strasbourg - capitale européenne.

together with my dear friend l. i visited strasbourg for the first time in late february. we stayed for three days, not enough time to explore more deeply, though. we also visited freiburg the next day, which is a german town one hour away from strasbourg. what i loved about strasbourg was its absolutely charming inner city. you guessed it already, it's a medieval treasure. i would've loved to visit the art museum or some of the parks around, but since we only had 24 hours in a day and a bit of a plan of what to do we didn't get around to do any of it. the strasbourg cathedral was immensely impressive as well, especially the huge astronomical clock.

maybe i'll return again to see more of strasbourg and maybe even drive to mulhouse as there seems to be an animal park.

our view out of the window. we also could see the cathedral.

shortly before we entered petit france. strasbourg was also strategically important for the military so you can find a lot of barrages and fortifications. here you can see some of it.

fantastic street art.

petit france with the river ill.

beautifully decorated window sills.

walking through the narrow streets of petit france.

look at that alleyway!

doves populating roofs.

it was just so picturesque.

a dirty swan. so beautiful.

maison kammerzell in front of the strasbourg cathedral.

gargoyles greeting us at the door.

this organ was really beautifully ornated.

the best picture i could get of the astronomical clock. it shows only one quarter of the whole device. it was mesmerizing.

the impressing main hall.

golden winged altar.

a part of the palais rohan. there are a few museums inside, but as i already told you, we didn't enter. next time hopefully :)

one of the many gorgeous portals of the cathedral.

the main portal of the west facade.

and up into the sky. it's glorious gothic architecture at its best.

after our encounter with the cathedral we went windowshopping. whereas l. loved to browse through clothing stores as well, all i needed was the bakery shop window magic. man, my mouth already waters just by looking at these pictures.

i wanted to really, really taste these beautiful oranges and lemons.

i guess i had an inner food orgasm right now.

and petite france by night.

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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