Date(s): 2015, 2014. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 63 of 63 Total. 558 Visits.
1 Burg Landeck This tongue-in-cheek guide board informs the esteemed visitor of the average, Newton correct impact time of wayward toddlers falling from various castle parts (cistern covers etc). One way to convey common sense.
2 Burg Landeck Yes, I know, compromised outline. But firstly, I am no Ingres and secondly, I simply do not know how to correct that now.
3 Burg Landeck 'Hardtack' to gnash your teeth out. But seriously, why waste cast iron for bombardment with mortars when the stone simulacrum of a canon ball will likewise do. There will be a crash as long as the projectile is ponderous enough. You can even go one step further and shoot something out of a solidly made stone socket. Also tried. (The picture shows a fragmented mortar projectile. The spherical shape indicates that it was actually shot by a canon. Catapult ammo, any shape will do.)
4 Burg Landeck I will never again use Einstein's name in vain.
5 Burg Landeck Training simulator for flights with discount airlines. The less legroom the more realistic. Hänsel and Gretel comment, it is always good when you know the higher purpose of your ordeal.
6 Burg Landeck Spolia wall (the corresponding kitchen term is Mulligan stew, the more variegated the added leftovers the better).
7 Castle Berwartstein Some 19th century restoration but still the only reasonably preserved castle of the whole region. Guided tours are offered.
8 Castle Berwartstein Treeline with hovering control tower (or whatever the castle correct term).
9 Castle Berwartstein, frescoes, castle chapel A reasonably well drawn crusader posse. Spiritual guidance canters in front.
10 Castle Berwartstein, frescoes, castle chapel I could draw better horses when I was five. Unknown plot line. One knight wields an assaying tool, the other a sword. A winged imp does the hoooo...hoooooo honors. An early version of Halloween, who knows.
11 Castle Berwartstein Grape hyazinthe. It is spring.
12 Castle Berwartstein Blooming sloe. The shrub is dense enough to easily conceal a medium sized camper.
13 Castle Ruin Altdahn Castle yard with reconstructed treadmill crane.
14 Castle Ruin Altdahn flared loophole, better suited for maskets than for crossbows.
15 Castle Ruin Altdahn Lacerta vivipara, the rock climbing lizard.
16 Castle Ruin Drachenfels Rest area with Easter correct parament.
17 Castle Ruin Drachenfels If it looks like a little used cemetery.
18 Castle Ruin Drachenfels The tombstone color may be the result of frequent blood sacrifices
19 Castle Ruin Drachenfels
20 Castle Ruin Drachenfels The more somber corner, black and white tombstones only.
21 Castle Ruin Drachenfels Tentative disentanglement of the formalistic five letter blessing: the breath of life, bonded by the bonds [of flesh] no more, let it be bonded [to the flow of time]. Edwin Stanton may once have uttered something similar. At the limit, resurrection in the spirit.
22 Castle Ruin Drachenfels In the crosshairs.
Deep history (medium deep): Everyone knows about punctuated history and K-T events. The concept can be transferred, with some reservations, to abbeys and castles. A first wave of destruction (castle extinction) was the result of the ongoing warfare between free cities and territorial dukes (and their sidekicks, pesky robber barons), particularly after the fall of the Staufer (absence of a strong central power). Local climax, the Battle of Döffingen 1388 (league of free towns against regional dukes). Incidentally, the outcome of the former was probably more important than the skirmish on Lake Peipus, whatever Eisenstein tries to makes out of it, 10.000 war chariots swallowed by the frigid waters of lake Peipus, selfsame pattern though; (historic record: 13 dead knights and two scores of dead camp-followers, pincushioned by a volley of arrows fired from introduced composite bows). Self fulfilling prophesies are a different kind of propositions (to skirt less kin...
23 Castle Ruin Drachenfels Rock walls bare of scaffolding. The only thing remaining are the plug holes. Possible reconstruction, start with wobbly. Then add additional layers of scaffolding.
24 Castle Ruin Drachenfels The eponymous dragon (it could also be a badly drawn lizard).
25 Castle Ruin Drachenfels The castle rock is honeycombed with caves. The world as seen from the inside of a piece of Swiss Cheese.
26 Castle Ruin Drachenfels View from the Drachenstein to tripartite Altdahn, the castle ruin next door.
27 Castle Ruin Drachenfels Don't shake the tree. (Choice location for a terminal of a Wasgau sky-train.)
28 Castle Ruin Drachenfels The irresistible graffiti challenge. For the less sportively inclined, a gimcrack mix of non-planar fault surfaces. In plain vertigo language, a toboggan is waiting on top of every inclined plane. One feather touch and it will slide.
29 Castle Ruin Drachenfels I am reasonably familiar with raised deer blinds. The prop up holes for this particular deer stand, in the middle of the sheer rock face, still make me shudder.
30 Castle Ruin Drachenfels The jacuzzi on top of the exclamation mark. (There is at least one other cistern in one of the chambers of the honeycombed rock.)
31 Castle Ruin Guttenberg did it rain recently
32 Castle Ruin Guttenberg The ascent
33 Castle Ruin Guttenberg Common broom
34 Castle Ruin Guttenberg Somebody forgot to drop the portcullis. Sloppy soldiering wherever you look.
35 Castle Ruin Guttenberg Plenty of vacant mountain tops.
36 Castle Ruin Guttenberg The ghost of 'lean-tos'. Can only rethink my remarks on the wisdom of split roof trusses (Dörrenbach fortress church).
37 Castle Ruin Guttenberg Gray sky with gnarly tree.
38 Castle Ruin Guttenberg More Wasgau forest.
39 Castle Ruin Guttenberg Slide in groove for the gate bar.
40 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn Confucius: Every journey upwards starts with a parking lot.
41 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn Sliced limestone caves, very tiny ones, on a microscopic slide.
42 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn Ribbons of Brussels lace
43 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn Where is the tennis court.
44 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn the empty stage
45 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn A railroad compartment of your own. Next station, midsummer.
46 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn various shades of green
47 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn
48 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn By location the open hearth in the great hall (Pallas) but there is no flue and no soot. A pair of rusty andirons would clinch it.
49 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn Bugle (Ajuga reptans or Ajuga pyramidalis)
50 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn A spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopus medius), one of those more transient castle exhibits.
51 Castle Ruin Lindelbrunn the nearly credible tilt
52 Dahner Felsland In questionable taste, there are rock climbers and rock climbers. Hauff on misused pitons. Factual, the scaling of sheer rock faces is as popular as ever. What is vertigo. As for heads rising from the void, no established rules of military courtesy. Something along the line: request permission to board this viewing platform. The rappelling down rope can be anchored to the railing. The, let's go over the rim part can be fairly spooky if witness it the first time. The colorful wedging devices are probably no longer true pitons. Some kinship with the grip hands of scissor cranes. First impression, a trout fisherman and his kit of flying tackle.
The extended sharpness range, from mountain ash to rock summit, is the result of some bi-focal stitching.
53 Dahner Felsland
54 Dahner Felsland
55 Dahner Felsland Jungfernsprung, the local version of the Tarpeian rock. Slightly modified legend - you do not need any traitors (traiteresses) if you can come up with parachute savvy virgins. Mars version, saved by inflated shopping bags.
56 Dahner Felsland Jungfernspurng, close up
57 Dahner Felsland Dahn, the old village
58 Dahner Felsland main street, pub and St.Laurentius church
59 Dahner Felsland St. Laurentius, the onion dome.
60 Dahner Felsland White house at the edge of the forest.
61 Dahner Felsland Common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris). It is either snapdragon or toadflax.
62 Dahner Felsland Viviparous lizard. And some former dragons have switched to a diet of ants (winged and unwinged).
63 Dahner Felsland Rooftop silhouettes. Onion-domed baroque church, Laurentius church (Lutheran: church with 'introduced hood'), a crocketed pinnacle and a superceded Yagi antenna.
