deutsche moment

cave crawling and ship seeking

armed with an auto and lust for escaping the city, we visit the "frankische schweiz," a hilly and rocky region a bit north of nuernberg, famous for its caves, hiking paths, and the sommer tobagan run.

the town of streitberg as seen from the entrance of the bing hoehle.

what a group we are.

in line with cultural tradition, we follow our cave adventure with coffee.

typical small town in bavaria.

crossing the bridge in search of cafe.

this sculptures called the sheep washer.. really.

the sun continues to shine on thursday and we head to the brombachsee. the plan to repeat the ship cruise from earlier in the summer, this time with sun and mom present.

we are without ship. and walk along the see instead. pleasant in this oktober's warm weather.

ruhigzeit.

wurzburg

dieter, our cousin "around three corners" (the german way of saying times removed) organizes excursions for his friends. last year we toured Gastonhoff, this year we traveled to wuerzberg, the capital of Frankonia. Bavaria has three franken counties... lower franken, middle franken (where nuernberg lies), and upper franken (home to wurzburg). frankens identify with frankonia before bavaria, (and it is believed that bavarians identify with bavaria before germany). call a franken bavarian, and they may correct you.

the closest we got to the bishop's residence.

the chapel at the bishops residence. fondly referred to by our group as a rococo nightmere.

wurzburg's main cathedral

behind the cathedral is a modern sculpture garden.

i call this one "holes thru stone"

inside the dom an impressive pipe organ. notice horizontal pipes.

the market square church.

the castle as seen from the old bridge.

the sign suggests one can fall from all walls.

or that someone may push you

fall

a bekannt composed this foto, with appreciation for the "s" that the tree makes over wuerzburg's landscape.

the wall that circles the castle.

the castle itsel

from within the fortress. notice modern sculpture to left.

the old crane. home of the old crane restaurant where eating half a duck earns one the right to all you can drink fehderweisser (wine that is not allowed to age, and served before its filtered. this lemonade with a kick is available only during this time of year) i lived vicariously through our host, and looking forward to the next tour.

a few days in nuernberg

it's great to back in nuernberg, to see opa, and visit our family.

on sunday we strolled along the old canal.

we're a group of visitors. though lydia and fern met in nuernberg, our friend lives on the island of sylt... a nine hour train ride away.

we found a cute restaurant to enjoy our sunday lunch. the lokal featured craftwork, such as these mosaic garden balls. the mosaic spheres are with thoughts for wendy.

fern and lydia

its sunday but the stores are open, and the entire city center of schwabach, holds a flea market, and a swarm of shoppers.

schwabach's canal

as seen through the weeping willow.

monday night dinner in nuerberg at die Huette

twilight walking from the huette through the city.

this bull sits on the fleisch bruecke.. or meat bridge. legend has it that at midnight he comes down from his post to drink water from the moat. as i kid i really wanted to see this event take place.

lorinz kirche

Berlin

mom and i make our annual mother daughter trip to germany. an opportunity to present elite care at an ehome conference brings us to berlin.

posters throughout the city indicate a festival of lights. such a fest turns out to signify the decoration of trees and buildings with blue lights.

a learned last summer that the linden (lime) is my birth tree. coincidently we found ourselves walking unter den linden.. the street and subway was named such as well.

the street of the 17th of juli.. and the victory tower, on a normal day a traffic disaster. but today, because of country-wide protests against the raising of the retirement age to 67 the city is completely clear.

the hamburg train station. located in berlin, and the home of modern art exhibits.

walking inside a "burned" library

a room of reflective black glass, the walls, shards fall from an implied sky.

wall of medication.

letzter blick des sommers

and i'm in portland again. this blog goes on hiatus.. but first a few scenes from the last days in germany.

Und jetzt bin ich wieder in Portland, und dieses Blog macht eine kurze Pause... aber zuerst ein paar Fotos von meine letzten Tagen in deutschland.

what does one do with a defunct gasometer? create a phenomenal venue for art installations. light and heaven experienced here.

the lake that stood behind my residence in duisberg. here in the industrial ruhrgebiet is the most divine swimming place i encountered in germany.

Taunus. a region north of frankfurt. a small town as seen from a bauernhoff.

resident cat. he's called leo.

hiking in taunus.

as i learned german wandern translates "to hike." however in oxford english the verb translates "to walk." which is perhaps more appropriate for the stroll through this nevertheless memorable wheatfield.