rhine river sculptures.
every year in early june a little festival is taking place in eltville, a small town about 12 kilometers away from wiesbaden. it's all about one special flower: the rose. it takes place in one of the most romantic places in the whole city, the castle grounds. over the years the event also grew and there are stages & activities all over the inner city as well. i've never been there before, and since my parents were visiting me on the pentecoast weekend i thought it might be nice to check this out. fortunately it was a good idea, even though i knew there would be crowds of people running around ( which i generally dislike, with few exceptions ). the setting of the festival is just super beautiful and who can say no to all kinds of blooming flowers? definitely not me. which makes me endure the hassle of blazing my trail through tight little streets that are crammed with people.
i shot a huge amount of photos that day, presenting you now a narrowed down selection of them. and you know, narrowed down still means this post will have 80 of them. sorrynotsorry :)
oh, and one last thing concerning the outcome of the bundestagswahl: some might say i focus too little on current events in germany on this little blog of mine ( that no one reads ), but just let me say two things. the first thing is, that, despite the fact that i expected this outcome in one way or another, i am annoyed, frustrated & disappointed about the almost 13 % that the right wing party AfD got and which made it possible that they could move into the parliament as the 3rd strongest force with statements that are openly racist, homophobic, anti-feminist, misogynistic, critical of climate change & denying of german history. of course it is 'only' 13 %, but when you look closer at the analysis of the country's regions it is frightening that in a lot of places ( not only eastern germany, but also western ) the AfD had huge tractions & gain in power. what i don't understand is the fact that people are frustrated enough to protest-vote for a party that offers them no solutions except to make their lives worse. my opinion is that when you are not happy with the government's work anymore, you should look into the programs of other parties & look out for what you believe in & then decide who you want to give your vote for, not to forgo this process & just vote for a party just because you want to protest against the status quo without even reading what they are standing for. i simply cannot believe that so many people seem to be ignorant of what this party wants to achieve. i could easily start a monologue about why that is and who voted for them ( a whole topic entirely of which i partly understand the fundamental reasons, but refuse to understand the motivation of voting particularly this party when in fact we have SO MANY other parties to choose from in our political system ), but here's my statement number 2:
this blog has been a little outlet for me to help me memorize good things in my life. since i am generally a very pessimistic person, who has little to no faith in human beings ( unfortunately, but there is still some tiny bit of hope lingering in the back of my mind ), i needed a place where i could focus on the beautiful things that happen to me, or that make the world a habitable & worthwhile place to live in. this serves no purpose, it's just a personal reminder to try living this useless life as good as i can and to look forward to experiences & places that might lead me to be more accepting of myself and my insecurities, to not simply give up and tell this world to fuck itself and then voluntary drop out of this bullshit. of course i don't want to completely ignore my everyday life ( i can't, as you probably noticed in other posts before ), but for the most part i still want this blog to be a positive thing. i will never turn into an optimist, that's for sure, and i will always write introspective tidbits into a post that mostly contains flowers & shiny things, but here's the thing: i still need to focus on how to become a better person, now even more than ever before, especially in this divided environment of right-wing against left-wing ( and in the middle the equally problematic centrist ) politics. this isn't some kind of protest blog, not at all, but if more people decided to focus on what makes this world worthwhile, maybe we wouldn't have so many people being all frustrated and angry. i understand that life is hard, that people often are actively contributing to making life more difficult than it should be. i see the inequality, the contrasts between rich and poor, the double standards of seemingly open-minded people, but this isn't a reason to go back to a world outlook that already brought so much pain & trauma in the past. we need to actively work on bettering our society, but for god's sake ( whoever god is ), we shouldn't fall victim to people who desperately want this world to burn & erect a society that only thrives on blood, destruction & oppression. this blue planet does not need any more of that. the earth already screams at us. why is there still that human need to be powerful & impacting? why don't we learn again to live WITH nature, WITH oppositions, and WITHOUT wanting to hurt us all?
for real, human beings tire me out. this monologue did as well, because i also see my own shortcomings & inadequacies & the more i think about it, the more problematic things get... still i refuse to give up hope entirely. this blog is my personal contribution for keeping up that hope.
okay. now that i got this off my chest, let's continue with the images. ( warning, there are lots of roses in here - as a plant lover of any kind i did go a bit overboard here - and well, this was the festival of the roses after all ).
these sculptures you can find on every beach by the rhine river you can think of. i really like that there are people who have enough patience to build these fragile statues. it's a joy to discover them and often gives inspiration to try it out yourself ( i always fall victim to that urge whenever i'm by the sea :) )
a shy mansion peaking out behind rose bushes.
the combination of soft pink & yellow is such a nice one.
villa gottlieb von mumm, built in 1830, but was continuously rebuilt over time. g.h. mumm is a formerly german champagne producer now based in france, but their traces still can be found all over the rheingau today. this house is now the guesthouse for sekt-producing company matheus müller ( which is owned by rotkäppchen-mumm - an offspring of g. h. mumm )
it's a really charming building.
platz von montrichard. montrichard is the twinning town of eltville.
if you should ever visit eltville in blooming season, be prepared to encounter all kinds of rose varieties. it truly is something to behold.
the colours & their abundance was so stimulating.
on the right: haus rose ( from somewhen before 1739 ). the neo-renaissance villa georg müller on the left was integrated & built in 1888 probably by jean fürstchen. such a stately property, right? so beautiful...
moving forwards to the electoral castle of eltville. this castle has been around since approximately 1330.
the colour of this rose is almost blinding 😍.
i needed to include this picture of my father... because i love it so much!
the residence tower of the castle.
eltville is also known as a biedermeier city, biedermeier being an era which was a special time in germany around 1815 to 1848, where people turned inwards and retreated into the safety of their homes after they had gone through the napoleonic war & then also had to face industrialization. this mood is perfectly depicted in this statue and shows how people dressed back then.
a perfectly overgrown wine press.
inside the courtyards of the castle there was a little market. you could find lots of inspirations for designing your own rose garden.
the old castle walls are a perfect display for rose twines.
as you can see, the roses were everywhere. no wonder the creators of the festival decided to bring it to life!
looking down into main moat.
a little baroque garden was also part of the whole castle complex.
i couldn't get enough of all the roses 😵
lots and lots of nice gardening details. if only i just had my own garden...
owls were another prominent detail of the whole market. ( in case you didn't know, I LOVE OWLS )
even steampunk owls.
owls everywhere. ( i purchased this one for my parents, because look at how beautiful she is with her shiny nacre belly! )
some more sculptural accessories.
even found some lizards crawling around.
this dragonfly was another highlight for me.
pottery bat! so cute 😘
this blackbird was sitting very close nearby when i shot this photo, just about 3 meters away. i love such close encounters with birds.
a really lovely flower arch in front of the registry office. the guy on the wall is johannes gutenberg, he was a very important figure in establishing the written word in society. he invented the mechanical moving book press. while he was born in mainz and also lived there, there are clear indications that he often visited eltville. his death note was found in eltville as well, so it's quite evident that he was majorly connected to this little city
there are timber-framed beauties all over eltville, too.
this is still one of my favourite houses in eltville, the former chaplan's house. built somewhen in the second half of the 17th century.
this detail is so lovely.
the whole scenery of this little street, the burggasse, makes me want to move there immediately. this is, to put it very clearly, perfect. dream houses galore!
we slowly made our way back to the pedestrian zone and passed by some slightly decrepit buildings - adding their own charm to the mostly polished look of eltville. this remainder of some street art captivates you with its double vision aesthetics.
love them old window shutters.
back in the pedestrian zone my father was treated to a nice cool weiss beer.
at first, this building didn't look really enticing, but then i looked closer...
... and discovered that the blends of these windows had tiny little wine grapes on them.
and immediately there was a detail on an otherwise pretty boring building that absolutely elevated it!
we listened to some pretty good music along the way, this guy was especially great! played some really awesome famous singer-songwriter tunes. just checked who he was, and found out he's called pasi der pogo.
strolling around in a lesser crowded alley.
and we returned back to the shores of the river. more wood & stone sculptures!
it was time to say goodbye to eltville and return to wiesbaden for an evening stroll.
the entry to the museum wiesbaden.
when the dawn came it converted the light into a beautiful soft pink & pale blue.
it was breathtaking, to be honest.
advertisement walls of the state theatre.
little origami cranes inside a shop window. i love the colour gradient here.
kurhaus wiesbaden with bowling green. it's so glorious at night.
you can find quite a few antique shops in wiesbaden. this is one of the more exclusive ones.
the kochbrunnen ( transl. boil fountain ). wiesbaden is well known for its hot wells all over the city, which are good for cure treatments. you shouldn't drink too much of that water, though, as it contains traces of highly poisonous elements.
the water is quite salty and smells of sulfur.
hotel schwarzer bock. a very exclusive hotel adress in the city with a very long tradition.
the schlossplatz with city hall on the left.
it was built in 1887 by georg von hauberrisser.
the hessische landtag ( hessian state parliament ) inside the former city palace.
and we concluded that evening with sore feet, but happy brains.
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