november: culture & cemeteries.

we visited sondershausen castle at the beginning of my november vacations, and it was seriously one of the most beautiful castles i've visited yet. i say that a lot of times. but this castle is really a gem. i especially loved the museum ( about its history and also about several other topics ) and the architecture everywhere. stucco ceilings with mythological figurines? yes! another plus was the 'hofküche' - they served excellent pie and cocoa / coffee! the weather on that day wasn't stellar at all so the time we spent in the castle was spent wisely. we also had very nice guides explaining the castle with funny details and great knowledge!

one of the many hallways. this corridor led to the stucco arch i mentioned above.

and here is a part of the stucco ceiling. unicorns!

it was really amazing astonishing. this must've been a lot of work when it was created. and definitely still is - seeing that the stucco need constant refreshment from time to time.

a little temple of the muses.

the 'hofküche' - it can be hired for bigger conferences or wedding parties or other occasions as well.

few onto one part of the castle. because of the bad weather i haven't made any more photos. and even inside the castle i didn't want to photograph in such an obvious way - the guides in castles rarely like it when photos are taken.

we also visited the weimar cemetery again, to look after the grave of my grandparents. we like to do a little walk afterwards, the weimar cemetery is one of the most beautiful cemeteries i know.

the grave of artist max asperger & his wife. i loved the relief carving - so beautiful to think of death as a walk through nature.

life is born in an urn.

i really don't know what these deep purple plants were, but the colour was a total eyecatcher.

i just love the colour red. and a lot of berries growing in autumn are exactly the colour i adore.

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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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