Light is therefore colour, and shadow the privation of it
– JMW Turner, 1818
As anyone driving into a tunnel can attest to.
If you want to see what other bloggers made of the Turner quote, click here.
Tag: Weinheim
Pedestrian ways
A few days ago I went to town to do some shopping. At first, there is the walkway from the parking garage to the pedestrian shopping street.
Look to the south.
Look to the south.
And up the stairs.
Now for spending some money.
All done.
And now home!
For Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge. For more streets, stairs, paths, walkways click here.
To walk in the shadow of giants
A giant sequoia. In the Exotenwald in Weinheim there are many specimen of these wooldland giants, to my knowledge the largest collection in Germany if not Europe.
For One Word Sunday: giant. Have a look at other interpretations of the word giant on Debbie’s site Travel with Intent.
Verschon mein Haus, zünd andre an
Saint Florian is the patron saint of fire fighters. One often hears the above saying following his name, literally translated it means:
Spare my house, burn down another one.
This statue of the saint, appropriately placed in a fountain, stands across the old fire station in Munich.
This old marker used to stand in front of the fire station no. 2 in Frankfurt:
whereas this modern fire fighting truck is part of the fleet of the Weinheim fire brigade.
For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge. For more photos of fire prevention like fire fighters, fire brigades, fire stations click on the CB&W badge:
Wars are never won
This war memorial – commemorating the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 – stands in front of the St Laurentius Church in Weinheim. As in many towns all over Germany, memorials went up to celebrate this particular war and Kaiser Wilhelm I. A German historian talked of this as the epidemic of monuments brought forth by Germany’s boastful besottedness with national ideals (file:///C:/Users/nukman/AppData/Local/Temp/12240-21601-1-PB.pdf) and I am not at all fond of these glorifications of war.
There is a humorous side note to this particular one. Johann Wilhelm Goos, a miller in town, was considered to be the epitome of manhood and chosen to be the model for the charging soldier. He later emigrated to America with his family, where he became wealthy. To this day, descendants of Johann Goos come to Weinheim and want to see what their ancestor looked like.
This is a more comprehensive look of the church overlooking the market square.
For A Photo a Week Challenge: Light the Night. More lit up nights can be found here.
How tall will you grow?
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.
All wrapped up
I took a considerable detour to photograph this 500-year-old tower only to be confronted with this:
It wasn’t the first time I had similar luck.
For Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge. More oddballs can be found here.
Let me lead you up the garden path
In the town where I live there is a garden. At 2.2 hectares in the middle of town, it is a small but wonderfully prolific botanical garden. The different sections and the paths are cleverly designed to give the impression of a much bigger place.
When I was little this was my way to school. I don’t remember that many cars parked there, if any, but the hedge on the right looked exactly like it does today. It was old then, so it is at least 80 years old, possibly close to 200 years old now. What lay beyond – this wonderful gem of a garden – was closed to the public.
Since 1983, after the private enclosure was turned into a foundation, the garden became open to the public. There is no entrance fee and the sights are wonderful at any time of the year.
For Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge.
For more photos of paths, streets, roads, alleys click here.
For more information on the Hermannshof garden, click here.
There is no elevator
Stairs are paths, too.
For Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge. More paths, streets, roads, etc. can be found here.
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