We live “right of the Rhine”, aka on the eastern side of the Rhine, at the place where the hills meet the plain. The plain stretches about 350km from northern Switzerland to about Frankfurt am Main. It’s about 50km wide. So when I look due west I can see several smaller towns, two cities (Mannheim and Ludwigshafen) until the hills of the Pfälzer Wald which border the plain on the western side.
That’s our hometown, as seen from a relatively short distance, about 12 km to the north. We live not even 3km to the south church spire on the left but it is for the moment too far for us as a couple. Our car broke down on Saturday night and has been standing in front of a garage ever since. My sister collected us and brought us home. Where we are. I could go out on my bike (and I did go to the bakery which is open even though it is a public holiday) but my husband with his dud knee is homebound. He can manage a couple of kilometres probably more if he really needed to but would have to pay with pain in the days after. So he won’t. The centre of town is too distant for him without a vehicle.
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Water reservoir Marbach The catchment area is the river Mümling and its tributaries in the middle of the Odenwald. It was created around 1980 as a protection against flooding. But in 1986 it started catching hikers, sunseekers, and bathers, too. This was on the tail-end … Continue reading Marbach Stausee
from various churches. top left: from the chapel at Schloss Stolzenfels top right: from Wiesenbaden’s Oranier-Gedächtniskirchebottom left: from St Adolfus in Düsseldorfbottom right: from the Egyptian episkopalean Church in Heidelberg Monday Window
I’ve been doing Dale’s bidding looking for shade for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. I went looking in my archive – and aye, there’s the rub. The photos in my archive are tagged in German and German doesn’t make a diffference between “shade” and “shadow” … Continue reading Shade Seekers
Having lived near Darmstadt for a while, I’ve passed this building a few times. It’s the armory or rather the hunt supply house which is part of the hunting seat and summer residence of the Landgraviate Hesse-Darmstadt, Castle Kranichstein. I’ve read that in its heyday … Continue reading Jagdschloss Kranichstein
The Ragtag Prompt was SOW. The action or the animal? Or maybe the car license number? In this case, for Stuttgart. There is a saying amongst Hash House Harriers that if you like your hash name then something is wrong. You are not supposed to … Continue reading The sow with any other name will still be one
I spent a couple of hours in a village in the Odenwald, called Schaafheim (nothing to do with sheep, but with “scop”, i.e. barn or shed). This half-timbered house is typical for the area – with a solid stone base, usually of reddish sandstone. With … Continue reading Windows of Schaafheim
“So this is hell. I’d never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the “burning marl.” Old wives’ tales! There’s no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit
Sartre’s quote from his stage play has always been true. In small, insidious ways, and in large, horrific ways.
There were numerous death marches from concentration camps to other locations (i.e. away from the advance of the allied forces). In 2025 there was a remembrance march passing this sculpture in Bad Tölz behind a banner reading “Never again”.
Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Hell
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