may '17: autour de ramonchamp.

wolfdog watching some cows.

the twinning town i talked about in my last post is called ramonchamp and is situated in a very narrow part of the upper mosel valley in the vosges mountains. it's a remote little village with about 2000 inhabitants, a very rural place - perfect for unhitching from the life in big cities or generally everyday shenanigans.

most of our delegation is always housed in a hostel located on a slope with a nice view over the mosel valley and a lot of the evening activities took place in that hostel, too. on our last day we had a barbeque and also visited a little market next to a nearby little lake surrounded by blooming broom bushes. it was just a beautiful spring day with nice conversations and bonding with our french hosts.

this wolfdog greeted us every morning when we left the hostel and also welcomed us back when we returned. at first i was like: a wolf! a wolf! a wolf on a balcony! but then of course it dawned on me that this wasn't a wolf but a wolfdog. i really loved the fact, though, that this beautiful creature served as some kind of greeting committee :) and it was kind of a haunting sight as well, as they look so similar to wolfs.

the view from our hostel down onto the mosel valley & ramonchamp.

a typical vosgean cow. they always look like they were painted with a broad paintbrush.

there were other cows as well, but the one in the front is another example of the vosgean cow, this time with a more distinctive brush.

little creek coming to light.

walking down the vosgean roads.

i liked how this house was built into the ground.

passed by a little airfield.

with the cutest little plane on its grounds.

equestrians outpaced us soon enough.

little barn structure on lush meadows.

it's such a common sight, the fishing ponds of the vosges mountains.

a very aviator-friendly shed.

also stumbled over this motor-powered relict. it actually looked like it was still in use.

returning to the hostel.

after a nice lunch we ventured out again to visit a flower market that took place next to a small lake. here you could see the blooming broom bushes everywhere, which are widely common in that part of the region.

this is kind of a sad photo with the little bicycle laying in the water and the old boat haphazardly left behind. what makes this picture great again is the dog walking into the scenery :D

ah, that view was quite something...

ending our short france adventure with a picture of the broom blossoms.

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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