I will never run a marathon (or even a half marathon) but I will keep supporting my foolish friends who think they need to it.
For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Roads.
Tag: Germany
Windows from Schifferstadt
Schifferstadt is a town on the Rhine near Ludwigshafen. The old part has many half-timbered houses dating back several centuries – many are restored or are in the process of being restored.
Traditionally, these houses show the contrast between the dark brown or black wooden beams and the whitewashed mortar pieces in between.
Sometimes these colours are offset by colourful, often red, shudders.
Green is also a favourite, for shudders as well as for window frames.
However, in recent years more and more half-timbered houses have started to sport a coat of paint, ranging from soft pink like the one below to really dark or bright colours.
Often the panels are accentuated with two-tone coloured paint. The writing on the beam reads: Joseph Maier and his wife Katharina built this house in the year of the Lord 1835 (Dieses Haus erbaute Joseph Maier und seine Ehefrau Katharina im Jahre Christi 1835).
Blue is a fashionable tint for half-timbered houses these days. It goes well with green climbers and red geraniums.
Linked to Monday Window. For more windows, click here.
To print, to publish, and to brew
Where would we be without books? Where would books be if Johannes Gutenberg hadn’t invented movable letters? Probably not in a very different position than today.
No, this is not Gutenberg but Peter Schöffer. An early collaborator of Gutenberg who scholars today think was more than an apprentice but quite essential in the devolopment of book printing and publishing. The wikipedia article in German on him is much more detailed than the English one but for what it is worth if somebody is interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sch%C3%B6ffer
This statue stands in Schöffer’s hometown of Gernsheim, about 50km south of Mainz, where Gutenberg lived. And as an aside: I like his legacy. It’s a very tasty beer!
And the connection to culture and alcohol is never far away in a wine growing / beer brewing area. Rheinhessen advertises this on the cable car, pure and culture rhyme in German.
Linked to One Word Sunday: Culture.
One, two, three, … many!
Counting chimneys in Mainz.
What’s the collective noun for chimneys? A smoke of chimneys? I know that the collective noun for chimney sweeps is sweepdom.
I found counting chimneys much more fascinating in England and Scotland, here in Edinburgh.
How many do you count?
To counterbalance all these huddles of chimneys here is an impressive solitary one.
And what would a post about chimneys be without at least one sweep.
Linked to Cee’s On the Hunt for Joy Challenge: Counting Chimneys.
Heimat
There is something about the landscape of the place in which we grow up – it’s edged in the soul, together with the people and the time it makes up what in German is called “Heimat” and for which there is no proper one word translation (essays and books have been written on this “most mystic of German concepts”).
As I live on the slopes, it is combination of rolling hills in the back and a long plain in the west, edged again by more hills. I could say I live “on the edge” if that wouldn’t conjure up sharp ridges and drops which do the softness of the landscape no justice.
The upper Rhine valley is at this point bordered by the Odenwald in the east (my figurative backyard) and the Pfälzer Wald in the west.
The reverse view with forests and castles and houses is contrasted by the view to the west:
A closer look reveals the mixture of agriculture and heavily populated near the Rhine, including large industrial sites (in fact, the world’s largest chemical complex is just a camera swipe to the left, on the other side of the Rhine).
It’s this diversity that I cherish, and that I call home.
For A Photo a Week: Landscape.
Wine sweet wine
The house of wines (and spirits)
The vineyard “Wild Cat” in Rüdesheim
A pinot noir is ripening on the vines
The logo of a town called Weinheim – Home of the Wine
For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: All Sorts of Signs. More signs? Click here.
I’m a fan of river reflections
All reflections courtesy of the Neckar near Ladenburg in Germany.
Linked to I’m a fan of … More fanatical photos can be found here.
Eye of a tree
Another photo from the light installation called “Winterlichter” in Mannheim.
#24 square lights Winterlichter
A triangular relationship
Our local tram connects the cities Mannheim and Heidelberg and our town (definitely not a city) in an almost perfect triangle. It’s been going since before the first world war.
Linked to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Public transport.
pictures imperfect blog 