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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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
Midweek Monochrome
During the first two weeks in September, Bad Dürkheim in the Palatium puts on the largest winefest in the world, the Wurstmarkt (literally: sausage market). It’s not a new festival, it has been around since 1417 – in 2017 it was celebrated for the 600th time! In comparison, the first Oktoberfest in Munich was only in 1810.
Most visitors to the fest arrive by train or tram and the first thing they see when they arrive is the Wurstmarkt fountain.
I guess they must.
Literally this translates as “Upon-Donkey-Skin”, a fairly famous wine estate in the Palatium in Germany. The story how the village got its name is quite complicated and it involves a donkey, a hat, plague and quarantine.
We noticed this door while passing and all of a sudden we felt watched.
and he is Karl Gottfried Nadler, a poet who wrote in the local Heidelberg vernacular. He was a good looking man judging from the scultpture.
Monday Portrait
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,
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.
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.
pictures imperfect blog 