Going to the next village from home, Hermannsfeld, we saw a little airshow in the fields that was a reunion of sorts for a certain model of biplanes from all over Germany, the sports-craft built from kits (every one unique) and named Kiebitze after the lapwing (peewit, Vanellus vanellus) as the wings are designed to fold up, like the birds, for easy transportation and can be towed by a car. We got to see quite a few take-offs and landings and some aerial acrobatics.
Saturday 13 July 2024
Tuesday 18 June 2024
kyffhรคuserdenkmal (11. 637)
The foundations of the imperial castle from the first millennium and associated with the reign of Frederick I Barbarossa are well preserved, such as the keep and a well that is the deepest from the Middle Ages. Heralded after his death, the Kaiser was seen as his political and culturally unifying descendant and inheritor of the Barbarossa legend, the trope of the sleeping king, king under the mountain (Bergentrรผcken—including lore about King David, Arthur and Charlemagne), that Frederick with a retinue of knights is not dead but half in slumber in a secluded cavern in the massif and will return again—occasionally dispatching a scout outside to check to see if ravens are still roosting, their absence being a sign that he is needed.
During DDR times, Communist residents in the area wanted to blow up this bombastic reminder of the country’s past but its destruction was stopped by Soviet authorities, admonishing them it was time for Germans to live with their history and statues.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฐ, Middle Ages, Thรผringen, ⓦ
Sunday 26 May 2024
schutzzieles schutzwรคlder (11. 583)
Traveling a bit further on towards Suhl, we came to a crossroads of many trails through the Thรผringer Wald but with an an embarrassment of choices but finite time could only pursue hiking a segment instead of the proper loop that was nearly thirty kilometers to see all the highlights and returning to the campsite, we picked a peak in the Rennsteig and walked to Adlersberg through the protected landscape, sensibly managed since 1937 after exploitation dating from the Middle Ages.
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting
two years ago: more links to enjoy
three years ago: your daily demon: Leraje, Johnny Mnemonic, the murder of George Floyd one year on, an educational short, more links to revisit plus a precursor to NFTs
four years ago: Dracula (1897) plus a cursed alignment chart
five years ago: Sweden traffic switches orientation, the EU votes plus a trip to Saxony’s Elbsandsteingebirge
Saturday 25 May 2024
fairytale jungle trail (11. 582)
For another long-weekend getaway, H and I traveled an hour northeast back to the Thรผringerwald nature reserve and found a campsite in Breitenbach along the Vesser river valley and southwest entrance to the park, with a lot of paths for wandering in the forest.
one year ago: assorted links to revisit
two years ago: Ciao! Manhattan, Return of the Jedi (1983) plus investigating Partygate
three years ago: HMS Pinafore, synchronisation plus Bosch with emoji
four years ago: Toki Pona, a delightfully translated menu, the Interregnum plus artist Nikolas Knรผpfer
five years ago: Towel Day
catagories: ๐ณ, ๐️, ๐ง, Thรผringen
Monday 15 April 2024
das rennsteiglied (11. 489)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYzu8w6jZMcm6jFmeg6mp1YTImAXFCSK5OBS9x6nIVqu7pgJqNXzq9LxoVbljBFfUhwJp0skTdbwhLHaPqQW0AKUOuXWk089m579a6Mhc7bmRD99NXPLc8VQ7xb5H_PjH46OvCiYV6flPNK_wtwS_ZyeeQlzl650ZcBSHDfTx4Y_8aRTt5giERrtXFX0Q/w133-h200/Herbert-Roth-Thueringer-Wald.jpg)
The refrain goes: “I often walk this path to the Hรถhn (apparently a picturesque high hill with the ruins of Fischberg castle on top that we will make it a priority to see) , the little song birds singing / If I am far away, Thuringer Forest, I only long for you!”
synchronoptica
one year ago: Samuel Johnson’s dictionary (1755), General Dynamics’ playing cards plus assorted links to revisit
two years ago: more links to enjoy, the Universal Day of Culture plus AI Easter eggs
three years ago: your daily demon: Valefor, more Star Fleet uniforms plus Canada’s Olympics closing ceremony costumes
four years ago: a North Korean holiday plus a prescient comic from 1990
five years ago: more on the cannibalisation of the Old Web plus the art collective messy modernism
catagories: ๐ณ, ๐ถ, ๐️, Rhรถn, Thรผringen
Sunday 17 March 2024
wรผstungsperioden (11. 432)
Travelling a few villages over towards the former border, driving past some abandoned settlements, vacated owing to they’re being a liability too close to the boundary, we took another nice hike with the dog up to the ruins of Hutsburg on the summit of the Hutsberg, which also was a victim of its formerly strategic location and shifting allegiances.
On the way back, we stopped in Filke to revisit the so called Mauerschรคdel, another ruined remains, this time of early abandonment and then rendered inaccessible, like the above stronghold, during DDR times and its nave acting as the line of demarcation.
catagories: ๐ณ, ๐ฐ, Bavaria, Rhรถn, Thรผringen
Saturday 21 October 2023
das land der ein tausend teiche (11. 069)
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit, Livre de Thot plus a feline opera
two years ago: St Ursula, the first Vikings in North America plus more vocabulary building
three years ago: the origins of Op-Ed, the Dutch art of doing nothing, NYC’s digital subway map, app, the sentล culture of Japan, the Royal Meteorological Society’s PoTY plus coppicing and pollarding
four years ago: IKEA tarot
five years ago: artist Barbara Kruger plus leaf-peeping in the Rhรถn
catagories: ๐️, ๐ง, Thรผringen
Sunday 13 August 2023
sunday drive: talsperre lรผtsche (10. 941)
On the way back from some window-shopping, we took a detour through the Geratal to Frankenhain for a stroll around the second biggest artificial lake in the region (previously).
Dammed in 1935 by the Deutschen Reichsbahn in order to provide a source of water for stations in Erfurt and Arnstadt, by the time the reservoir (Stausee) was completed steam-powered locomotion was being superseded and it was converted to hydropower—and today the same supply-system to cool data centres in Neudietendorf and for brewery operations connected to the train stations that have repurposed the cisterns. The tributary rivers have their source near the winter sports destination Oberhof, whose ancient volcanic composition of quartz porphyry were also the quarry for the retaining walls. Used primarily for recreational activities currently, it was certainly a nice walk down to the beach and good to visit the area again.
catagories: ๐ป, ๐ง, ๐, Thรผringen