadillo but literally a belt anmial, Grüngürtel is the greenbelt surrounding a city for urban recreation, hence this is the GreenBelt Animal.  Rather whimsical, I think.

Grüngürteltier

Here is some more information if you are interested but only in German: https://www.frankfurt.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=4132 .

For Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge.  More oddball photos can be found here.

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Mainhattan

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Bahnhof Ffm

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024 Frankfurt 3.JPG

These are all street views of Frankfurt am Main – sometimes jokingly called Mainhattan because it’s the only city in Germany with a discernible skyline and because the river running through is the Main.  But there is more to Frankfurt than a few highrise buildings.

This is for Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge.  More streets, avenues, paths, roads are only a click away.

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