The forces of nature lay bare rocks and smooth them down.
FOWC with Fandango: Elementary
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Tag: Germany
I’m a Fan of Monuments and Pigeons
At least, when they are just sitting there (the monument looked clean all round).
This is the Alice monument for the Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine in Darmstadt. Incidentally, she was the second eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, HRH Princess Alice Maud Mary of Great Britan and Irleand which – if my thinking is correct – made her the great-great aunt of Queen Elizabeth II and also the maternal great-grandmother of her husband, Prince Philip. Her memory is alive and well in Darmstadt as the hospital she founded in 1869 is still going strong; I myself was a patient there for a couple of days a decade ago.
Questionable Memories
I’ve always been skeptical about war memorials. They usually reek of pathos if not bathos and I question the motives behind them.
I came across this rather odd war memorial in Bad Dürkheim. It’s in memory of the participants of the Franco-Prussian war. The participants – not the fallen as is more common – are listed with their military regiment, and a curt “gefallen” if they didn’t return. Even worse, in my mind, is the use of the ditto mark ” – not just for the same regiment but also for the word “gefallen” as if in such a monumental glorification set in stone they had to economise with letters.
On one side the non-combatants are listed, I suppose these are the financiers of this war. But what is even more disconcerting to me is the fact that this memorial was erected 40 years after the war, which resulted in the formation of the German empire, only three years before the next one, the so-called “Great War”. Almost as if a new generation was being prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. Of course, I say this with hindsight but it gives the impression of a fractured relationship with history.
The Cosmic Photo Challenge: In Memory
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It’s a dangerous business, going out of your door.
It might have been for Frodo or Bilbo but it wasn’t for me when I stepped out this afternoon.
That’s the furthest I can see without going further than 50 steps from our front door. In the distance in the West is the Palatium mountain range, in between are the cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen and the breadth of the Upper Rhine Valley, around 40km at this point.
A look to left, and a look to the right. The area used to be a mixture of residential buildings and farmsteads but today only a couple of farmers are left around us.
And finally I managed an inadvertent selfie (I’m the small orange blob in the mirror). The old wall belongs to our next door neighbour, the sandstone blocks are encircling our front yard.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Walk 50 Steps or Less
Mirror, Mirror
The area north of the main station in Darmstadt has seen almost unbelievable building activities during the last decade. About 10 years ago we used to run through overgrown empty lots.
Looking to the right.
and looking to the left, the reflection and the building itself.
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Dirt from Mannheim
This sweet confection, which is very similar to lebkuchen or ginger bread, is a speciality of Mannheim. It was introduced in the early 1800s as a reaction to a city ordinance concerning refuse by an enterprising baker.
It’s a Beautiful Castle
It’s even called Schönburg which means beautiful castle. The worst thing about it is that you have to walk up that hill to get there.
This Is not a Fever Tree
In South Africa there a certain kind of tree, the vachellia xanthophloea (xanthophloea refers to the yellow bark). Now I know that the common name, fever tree, stems from the fact that they were first found in malaria infected areas but you can always see a fever tree from afar – the bark stands out and the stem and the branches look as if they were glowing from the inside.
I’ve never seen a specimen in Germany but in the right light a poplar can look luminous, too.
