a day in rainy épinal - la cité d l'image.

épinal is the capital city of the vosges departement. it is famous for its image museum where you can find the épinal prints - colourful images that have their origins in the 19th century. we didn't visit the museum on this day, though. we just wanted to take a look at the city - so exploring was on our day agenda. since it was rainy all day long we tried to stay dry by looking at churches ( successful ) and castle ruins ( not successful ). it was still an impressive exploration. i especially liked climbing up on the castle hill, the view up there was spectacular. there was also a little amusement park on there with a small animal zoo. we wandered around for quite some time, getting really wet until we decided to call it a day and drove back home for relaxing and napping.

waking up in the morning.

inside basilique st. maurice.

illuminati symbols. i always try to find them, no matter where i am. i'm really interested in the illuminati agenda - historically & at the present time.

madonna statue.

ecce homo - 16th century.

the belfry tower portal.

roaming around in the old chapter district.

medieval wall structures. the tower & colourful building on the right is the historical & archeological museum of épinal.

i loved this patio. it seemed like the perfect setting for impressionistic paintings such as those of monet or renoir.

la moselle.

funny face greeting us up on the castle hill.

and what would be a day wandering around without spotting a beautiful cat?

ruins & wine.

view onto épinal.

it was really windy, but the sky was absolutely fantastic with its dramatic colours.

a much better view on épinal.

a little palais on the castle grounds. i think it was a former school for children.

castle gardens.

withering away. unfortunately i couldn't make out the writings above 'des ecoles maternelles' - but i think it's all we need to know about this beautiful house.

when we returned in le val-d'ajol in the afternoon the clouds were really low. beautiful sight!

rain drops on white callas.

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november: kickelhahn, himmelblau & weimar cemetery.

i had a week off in november and visited my parents ( as i often do on my vacations ). on a sunday morning we headed to the thuringian forest to climb onto the peak of the kickelhahn mountain. the kickelhahn mountain is the landmark mountain of the city of ilmenau . johann wolfgang von goethe , the famous writer & philosopher, often visited ilmenau and also climbed the kickelhahn. oftentimes he stopped at a little hut in the woods to relax for a while and on one of these stops he wrote one of his most known poems. our little adventure didn't last the whole day, though, as we had a little date with the weimar cemetery to look after the grave of my grandparents and then to visit my cousin and his family. tiny peek onto the kickelhahn tower. thuringian woods - deep dark green. at the goethe hut. this plate shows the german version of the poem goethe wrote here. inside the hut. and here's the english translation. i love this poem so much, as ...

in the forests.

it's that time of the year again.

july '20: lake petersdorf discoveries and a plea against genocide.

the green wild meadows of malchow's sandfeld. in the west of malchow there is a big chunk of forest that spans towards plauer see, a widely 'uncultivated' area these days, but it hasn't always been this way. in my last post i mentioned the nazi munition factory that had been built in these woods, away from prying eyes of their enemies and where they also built an external subcamp for the concentration camp ravensbrück. exactly these woods we explored on a pretty sunny day, betraying the darkness that happened around these parts. isn't it weird that there are places in this world that were built or used by dark forces and horrible regimes and you vist them 80 years later and they are the most peaceful places you can imagine? sometimes my brain can't cope with the contrast of knowing what was in the past and what the present looks and feels like. it definitely leaves me with a strange impression often, kind of like a little sting in my heart and brain that is not ...

ghost of nature.

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