An outing to Rüdesheim, where the
Rhine flows through the valley and
on both sides steep vineyards rise
up – and one ends the day
with a good meal together with
friends and a glass of wine.
Or two. Or three. Or more.
For Six Word Saturday. More six word musings can be found here.
There was this pond covered with water lilies, one about to be born like Venus of the watery foam, a nascent life form. Nearby lilac flowers looked like an abundance of writhing snakes pullulating in the bushes. This made me hungry so I went to the famous Viktualienmarkt in Munich with its hundreds of stalls selling victuals of every kind. A car passed by – and I wondered if a nut feels maternal towards bolts, after all in German they are called “Mutter” which means “mother”. And I was back at the pond where a frog pondered reflectively about his eye glancing up at him from the water and he completed the circle quoting “Consider the lilies!” from The Life of Brian.
For Thursday’s Special – pick a word. I’ve picked 5.
To have a look what others made of the challenge, click here.
… I want to ride my bike. I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride it where I like.
Need I say that the lyrics are from Queen?
For Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge. More oddball pictures can be found here.
In our local forest the sign posts direct you to the different exotic species found. Three sequoia varieties are there, the coast or California redwood (Küstenmammutbaum), the giant redwood (Riesenmammutbaum), and the sequioadendron giganteum (Urweltmammutbaum). One of the unique features of the Exotenwald Weinheim is that not only a few specimen were planted but whole hectares of one kind. When the arboretum was started around 1870 almost 1500 sequoias were planted, most of which survived and are now tall and majestic. With the exception of the Urweltmammutbaum, said to be a living fossil and only discovered in 1941 – but there are a few of those as well, planted in 2011 and apparently thriving.
Many of the paths are wide and well maintained, perfect for a stroll rather than a hike.
But it is fun to leave those and turn down (or up) narrower
and darker paths.
For Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge. More photos of paths, ways, streets, avenues, or alleys can be found here.
For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge about flags or banners. More patriotic – or not – photos can be found here.
For One Word Sunday: angle.
It was an odd angle to take the picture. The building has many angular features. And the whole building has a strange angle to it: it is the only accredited Lithuanian secondary school in Western Europe. Subjects are taught in German and Lithuanian. The building was formerly Castle Rennhof (in Hüttenfeld near Mannheim, Germany) until the school moved there in 1954.
More photos with angles can be found here.
For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Books and Paper. More photos of these can be found here.
For Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge. More roads, streets, avenues, paths, lanes, alleys can be found here.
Living in Germany it would have been indeed easy to find a building that is not only 100 years old but several hundreds. Close to my hometown, they found the foundations of a Roman estate dating back to the second century AD. But I decided to show the Wachenburg, one of the two castles overlooking Weinheim an der Bergstraße, in Germany. It looks like a Romanesque castle (the roof received new tiles a few years ago) but it is little over 100 years old. The main buildings were constructed between 1907 and 1913 by a Corps of former students (more information on these student fraternities can be found here) to serve as a memorial for members who had died during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71 and a location for their yearly meetings. Family lore has it that my grandfather worked on the roof gutters as a young tinsmith.
For the A Photo a Week Challenge: over 100 years old. For more old photos click here.
