Posted January 4, 200718 yr Well I will be in Germany for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully my busy schedule will allow me to explore the beautiful cities of this country. Here is the view out my hotel window:
January 5, 200718 yr ^ cant tell the city, but based on the sign, which says, I think, Zur Pfalz, he is somewhere in or near the Palatinate. The place with the sign is probably a neighborhood tavern or cafe. Pretty typical streetscape. Lots of white EIFIS or EIFS color coating/stucco and tile roofs. On the far left, leading to the row of garages, one can see a "jagerzaun", or hunters fence. Sort of a rustic fencing style that is being used in towns too, now. The XXXX pattern also resemebles a clothing size, so there is a local slang use of the word jagerzaun to mean "triple-x" size in T shirts and so forth.
January 5, 200718 yr Gee, with the hillside housing, it looks a bit like Cincinnati. But of course there's no other links between Germany and Cincinnati... :wink: "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
January 6, 200718 yr Here are some of a town we went to for lunch yesterday. I made some post processing modifications to include shadow & highlight adjustments. Did I go overboard?
January 7, 200718 yr Yeah, I guess it's necessary in the absence of curbs. By the way, I freaking LOVE European streets. That intimate scale slays me. The first time I was on a Polish highway it felt like I was doing 70MPH in someone's driveaway.
January 7, 200718 yr And for tying up horses! :weird: Seriously though, those are wonderful streetscapes! I'm surprised there weren't more people out strolling. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
January 7, 200718 yr Out of curiosity what do you do that allows you to travel to such awesome places?! I love how this town is designed.
January 7, 200718 yr Nice! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
January 7, 200718 yr What's with Europe and bollards? It is a pedestrian safety element. If you notice, in most areas there is some sort of barrier between pedestrians and vehicular traffic. If there is on street parking, then bollards are not neccessary, but no parking makes bollards neccessary to ensure pedestrian safety along streets.
January 8, 200718 yr I don't want to go home. I am currently in Munchen (Munich) and spent the morning at "Schloss Neuschwanstein". What an amazing country. I will try and post some photos later.
January 8, 200718 yr Here are some new ones from today. Schloss Neuschwanstein is located in the Bavarian Alps about an hour south of Munchen. It was the castle that Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disney Land was modeled after. We arrived in Munchen after dark so I decided not to bring my camera. We took the underground from our hotel to Hofbrahaus and spend the evening there. We will have about 4 hours to spend in the center city before we have a 4 hour drive to rush back to our work location for a late night of working mid shift.
January 9, 200718 yr Beautiful. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
January 9, 200718 yr ^ Notice the lack of snow? It is so weird being in the Alps this time of year and not seeing much snow.
January 9, 200718 yr Well I am off to explore the city, sadly it is raining out which appears to be typical for Munchen in the winter. The more and more I spend time in Germany the more I see why the people were attracted with Ohio. They both appear to have very similar climates and topography at least in SW Ohio. Here is the view from my hotel window:
January 9, 200718 yr i am digging this 'real time' vacation stuff. wow. great urbanity. this what cities large and small should be like. nice castle too -- funny you have the alps, i just finished reading this old mountain climbing book that is all about climbing the matterhorn in the 1800's (the author is guido rey). the old days of mountaineering were crazy. where's the snow?
January 10, 200718 yr Bavaria and Munchen were amazing, it was such a tease to spend less than 24 hours in Munchen. It exceeded my expectations and it currently my favorite city in Germany. I am back in the state of Rhineland and might get another chance to explore this coming weekend. O, yeah... I saw the news about the new Apple products today. I know what I will be buying when I get home. Here is a sample of Munchen in the rain today:
January 10, 200718 yr They both appear to have very similar climates and topography at least in SW Ohio. The summers in Germany are cooler and not as hot/humid, and are also rainier than the US. That is one of the big climate differences. The little brown castle next to Neuschwanstein is Hohenschwangau, which is a bit earlier than the big white caste. Neuschwanstein was modelled after medieval imperial castles of the Holy Roman Empire, like the Wartburg or the castle overlooking Nuremberg. Note that these are large long buildings built on ridges or spurs, accented by a keep or watchtower. Neuschwantstein is a humongous fantasy version of this type of German castle.
January 10, 200718 yr Here are some new ones from today. Schloss Neuschwanstein is located in the Bavarian Alps about an hour south of Munchen. It was the castle that Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disney Land was modeled after. Schloss Neuschwanstein, along with its creator, "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria, was also a huge inspiration to the Situationist International. Someday I'll start a thread on The Situationist City, unless someone beats me to it... Trivia, auf Wiki: The interior of Neuschwanstein is copyrighted and taking photographs of the interior is strictly forbidden.
January 10, 200718 yr Yes Kingfish, I was forbidden to take photos of the interior. Quimbob, Germany is the cleanest country I have ever visited. Everything is very clean, even their construction sites are neatly organized while work is being done. Everything is old but clean and organized. You can see many of the residents in the town I am staying at sweeping their stoop every morning. It is amazing to see cities like Munchen where sprawl is limited. The city has over 1 million people in it but you go from dense urban living to farmland in no time.
January 10, 200718 yr Quimbob, Germany is the cleanest country I have ever visited. Everything is very clean, even their construction sites are neatly organized while work is being done. Everything is old but clean and organized. You can see many of the residents in the town I am staying at sweeping their stoop every morning. When it come to cleanliness, those Germans are total nazis.
January 10, 200718 yr Here is some more interesting stuff on Munich. This church is the Frauen Kirche (The Church of Our Lady). It's right down the street from the Rathaus (City Hall). You can climb to the top of the spires for awesome views of downtown Munich, but you have to trek up a long narrow spiral staircase. I can just see someone tripping and taking down everyone in his path on the way to the bottom. The entire area surrounding the buildings in monte's post was completely destroyed during the allied bombings in WWII. These buildings including the Rathaus and Frauen Kirche were rebuilt to look almost exactly like they did before the war. The only parts left of the Frauen Kirche where a portion of the towers and parts of the exterior walls. If you go inside, you will notice that the stained glass only goes half way up the windows, the top half is regular clear glass. This is because they ran low on funds during rebuilding, and decided to put in the stained glass that was done and do the rest later. This is the glockenspiel on the Alt Rathaus (old City Hall), actually rebuilt after the new city hall. Directly under this is an archway that leads to a courtyard in the center of the building. Halfway through, carved in stone on the wall, are the seals of all of Munich's sister cities, including Cincinnati.
January 10, 200718 yr Often times public open spaces are the most difficult things to plan and incorporate successfully into a city. Europe does this and then some, like no other place on Earth!!! The public public spaces you photographed are trully wonderful looking and appear to be exceptionally functional! On top of all of that, I'll echo the previous comments, the spaces are extremely clean!! Thx for the pics, monte...and what kind of job do you have again/where can I apply??
January 10, 200718 yr wow, could we love the setup of munich anymore? amazing. and in the rain too -- utterly charming. monte i noticed this japanese izakaya joint on the left. if you want a break from german food try it. izakayas are like japanese style taverns or pubs. they have tapas food & sake(rice wine)/sochu(shots!) along w/beer. it would be interesting to try it in germany. keep up the pics!
January 11, 200718 yr I love the comments and history lessons, keep them coming. mrnyc, I would love to try that restaurant and spend more time in Munchen, but I am currently 4 hours northwest of Munchen and back to work. The city was amazing and I hope to go back one day. If I get a break again, I will probably get to Koln (Cologne) since it is only two hours north of my location. Here is a summary on Koln: Köln is Germany's fourth-largest city after Berlin, Hamburg and Munchen, and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than 12 million inhabitants. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by the Romans in the year 30 b.c. Cologne was granted the status of a Roman "city" in the year 50. Here is a photo of Koln in 1945: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Koeln_1945.jpg Here is a few more of Munchen that I took the other day: Note to Fountain Square officials, notice it doesn't take trees to make a square. All the great squares of the world have no trees.
January 13, 200718 yr For a really sad view of Germany, check out the movie, Triumph of the Will. It was a Nazi propoganda movie made in 1935 that showcased beautiful young German people in their beautiful country & cities. The photography is great. It is heartbreaking knowing that Hitler pissed it all away in the years to come.
January 13, 200718 yr Those are some of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen. I hope you are enjoying your trip. :-) :clap:
January 16, 200718 yr I don't want to leave Germany, it is truly a beautiful country. I made it up to Köln on the only day in the last two weeks where the sun came out. Here are some of the photos from my latest gallery:
January 16, 200718 yr MAN!!!! Absolutely wonderful pics!!!! I also can't believe some of the people shots that you go out and get...very ballsy.
January 16, 200718 yr Deutschland ist sehr schön! Und der Dom in Köln is überraschen. Mein lieblings stadt ist München; obwohl ich nie dort gewesen bin! :-D
January 17, 200718 yr Reminds me of Spain; the beautiful bustling plazas, streets lined with shops and restaurants that are topped with residential, just about everything you need is within walking distance. It's so funny when you think about it, several American cities act like there is no vibrant city that exists to learn from. Just look at our suburban mall downtown, is there some sort of coincidence where city leaders have never ever visited anywhere outside of their respective cities? We have plenty of large parking lots, if only someone would turn one into a plaza surrounded by high density mixed use developments.
January 17, 200718 yr Zufällige deutsche Quittungsplauderei :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: *translation = random german chit chat*
January 17, 200718 yr Danke für die Komplimente. Er hat gewesen ein Vergnügen, das Deutschland bereist.
January 17, 200718 yr Danke für die Komplimente. Er hat gewesen ein Vergnügen, das Deutschland bereist. Bitte bitte.
January 17, 200718 yr I just want you to know that the German beer over here f*cking rules. Damn I feel good... Well I am heading back to the US tomorrow morning. :( You are all sheizer köpfe
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