noahs segel (12. 885)

Though we had been to the slopes of the Ellenbogen mountain before and visited the restaurant at the Thüringer Rhönhaus, we never made it to the summit before to see the viewing platform completed in 2017.  

On the way, however, the foggy and overcast weather did not seem so promising until the last couple of kilometres with climbing elevation the skies gloriously opened up. An extinct volcano, it is one of the highest points in the range and on a clear day, one is awarded with vistas of Bavaria, Hesse and Thüringen near the tri-point where the three states touch. On a clear day, from the observation tower—named Noah’s Sail for its information centre about the local flora and fauna and its profile—one can see the Brocken as well as the neighbouring peaks of the Wasserkuppe and the Milseburg. 

Though H didn’t want to join, I took that slide back down and had a nice sunny walk to the top across the massif before descending afterwards back into the fog bank of lower altitudes.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ), animated GIFs from Etienne Jacobs plus a survey of international traffic signs and license plates

thirteen years ago: carnival season 

fourteen years ago: modern geoglyphs plus Kissinger and Clinton 

fifteen years ago: security theatre plus adopt a word

sixteen years ago: a mythical member of the German parliament 

seventeen years ago: keeping it local 

segelfluggelände (12. 873)

After last weekend’s walk up the hill to the model airplane field, we realised we had never shared actual impressions from wandering around the larger landing strip for gliders, small, self-launching motorised planes and ultralight aircraft on the opposite end of town at Büchig. Taking advantage of break in the fog and overcast skies, we made a circuit around the summit. 

The massif affords some really nice views of the surrounding pastures and forest and chain of peaks leading off into the distance, as well as the Lichtenburg, which despite its ruined state still has intact ramparts and high keep (the tallest in the region, but still nearly overtaken by the construction crane working on restoring the bailey) to entice the imagination, particularly at eye-level, with all the elements of a medieval knights’ castle. 

 For mid-November, seeing the fallow fields blooming, with even stunted sunflowers, was a bit off putting. It’s another nice spot to let the dog run free.

riquewihr i (12. 764)

Just a few hundred metres’s stroll from the campgrounds, we crossed the Route des Vins winding through the valleys and explored the ancient village of Riquewihr, preserved in essentially the same state since the sixteenth century. Founded in the 700s as a demesne (Landgut, Dömaine) by a Frankish feudal lord called Richo (Richo’s villa), defensive walls and towers were erected and was granted city- and market-rights in the early fourteenth century, eventually purchased by the dukes of Württemberg across the Rhein.

Charming and picturesque with its half-timbered architecture and cobblestone streets, it is a bit over-touristed—like some other places we’ve made return trips to lately, but not overwhelmingly so, with the day-trippers still secondary to the economic activity of viniculture. We took a break from the crowds and hiked in the vineyards on the foothills of the Vosges for a nice overview, having not planned our vacation with the starting of the Riesling harvest.

synchronoptica

one year ago: ranking the gods (with synchronopticæ), Chilean Antarctica plus more brief papacies

fourteen years ago: proprietary geographic protections, illustrating Tarantino plus if the service is free then you are the product

fifteen years ago: more dragnet surveillance from the US plus a trip to Prague

sixteen years ago: an antiquated, nasty habit 

10x10 (12. 746)

the dominator model continues to run the world: Lydia Lunch’s timeless feminist manifesto 

jut: a new way to measure the magnitude and magnificence of mountains—via Metafilter  

and i’m floating in the most peculiar way: a cover of Major Tom by Magdalena Bay—via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links  

bequest: an assortment of old customs and curious donations and charities 

red noise: the French musical underground’s decade of synths and situationists—via { feuilleton }  

𒀾: writing lessons in Cuneiform  

being of sound minds and body: collection of captivating wills and last testaments—via Strange Company  

you’ve really made the grade: a scroll through the archives of David Bowie  

pathfinder: a look into the inner-workings of Google Maps  

me and bobbie mckee: the forgotten inspiration for the gender-swapping ballad of Kris Kristofferson and Janis Joplin—see previously

synchronoptica

one year ago: Weird Al parodies Bob Dylan with palindromes (with synchronopticæ) plus more gerrymandering

twelve years ago: a possible clue to hidden Nazi loot hidden on sheet music 

fourteen years ago: the Pope comes home to Germany 

fifteen years ago: GMO salmon 

seenlandschaft (12. 649)

Taking advantage of the forest’s shade for a hot, muggy day, we explored more of the trails along the shores of the Müritz—second only to Lake Constance (der Bodensee) in size and the largest body of water entirely within German borders.

The basin (Seenplatte) with several large bays and inlets kept to paths that did not extend past the tree line in order to preserve the relatively intact ecological history of Europe through the last glacial period, the Ice Age that ended about eleven thousand years ago, with primeval beech and pine woods but afforded observation platforms to look out on to the water.

The landscape that extends to Neustrelitz in the south east in made up of moraines, lowlands—including marshes and meadows—and sandur (Sander, from the Icelandic), the outwash of rocks pulverised to sand by the advance and retreat of glaciers that supports the dense forest, and contains about a hundred lesser lakes. The city of Müritz has two sizeable urban bodies of water and we walked through the spa disctrict (Kurviertel) through the Kurwald—an early realisation of the benefits of forest bathing—to take a look at the Feisneck- and Tiefwarensee.

synchronoptica

one year ago: liquid water discovered on Mars (with synchronopticæ) plus a maximal truth-seeking AI

thirteen years ago: WWII week: Pennemünde plus a chance lilly in a glass   

best picture ever (12. 631)

Witnessed on this day in 1990 by two unidentified hikers in the moors above Calvine in Perthshire, the pair later told their account of their encounter with a diamond-shaped craft hovering silently with Glasgow tabloid Daily Record, handing over their prints and negatives to the newspaper. The story was never published and the tabloid handed over the photographic evidence to the Ministry of Defence. Despite or perhaps because of the paucity of substantiating documentation or corroboration, rumours and speculation persisted over the years, teased by a partial acknowledgment on the part of the MOD, claiming to have lost the pictures that piqued researchers’ curiosity even more. One of the six lost photographs was discovered in archives in 2022 and published by the Daily Mail, close to the anniversary of the reported sighting. With an veneer of authenticity suggested by the ministry as undoctored and witnessed two days after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Calvine UFO has undergone various interpretations as proof of the semi-legendary Aurora reconnaissance jet, a secret black project supposedly launched by the US Air Force with stealth technology, and the subject, exhibit of a more recent American congressional effort to expose government knowledge about UAPs. 

  synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump belittles Harris (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to enjoy

thirteen years ago: more Irish sheep counting plus more flea market finds

fourteen years ago: a return trip to Dresden 

fifteen years ago: a bus that towers over city traffic 

le chemin du cadoudal (12. 556)

We went to the inland sea by the village of Locoal-Mendon to take a walk around a wooded spit of land reaching out into the estuary and landscape of oyster-culture.

The once secret path to the settlement of La Foret for smuggling out members of the clergy aligned with Royalists and counter-revolutionaries during the Terror that followed the founding of the First Republic as they had refuge until they could escape by boat was established by Georges Cadoudal (Jorj Kadoudal) to compliment their hidden base of operations.

Not a nom de guerre but rather a case of nominative determinism, the surname means in Breton “warrior returned from the fight” and was honoured as a mashal of France during the Bourbon restoration, the headquarters preserved in its grove and business of farming off shore continuing. The trail was lined with a collection of remarkable trees, gnarly and stunted from the salty winds.

côte sauvage (12. 551)

Continuing south to the peninsula of Quiberon (Kiberen) just beyond the narrow isthmus (technically a spit of land called a tombolo as the island is joined to the mainland by a built up sandbar and not a strait proper, the link only dating to the eleventh century when deforestation unleashed the deposits) at Fort Penthièvre, a French military training base that was captured by Nazi German as an extreme reach of the Atlantic Wall, taking a trail that led through a nature reserve (the vegetation ruined by over tourism with arrival of the train to the resort town on the southern most tip)along a windswept rocky coast direct on the ocean, beach attractions rare due to its rough waves and untamed landscape.

hohenwartetalsperre iv (12. 500)

We took a short drive to look at the Hohenwarte dam wall (Staumauer, see previously) and took a nice long walk with the dogs down a trail through an enchanted forest (there were a lot activities set up for kids hidden amongst the trees, like our own Zwergweg) and across the basis by a former cardboard factory. We could see the Pumpspecicherwerk (pumped hydroelectric energy storage plant in the far distance, a gravitational sink that is a source of potential energy, channelling water uphill to a higher holding basis during off-peak hours and releasing it during higher periods of demand to generate electricity in the turbines.

Such a plant also allows excess energy from intermittent sources—like solar and wind—to be saved. The lake and surrounding area were full of recreational opportunities, more wandering and cruises over the length and breath of reservoir.