Tag: Germany

2000 years of outhouses

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Haselburg

This is the remains of a toilet facility built by Romans in a villa rustica in the Odenwald in German.  When it was built it was most probably not an outhouse as such but now it is as open as anything.

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This is from more than a millenium later, in the ruin of a castle in Handschuhsheim near Heidelberg.  Since it has no direct water access (unlike the Roman facilities) it was a lot less hygienic.

Tiefburg

This now is from the 21st century: plastic and with a slightly humourous sign.

Dixi

Finally, for my private satisfaction.  The poster of a local wannabe politician with a sign that shows where I think he belongs.

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Linked to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: bathrooms, outhouses and port-a-potties.

998

Letters and numbers

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The letter S.  I could not find out what it has to do with “Taunus” (a region in middle Germany) underneath.

04 letters 3

Tempo limits written directly on the street, 20 being a low number so that pedestrians are safe and can look at the pretty houses.

Orangerie

The old orangery in the Günthersburg park in Frankfurt is a leftover from times gone by. Today it is a park with a wonderful playground at its centre.

Linked to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: letters and numbers. 

“Two souls, at least, reside within my breast!”

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109 view b

The (almost) accurate quote from Goethe’s Faust describes it best. There is this side of me, enamored by the rolling hills of the Odenwald,

109 view c

and then there is the other side, that loves the excitement of the city of Frankfurt with its highrise buildings and modern side of living.

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And this is the compromise, I guess.  A view from one side of the Upper Rhine valley, where I live, all the way across to the hills of the Palatinate (Pfalz), with the twin cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen on either side of the Rhine in between.  The distance from the Odenwald to the other side is about 50 kilometres at this point.

This is linked to A Photo a Week: View.

The sign of the times

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105 fashion a

I don’t know what was better – the individual attention to each garment (for those that could afford it) or our mass produced wares (but available for the masses).  In any case, a lot of our fashion of yesterday ends up here:

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It is probably the better option compared to simply throwing used clothes and shoes in the garbage although there are issues with this kind of recycling, too.  If I can I rather pass on my no longer used fashion items to an organisation where I know they will be worn in Germany and don’t end up destroying indigenous industries in third world countries.  Or I wear them until they fall apart and end up as cleaning rags.

This is linked to One Word Sunday: fashion.

Wish you were beer

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Wiesn

This unusual view of the part of München called Schwanthalerhöhe is taken from the area which during two weeks in September (sic!) houses the world famous Oktoberfest. The rest of the year most of the Wiesn is a flat, barren expanse packed with gravel. It is situated close to the city centre with buildings on all four sides.  A few smaller events use part of the area throughout the year but when nothing is going on it’s just empty space which accentuates the urban surroundings all the more.

For A Photo a Week: urban.

A policeman, a market-woman, were standing …

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Schutzmann Tschako

Marktfrau

Smiles all round with these two life-size sculptures in the middle of Koblenz in the Rhine valley.  They depict a market-woman and a policeman illustrating an old joke which is written on a plaque in the local dialect (about Norbert’s dog who peed on the leg of the market-woman’s husband).

This is linked to A Photo a Week: smile.

 

 

One German corner

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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.