Location: Dill
Height: 354,8
Coordinates: 49,91 - 7,35

Dill is a small village in the south-eastern corner of the Hunsrück. It sits below a castle and huddles on one side of the castle hill.

Friends are part of the organising committee (as seems half the village), so, off we went into the wild (such as it is).

The market is on two, closed off, roads. The stalls huddle between the houses to leave the road (narrow) for emergency access.

In a meadow below the village lies the Heerlager

Hautes Fagnes

As ever the Hohe Venn is a cool trip, easy and fast to reach from Cologne.

This time we were staying in Eupen. Which, apart from being a very nice town, is also a bit of a surreal experience. The architecture is an odd mix of the Wallonian with Gründerzeit. Culturally Rhenian / Wallonian, there is eg Karneval, signage is German/French, beers are Belgian and German. The language comfortingly Ripuarian (or, of course, many (most) are also comfortable in French).

We spent three days, with short lazy hikes starting at the Signal de Botrange, Mont Rigi and Baraque Michel

Passed through Monschau on the way back. Monschau had been our quarters on previous trips.

10/10, will go again

#HohesVenn #HautesFagnes

The months of May/June bring a pleasingly high concentration of public holidays. We are starting the long Pfingstwochenende with a visit to Spectaculum

I’ve been there a few times since I started working in Boppard. Kids loved it. Shot some nice photos.

Nowadays, of course, they’re to grownup (23 & 26)

So the parents are going alone.

Just looked at some of the pictures from the last visit, it was more than a decade ago

This year seems a lot less lively, but it is the first one since 2018. Fewer stands, fewer participants, fewer visitors. But still good.

#spectaculum #MedievalFair

Easter Monday we set out on a trip to Lüneburg Heath, that was supposed to be four days of cycling. That though, is not what happened.

Two days of rain

Our trip started with two days of rain, interrupted by hail, and, much more rarely, a little sunshine. Plans were changed and adapted and we started with two days of Lüneburg.

Thanks to going basically broke at the right time the city is very well preserved with most of the medieval buildings intact.

The first day was spent exploring the city and dodging hail. Following a meandering course around the city and taking in some great examples of Backstein Gothik. The second day was spent in the Deutsche Salzmuseum and the Museum Lüneburg.

Apart from being a major trading centre for salt, Lüneburg sits on quite a lot of salt, the city also queried and exported gypsum. The Kalkberg is said to have been 10 times larger originally and was quarried for almost 1000 years.

The evening of the second day closed with a well deserved rainbow .

Two days without rain

Two good trips across the heath, one starting in Bispingen and climbing the Wilseder Berg. The heath is interrupted by a lot of pine and beech forrests. The ideal time to visit is apparently August, when the heath is in bloom. But even without the bloom there are some magnificent views.

Butterflies

#schmetterlinge #papillon #farfalla #butterfly

Pictures from a visit in the Eifalia Schmetterlingsgarten a few years back. Worth a visit.

shiny

Couch upgraded with my daughter. Pipe insulation, T-profile, wooden shelve. Home engineering. 📷 #mbmar

micro.blog/challenge…

I needed (read that as wanted) to make a lot of pancakes, I also wanted to use some buckwheat in the recipe

This is what I came up with after some research in my notes and the internet

350 g wheat flour (450) 150 g buckwheat flour 1 l of milk (3,5% fat) 8 medium eggs

The batter was rested for about 2 hours before baking

Worked and tested great

#Pancake #Recipe

#AppleSilicon

I found myself a bit confused about the reviews of the newest Apple computers.

As Apple had released various upgrades from M1 to M2 the reviews in terms of computers of course had a lot of redundancy.

OTOH the machines themselves varied mainly in body and screen size.

Here is an overview of what’s on offer on the Apple website today

I named the chips Mx… because I think this will hold true through some iterations, and that the rest of the M1’s will eventually upgrade to the M2, perhaps when the M2’s will be replaced with M3’s.

In the future it will perhaps make sense to discuss the product offering by chip.

Mx

• 2 iPads
• 2 Laptops
• 2 Desktops

Mx Pro

• 2 Laptops
• 1 Desktop

Mx Max

• 2 Laptops
• 1 Desktop

Mx Ultra

• 1 Desktop

And eventually the Mx Whatever for the Mac Pro

Due to weather we went to #Sluis. Too much rain for kites.

#travel #photo