That’s the Feldberg tower. The Feldberg in the Black Forest is the highest peak in Germany outside the Alps with an altitude of 1493m. It’s a mountain massif, i.e. there are several peaks. When we were there for a weekend in August in 2018 we … Continue reading Not Quite the Peak
The worst winter storm in recorded European history was Cyclone Lothar in 1999. In the Black Forest there is a strip of land which was left to heal itself. It’s possible to walk through the area and see what happens if nature is left to do its own thing. In order not to disturb this process visitors are not allowed to walk on the ground but on the raised planks leading through the emerging forest.
My husband’s first name is Lothar so he has a special connection to the area.
Can somebody correct this? No snow. Wrong spelling. And the trail shouldn’t lead up a tree.
Note of interest: The five red dots on top of the T in trail, the logo of the Black Forest (mountain bike) Trails, is the stylised design of a Bollenhut, the traditional headgear with red woollen pompoms of the area.
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War memorials often show soldiers or warriors or national emblems. This one in Guttach in the Black Forest shows the survivors.
They started with the deforestation of the Black Forest which slowly changed the look of the mountains and valleys with the dark firs we know today. In truth, the switch from mixed forest to fir forest was completed in the 19th century only.
Linked to Cee’s Midweek Madness: Pick a topic from my photo.
I was nominated by Teresa and by Margaret to post one travel picture a day for ten days without explanation, then to nominate someone else to participate. That’s 10 days, 10 travel images, and 10 nominations.
The photos I am going to show in this challenged are from travels around Germany and where chosen to introduce my German language students to various German sites.
Here is my nineth one:
No Christmas stress, no nomination. Join in if you don’t have anything else you would rather be doing.
The Black Forest is almost synonymous with dark fir forests but its highest mountain, the Feldberg, is curiously bare. It is the highest mountain in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and the highest in Germany outside of the Alps. It’s the top of the non-Alpine mountain tops, so to speak. And this isn’t even the actual top (but close). I haven’t got pictures of the actual top as 2 years ago, when we had endless, warm, dry days towards the end of summer, we managed to pick the one weekend when it was cold, miserable, foggy, raining and cold. I went to the top (there is a kind of cairn marking it) but I didn’t take my camera because it would have been either drowned or blown away.
This is my twenty-ninth square for Becky’s April Square Challenge.
On 26 December 1999 a winter storm or hurricane called Lothar raced across Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Black Forest in Germany. The devastation was vast. After clearing up all the mowed down trees, reforestation was tackled but in a particular area in the Black Forest a section of the woods was left untouched so that one could see how nature recuperated if left alone. A walkway was constructed to allow access without damaging the re-growth.
Ten years later one can still see the swath of destruction of the hurricane.
The walkway leading over the small bushes and trees starting to reclaim the soil.
The trees which had been uprooted were left lying where they fell and their roots were exposed to the elements.
We didn’t live in Germany then but we visited the “Lotharpfad” (Lothar path) ten years later. My husband in particular enjoyed the trip as he is called Lothar. He also enjoyed the headline of a tabloid a year later which read: “How much is a Lothar?” with the article tallying up the cost of the storm.
For One Word Sunday with the topic devastation.
The man made structure of this abandoned hut is revealed in its state of decay: the roof framework showing through the missing tiles, the vertical beams forming the centre of the construction, the way the boards are overlaid on the sides of the hut, the diagonal pannelling of the gable side.
for The Daily Post: Structure
pictures imperfect blog 