april '18: assmannshausen.

ah, the upper middle rhine valley, this beautiful, mesmerizing place. it seriously is a region that steals my heart every time, no matter how big the time difference is since i last visited. this region, with it's high cliffs & vineyards, the little historic villages charmingly nestled into the side valleys, the river rhine meandering through its narrow confinements, is purely stunning & satisfying. it is one of those places i can never get tired of, because i always, always find something interesting and it nourishes some part of me that loves dramatic landscapes.

my little walk in late april lead me to assmannshausen, a district of rüdesheim city. it's one of those aforementioned cute villages with breathtaking views on the rhine gorge, and walking around in the vineyards will definitely offer you some wonderful perspectives. visiting in spring is especially nice, because everything is in such a crisp green atmosphere, so full of fresh colours.

it was always a dream of mine to maybe move to this region someday ( in addition to move up north to the sea, lol ). it's definitely a heart location - which means i feel one with it, every fiber of my body just vibrates with joy & love for this stunning landscape... though i know that this region heavily relies on tourism and is flooded with visitors in the spring & summer months, it still doesn't diminish my desire to live here and to daydream about it from time to time.

but see for yourself & then tell me if you would move here, too ;)

view to the back valley, walking along the old vineyard stone walls.

these little plants called stonecrops are very typical for this region, as they love rocky undergrounds & old stone walls, which you can find aplenty in the rhine gorge area. their colours vary from dark green to variations of orange/yellow/red! definitely my kind of plant :)

the habitat of the stonecrops. in the far back you can see the bell tower of the holy cross church.

more vineyard views.

climbing higher & higher up the vineyard mountains. the bare space on the right is a newly installed vineyard.

love finding these shelters for possible bad weather situations.

strange pipe construction. i get that you need pipes to channel the water masses away from the vines in case of floodings, but is there really such a massive need of such a pipe protruding so far into the pathway?

i made my way to a secret enchanted oak forest ❤

and found teeny tiny green critters on some fallen trees. this boy will turn into a winter moth eventually ❤

it's such a jolly little fellow, isn't it?

buttercup splendor!

naked buttercup 😂

i saw a lot of yellow flowers that day. such a sunny disposition! this is cypress spurge.

their 'anatomy' is pretty interesting. the little pollen pistils especially.

bloody crane's-bill.

those woods on each side of the valley get me every time. it almost looks like a jungle landscape!

super nice look-out! looks so romantic ❤

rolling vineyard hills...

hello, wild strawberry blossom! such a delicate thing you are!

another exceptional view onto the vineyards AND the rhine gorge. lovelovelove!

the little village down there is trechtingshausen with its big castle reichenstein.

seems like i was having a big focus on shelters that day, haha.

so inviting!

the outskirts of assmannshausen. here you can see another castle: rheinstein castle. the whole region is scattered with these old palaces and are really contributing to the romantic character of the rhine gorge landscape! i slowly made my way back to the car again, as the sky started to overcast.

stonecrop aesthetics! sooo very good - reds on greys ❤

assmannshausen city core with the holy cross church being the central point of the village. it guards the village since the 14th century!

i really do like these gazebos on the roofs of localities! and with this i bid goodbye to assmannshausen - with the promise to myself that i should return to the region more than just one or two times a year. because, seriously, who would not like landscapes like these?

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 ...

may '20: seeking modernism.

super pink rhododendron buds emerging! i start off this post with some flower images to appreciate and praise the time of spring, especially the month of may, which is the most abundant spring month to me personally. all the blossoms, all the fresh greens amass during may, and my heart and mind are hardly ever able to not frolick & gush about it all! for this post i am returning to one walk i did with the sole purpose to find a special mid-century villa in königstein ( which would ultimately prove to be a failure - i did find it, but i couldn't approach it properly to have a good look at it and only ever saw a tiny bit of the garden/forest side ). the whole walk was not a letdown, though, as i did find some other mid-century & brutalism gems and thoroughly enjoyed walking through the old spa town in the taunus mountains. rhododendron shrubs yield all kinds of different blossoms in myriad colours, they are easy to breed, therefore a wide variety can be found all over the wor...

november: thuringian forest.

the day we visited the thuringian forest near luisenthal we would also receive the death notice of my cousin. while the day in luisenthal was pretty magic - i even found a goat skull to take home for my not so fast growing skull collection - the time we got home and received the phone call of my grandmother, everything went dull. we always had hoped for him to recover - over the course of his sickness there were multiple times we'd thought he was on his way up, but that also counted for the times it was clear that the cancer was severe and probably not defeatable. in the end he fought four years, but he couldn't conquer. his constant optimism & general good will wasn't enough as his body decided to give up on him. i'm still thinking a lot about him, he was such a good natured guy, always seeing the good in everything and everyone. it's so strange to know that he's never going to be on any future family party gathering again. we discussed so many things whe...

ghost of nature.

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