nuernberg

returned to bavaria to visit my grandfather.

evidence of our ausgewandert family posted on the door of the basement cellar.

my mother's favorite blick of her home town.

woman's lib

birds of paradise at the flower stand

my grandfather chooses a boquet for gertrude

the field behind my grandfather's apartment complex. i've walked this path since i was five years old, and have touched this path in every phase of my life.

behind the bauernhoff
the bauernhof and my grandfather's apartment complex to the left. here you can watch your christmas goose enjoy its free-range life before its end comes at the holiday season.

the forest behind my grandfather's compex.

i whispered to my grandfather after the cave tour, i'm gonna walk around a bit, there's a tree i want to sketch. my grandfather came with and here we are.

here's the tree. beautiful, but a bit sick. the lumps are evidence of fighting off a disease.

in this case, i found beauty in the krankheit. sketching with my grandfather by my side is a moment that stays

my grandfather pointed this tree out as one of his favorites. he likes how it lays on its side, and in the evening light, it was truly stunning.

looking from the forrest to the small park behind the apartment complex. green, by the way, has returned to germany. it has rained every day for the past three weeks, and the plants thrive.

grilling (barbecuing) is forbidden outside of the marked grill spot.

teenagers grilling. the designated grill spot is located to the left outside of this foto.

dog zone.

this meadow is meant for food production (meaning livestock eats the grass) don't let your dog's poo contaminate it!

this is the first time in countless visit that i've seen the park that stands over the parking garage.

elevator

bohemouth guards the farbe park that stands behind the eibacherhoff where i sleep.

farbe park

farbe park

he's not black, but his glare is straight from Bulgakov's cat in master and margarita

driving north. watching them watch me, watched by you.

the devil's cave

we travel to the frankische schweiz... and i am reminded of roland. "shannon, we know how much you love tourists, and so, we are taking you this weekend to the frankischesweiz!" and here, nearly 2 months later i find myself once again driving past the sommer rodelbahn .

we stopped in potterstein for lunch.

the dream of the motor bike tour.

after lunch, i tour the devil's cave. Opa and gertrude stay behind. But i am not alone. not only do i choose to spend an hour underground but with 50 germans on vacation! above is our tour guide.

stalagmites and staltites.. one grows up and the other grows down... at the rate of about one millimeter every 13 years. everything is moist, and it's always about 10 centigrad. at this point i was hoping that blog viewers would participate.. let's play the "what does that look like" game!

a crowd of skinny tall men.

this picture i simply find creepy.. and the thought crosses the mind.. perhaps gieger visited this cave.

tentacles

tourists climb stairs. approximately 115. notice, no lederhosen.

this is stone!

i see a turtle

a bald man's head pops out of the ground. he stares at a sheep dog.. crouched down about to pounce.

pipe organ

touch

six fingers

electric light brings tourists and opportunities for plantlife

cave bear?

exit

looking up

Shiffrundfahrt

this weekend i returned to nuernberg to visit my grandfather and gertrude. the warm summer has taken off for a while, and according to the weather report.. it may never return... am ende, we thanked the less than desireable weather, as it caused the ship to be tolerably crowded.

a view of the lake from our boat. notice volcano in the background.

one of the small towns that line the lake. in good weather people lay on the sand, surf, sail, and doe what vacationing people on water do.

some take advantage of the wind and sail.

group photo.

for bill, with love from germany.

walking to lunch