Köln (Cologne), Germany - 3rd May 2010
By: Apperveilchen
This is the main train station of Cologne. I was sitting in the InterCity train headed south and tried to take some pictures along the way.
Here's Cologne Cathedral with its high towers.
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Posted May 5, 2010, 12:54 pm
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Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Germany - 3rd May 2010
By: Apperveilchen
The train tracks follow the river Rhine. Unfortunately it was mostly grey and rainy.
There are many old castle ruins and castles that were reconstructed during the romantic period. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We already passed the amazing undestroyed Marksburg and the "Feindliche Brüder", two castles, Sterrenberg and Liebenstein, facing each other and owned by two brothers who were constantly fighting with each other. Unfortunately we were too busy looking to get the camera into position in time.
My host says this should be Maus (mouse) Castle
A bit further up the river theres Katz Castle. Katz and be short for Katze (cat) but was actually short for the much longer name of thefamily of the founders. Nevertheless the smaller Maus Castle was renamed at some point with the animals in mind.
(Coming up on the hill.)
A long time ago, many ships wrecked here at the Loreley. The cause, according to the sailors, was a beautiful woman, combing her long, blonde hair on the rock and singing (the sound actually came from a small waerfall). I saw the many markers in the water, keeping the ships away from shallows, so I am a bit sceptical. apparently there's also a strong current here.
This is Gutenfels Castle, built in 1220, a very symmetrical castle of Staufer architecture. It was originally called Cube Castle, but renamed to Guten(=good)fels(=rock) after it withstood several sieges.
Below it is Pfalzgrafenstein, a custom tower built in the early 14th century by the emperor Ludwig of Bavaria to control the traffic on the Rhine from his side of the river. He angered the pope and the bishops of Cologne, Trier and Mainz, that controlled the surrounding land.
Lastly here's the ruin of Ehrenfels Castle, built in 1210, destroyed by the French in the 17th century.
We saw some more and many couldn't be seen from the train because they were above us on our side of the river, but I really would like to some of these from closer up.
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Posted May 5, 2010, 2:09 pm Last edited Jun 5, 2010, 11:58 am by Apperveilchen
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Saarland, Germany - 12th May 2010
By: Apperveilchen
We're packing up everything to move out of this "Bundesland". I quickly hid in one of the boxes so as not be be left behind. Byebye Saarland!
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Posted May 17, 2010, 2:55 pm
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Blankenstein Castle, Germany - 16th May 2010
By: Apperveilchen
I wanted to see one of those old castles up close, so when I heard that one member of my host family was going to a medieval fair on one, I snuck into the bag. (Well, it was more like I got my host to say "pretty please" and make puppy eyes.) So we went to Blankenstein Castle in Hattingen. Unfortunately, when we arrived there people who were coming out of the castle were telling us that it wasn't very good.
Here's me with the castle and with some deer.
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Posted May 17, 2010, 3:09 pm Last edited May 22, 2010, 3:04 pm by Apperveilchen
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Düsseldorf, Germany - 29th May 2010
By: Apperveilchen
Today is Japan day in Düsseldorf, the city with the largest Japanese community in Germany. My host took me along because it was a great day and she wanted to kno how authentic some of the demonstartions were, now that she had a Japanese native with her.
We had to wait in line in the car park for a car to leave so the next one could go in, even though the system outside had told us there were free spaces. It was several stories below earth and a bit scary, with it's low ceilings and so many cars. When we got out and arrived at a small harbor close to the film museum.
The old own of Düsseldorf was very crowded but I saw some narrow old houses, one with a carrion.
And the town hall where we could breathe for a change and stop without being run into.
We got to a square directly at the Rhine where stages were set up, a camera constantly took in the scene and a Japanese children's choir was performing at that moment.
It got more and more crowded along the food booths and we saw lot's of people dressed up as manga characters, or dressed in kimonos.
It was too full of people for my taste, so we got a little reprieve from the people and from the sun in some side streets.
There are a number of statues and buildings in this style in Düsseldorf. The WDR is the local tv station that was also present to interview people and to do a live show of the Japanese fireworks later that night.
Saturday is the most common day for church weddings here. (Church weddings aren't legal in German, so everybody has to have a legal wedding before they can get married in church. Many people have the wedding sometime during the week and the cermony on Saturday so guests can attend but others wait months or years after the legal wedding before they have a ceremony in church or don't have one at all.) Here is one couple with their guests in front of a church in the old town of Düsseldorf trying to take pictures, but with these crowds it was hard. They probably got a number of pictures with weirdly dressed people walking through it.
Back on the Rhine promenade we saw these kids with different rhythmn instruments. They made a racket and their sense of rhythmn didn't seem all that coordinated, yet.
The promenade is very nice, though. These houses look over the Rhine.
Here's the river with the TV tower and one of the bridges:
There were clouds and sun again and clouds again... but a little wind was very welcome. It was humid.
We saw some demonstartions of Kendo and Aikido.
And spent some time squeezing through the crowd (you really had to watch out for your children or the got hurt) but finally gave up and went back home.
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Posted May 31, 2010, 12:33 pm Last edited Jun 23, 2010, 4:09 pm by Apperveilchen
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Essen, Germany - 5th June 2010
By: Apperveilchen
The weather is good and I played in the garden and had some nice summer pictures taken. (And then played some more on the computer )
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Posted Jun 19, 2010, 12:25 pm
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Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, Germany - 9th June 2010
By: Apperveilchen
This is the art museum of Mühlheim an der Ruhr. It was formerly a post-office. Above the door it still says POSTAMT.
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Posted Jun 9, 2010, 7:15 pm
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Werden, Germany - 10th June 2010
By: Apperveilchen
I had ice cream at one of the best places for ice cream in the city. On the weekends there are long lines half way around the bulding here.
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Posted Jun 19, 2010, 12:14 pm
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Düsseldorf, Germany - 12th June 2010
By: Apperveilchen
We went to Düsseldorf again to go shoe shopping, of all the things! It was boring. I wanted to joing the crowds outside the shop that were drinking beer and watching one of the first games of this year's soccer world cup, but my host wouldn't let me go out alone. The only remotely interesting thing was this shop-front:
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Posted Jun 20, 2010, 9:26 am
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"Essen GeniesseN", Germany - 18th June 2010
By: Apperveilchen
The city where I am staying is called "Essen", which happens to also be the German word for "food" and for "eating".
This week there's the yearly \"Essen GeniesseN\" (geniessen = to enjoy) event in the city center with a "Gourmetmeile".
23 of the best restaurants, including Michelin star restaurants, have little kitchens and tables set up in the pedestrian zone and offer around different 5 delicacies each, most also one regional dish, usually special Currywurst (e.g. of lamb or duck) or something with blood sausage. Main dishes are about 8-10 Euro, snacks or desserts around 5 Euro.
We didn't want to just get one of the big meals, so we tried smaller snacks:
Here we had Italian: bruschetta, arancini and tiramisu. I was dissapointed by the tiramisu, it was nothing special at all and the other 2 weren't really warm or well-seasoned, either.
I just couldn't pass on the Bailey's-chocolate cream with apricot- and raspberry sauce and rolled chocolate:
Hmmmmm, that was great: good, fluffy cream, slightly tart apricots, sweet raspberries and chocolate, and we had good live music!
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Posted Jun 20, 2010, 4:06 pm Last edited Jun 20, 2010, 4:09 pm by Apperveilchen
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