kinetic energy is transformed into electricity.
And we get one step closer to energy autonomy.
Double dipping for Ragtag Daily Prompt: Wind
and FOWC with Fandango: Autonomy
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Tag: Palatinate
Nostalgia or State-of-the-art?
I don’t normally use my cell phone for photography except for classroom purposes (homework, tests, attendance lists and the like) but I’ve been so mixed-up lately that I managed to take not two but three empty camera batteries along on our last outing.
But have a look – is this photo really from the era of cell phones? It looks vintage, doesn’t it?
King Ludwig I. of Bavaria built a classicist villa above the village of Edenkoben in the Palatinate (part of Bavaria in the mid 19th century) and below the castle ruin of Riedburg. The villa offers a panoramic view across the Rhine Valley to the Odenwald on the other side of the river. In 1954 a chair lift was built to the top of the hill. The pamphlet proclaims that the chairlift is technically up-to-date but the newest thing we could find were the “please wear a mask” Corona warnings which were stuck to the masts. The seats looked decidedly prehistoric, and kind of unsafe, and a bit rusty. But there has never been an accident in 67 years and apparently, the modern technical side is hidden behind the scenes.
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Asinine Wine Growers
The small winegrower village of Mußbach in the Palatinate has a Weinlage (smaller than a wine appellation but consisting of a number of vineyards) called “Eselshaut” (skin of an ass). The name is supposed to relate to the grass growing around the vines and which was harvested to feed the donkeys.
Images of donkeys abound all over the town in crests and emblems and sculptures. I found this red one particularly asinine … fetching.
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The Palatinate Connection
They have many tales in the Palatinate about Elwetritsche – the descendants of various kinds of fowl bred with forest dwellers like elves and goblins. I once found an Elwetritsche egg on a hike in the Palatinate Forest and since it seemed abandoned I decided to put in my backpack and carry it with me. Unfortunately, the eggshell cracked when stumbled on a big root of an oak tree and the Elwetritsch hatched right there in my pack. It was the kind which has a beak and sharp teeth and it started to hack its way through the canvas. It managed to get out and immediately fluttered and hopped into the thicket where I just manage to glance a larger Elwetritsch whom the newborn followed. I was left bewildered, with a split backpack, a swollen ankle and tale to tell in the next pub over a dubbeglas filled with a dry local wine.
The Ragtag Daily Prompt: Furphy
One Pig’s Stomach is Another One’s Ambrosia
Pfälzer Saumagen (pig’s stomach from the Palatinate) may sound horrid but it’s actually a very tasty dish, similar to a fat sausage consisting of pork, potatoes and spices and stuffed in a pig’s stomach rather than a thin piece of intestine.
Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl who was a native of the Palatinate loved this dish and served it to his guests of state. Rumour has it that the better they liked it, the better he got on with them. I don’t know if that’s true but it was always reported that while Mikhail Gorbachev liked it quite well, Margaret Thatcher detested it and look at the politics of these three! I was absolutely sure that a photo existed of Thatcher looking suspiciously on her plate (and everybody I spoke to was also sure) but this seems to be trope rather than a reality.
Anyway, the inhabitants of the area are quite adamant that Adam and Eve came to live in the Palatinate after they were kicked out of Eden since this is the part of Earth that came closest to paradise. No wonder they consider their most typical food and drink – wine and saumagen – to be fit for the gods.
pictures imperfect blog 