crumblingbiscuit

Saturday trip

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.

Medieval fair, sunny day

Live music on stage, German bagpipes, lute, harp, Schlüsselfiedel

Pork products and some (vegan) veggies for lunch

Medieval tand, does it need to be busier

Washer women

#spectaculum #MedievalFair

Some thoughts on the Schwebebahn

#Schwebebahn

Wikipedia

In no particular order.

Clearly parking cars are not an issue. Punctuality is mostly self inflicted, as the tracks can’t be blocked.

A takt of 2 - 4 minutes makes a timetable irrelevant. Assuming this train noonish on a Saturday is typical and not full of tourists, adoption seems good.

Schwebebahn tracks in Vohwinkel

Vohwinkel station, Schwebebahn making the turn

Of course the trains tilt a bit in the curves, quite good for 1901.

Choosing the course of the river for the tracks must have simplified obtaining right of way immensely. It was also the perfect way to join towns whose only communality was being situated on the river into one city, even though that only came in 1929.

Schwebebahn entering Oberbarmen depot

Interesting how shopping has changed at the two ends of the line, especially the Oberbarmen side. Fruit&veg, ethnic supermarkets, Döner shops, barbers, low end mobile phone repair.

The fashionable shopping has contracted into the middle with the pedestrian zone and to the internet.

The Schwebebahn highlights the development because it is the main axis.

Schwebebahn, on some more modern track Station Adlerbrücke

Inside Adlerbrücke Station

Engelshaus, now a museum, then the offices of Friedrich Engels father

Overall a nice day out. Would recommend.

On our travel - Lüneburg Heath

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.

View of the town hall St Nicolai, seen through an alley View of the St Michaelis close, here was the school Johann Sebastian Bach attended Crooked alley with medieval houses Magnificent stepped gables on a tiled facade

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 Kalkberg, view of the ancient quary 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 Rainbow behind beech trees .

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.

Wind bowed pines on heath View over the heath with some rare sun Heath and trees Moss covered beech Bikes enjoying a rest