crumblingbiscuit

Idiots that we are we, visited a late Roman hill fortification near Zell (Mosel), the Alteburg

It was only 2 km, with half going uphill (duh, hill fort), but it also was 34C

The fort never commanded vistas, it’s off the Moselle overlooking a minor, narrow side valley. Today it is in the middle of a forrest, and if there were no signage you’d pass it by.

But it’s on the way, so to speak, to one of our favourite spots on the bank of the Moselle.

Wooded hill with signage explaining the site and a QR code to load a virtual tour prepared by the University of Trier

Stones, possibly antique

trees, there are a lot of trees

'twas bloody hot

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

Poster: HISTORISCHES RITTERTURNIER ZU DILL MIT LAGER UND MARKT 07-09 JULi 2023

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.

Gauckler juggles with swords

Medieval village church

In a meadow below the village lies the Heerlager

Medieval campground

Knights watching the tourney

Knights tourneying

K2 and I took a day trip to the Freilichtmuseum in Kommen to catch up and take some photos. The museum is grouped into regions within the Rhineland and shows rebuild old houses, farms, workshops, barns, windmills, arranged in village patterns. Niederrhein, Eifel, Westerwald, Mittelrhein, …

It’s a quick drive on the autobahn from Cologne and we managed to be well on the way home before the thunderstorms and heavy rains from the weather warning struck.

Below some of the photos to convey a feel of the museum.

Fachwerk facade (half-timbered)

View of an old farm yard

On some building volunteer reenactors are at hand to explain, here the vegetable garden

View through the gatehouse to the halve timbered farm

Old thatched farm with two Ardenner (cold blooded horses)

View from the garden of a 19th century factory owners house

Food and drink are available at various places, including their traditionally baked breads and cakes. We also saw an exhibition on the history of the Rheinland where you walk through an indoor historama in the form of a Rhenish town from the Napoleonic wars to the reconstruction after WW2. Another exhibition looked at kitchen machinery, ranges and the like, and still another one looked at the history of Bakelite

The last time we were here K2 was maybe, we couldn’t quite figure it out, ten. In any case, it has been a while.

#FreilichtmuseumKommern

A trip to the Hohe Venn, Hautes Fagnes

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).

Eupen city center, blue sky, street cafe with umbrellas in the shade of the evening sun

Another street cafe in Eupen, church in the background

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

Road leading to the Signal de Botrange in the Hautes Fagnes-Eifel / Hohen Venn

View of the fen

Path through the fen

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

10/10, will go again

#HohesVenn #HautesFagnes

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