Date(s): 2005 (update 2010). Photos by aymar55@yahoo.com. 1 - 75 of 75 Total. 3718 Visits.
1 Besigheim, Hochwachtturm early morning Enztal approach
2 Besigheim Enztal approach, base rosette of mullein
3 Besigheim, Hochwachtturm Besigheim, the high place at the confluence of Enz and Neckar. Local adoptation of the 'from pillar to post' saying: from Hochwachtturm to Waldhornturm. The historic center is strung out between those two towers.
The nearby Hessigheim is a sister town of sorts. Main difference, Besigheim has all the shopping malls. The formerly inundation prone river banks on the Neckar side did come in handy. As for Hessigheim, the best you will find is a shop for rent notice. Hessigheim still has the rock garden (actually a cliff.) The rock spur on which the old Besigheim was built possibly an extension of the latter.
4 Besigheim, Hochwachtturm The bay toilet is clearly visible. Double duty affaire I presume. And what good will it do if you pour boiling oil into an ordinary toilet bowel.
Tocsin and grain elevator will be located at the townward side. Makes sense.
5 Besigheim, Hochwachtturm Split-leveled roof gables. Timeline: Watch towers are either circled by black crows or by firered double decker planes.
6 Besigheim, Hochwachtturm tocsin side
7 Besigheim old house near Hochwachtturm. Somewhat sceptical in regard to the 13th century date. You do not survive that many fires unscathed.
8 Besigheim old house
9 Besigheim mainstreet towards Waldhornturm
10 Besigheim Kirchstrasse near market square
11 Besigheim Kirchstrasse. The vineyard shed which looks like a grandfather clock is also in the bridge picture.
12 Besigheim There are cuckoo clocks and there are Neidköpfe. The one come with little birds and the others with party blowpipes.
13 Waldhornturm Waldhornturm with viewing platform. To forestall any false expectations, did miss the visiting hours. There will still be enough other opportunities for getting short-winded. Most also confess complete ignorance in regard to the tower name. Roland was Pyrenees. Only good tower anecdote I can remember offhand is the one with all the fat butchers running away from the mouse and thereby causing a tilt. The leaning Pisa tower in question is located in the Rhine valley. Probably built on finest Rhine sand. No longer quite sure which particular errand did bring them to the tower in first place.
Both towers will date back to Staufic period. The free stones with flush edges and central bosse. (The Zähringer were the actual builders but 12th century is correct.)
14 Besigheim, Alte Kelter Old press house and assembly hall. Location somewhat unusual. All the vineyards are on the opposite river embankments. Usual location of a press house, the lowest point of a particular 'catchment' area. Will concede that it is reasonable central.
15 Besigheim, Rathaus The high perched City Hall. The town clocks are housed in the respective gables. No special turret needed. Will make for crammed office rooms.
16 Besigheim, Rathaus The clock face plays it politically safe. All available heraldic arms are included. Wirttemberg (top righthand corner, the particular charge maybe better known from the quartered Porsche logo), Zähringer (bend gules, bottom left), town seal (market rights?, bottom right), imperial eagle (top left).
17 Marktplatz Boris Becker training session
18 Marktplatz, Dreigiebelhau Melville, still short of four gables
19 Marktplatz, Dreigiebelhaus split leveled
20 Marktplatz the turn of the century shop sign could be rendered as drugstore
21 Marktplatz patrician town house
22 Besigheim, Enzside A backdrop waiting for a script. The row of houses between town wall and Enz were the old 'ban lieu'.
23 Besigheim, jlittlewood-scan Hochwachturm 1929 The salient 'lantern' tower, polygon top, is still there (previous pic). The base looks however differently.
24 Besigheim, Enzside
25 Enzside, Rathaus The first of the two Littlewood links shows the same motive in 1929. Practically selfsame vantage point. Certainly somewhat humbling.
26 Besigheim, jlittlewood-scan Rathaus 1929 (broken link to jlittlewood site)
27 Besigheim, Rathaus
28 Besigheim one more Rathaus view
29 Besigheim best guess: vineyard sign language
30 Besigheim, Enzside "Komsomol" bridge. Construction apparently a six month job. Not bad for a piece of civilian engineering. As an aside, spelling still very much everyone's guesswork. You might get hanged for heresy but not for creative transcription. Fair exchange. - Ok, do not think that it was actually built by the Leningrad Komsomol. Wrong date for once. Wrong coat of arms too. (Zähringer claim marker.)
31 Besigheim, vineyards Enz upstream view
32 Besigheim, vineyard Downstream view, the Enz flows into the Neckar behind the bridge. The next village behind the promontory is Walheim.
33 Besigheim Hochwachtturm, church and castle, the consolidated view.
34 Besigheim house with semi hipped roof
35 Besigheim Enzside, town wall level - corner house with bracket lantern
36 Besigheim Geranium bin. Mild paranoia: It will be noticed that this flower receptacle comes with the colors of the Staufic liege bond (the Austria and Switzerland colors). In this case cleverly disguised as traffic marker. And now it should be clear why barber shops should be avoided at all costs when you have to pass on classified information. Incidentally, the Staufer were also the inventors of the window shutters. After a hard day of tournamenting you simply have to hang up your battle shields somewhere. Dragon boat solution also on record.
[The liege bond background is conjectural.The Tell flag could conceivably also stand for a Cox-Orange Renette perforated by a quarrel. In any case some modifications. No such doubts for the matching Dannebrog. Official birth certificate, the skies of Tallinn just openend in 1219 and the token fluttered down. Most favored battle status nearly garantied. Comment Valdemar II: that Barbarossa is a sneaky one. And how was I supposed to know that the ...
37 Besigheim House of a former first citizen. The fill-ins obviously not intended for publication. Usual mix of broken roof tiles and rubble. The particular name of the beautifying magic: rough cast. The stucco and plaster of Paris refinements came later.
38 Besigheim house of a former first citizen
39 Besigheim no idea how he got there
40 Besigheim daring cat burglar - not sure where you can buy the fancy gecko hands
41 Besigheim vineyards with lamppost
42 over the townwall
43 over the town wall
44 front gardens geranium house
45 front gardens Small rack wagon. Parking brake is not set but the port side wheels are securely latched by all purpose cable fastener. Technical specifications: Steam bent, one piece fellows. Counter plated hub. - Cargo bay: The glazed vessel will have once served as receptacle for laying in eggs. Extended root cellar saga. The plastic pot is of recent vintage. Comes with drainage perforations.
46 front gardens mini rack wagon
47 front gardens, Tropaeolum majus Tropaeolum majus, native of the realm of Atahuelpa. Like most introduced species easy to identify. Always considerate to leave the whole coterie of closely related species behind. 'Tropaeolum' itself is a Linné word creation. Train of thought: Plant of the pointed Gandalf hats, trophy soso, and of the shield shaped leaves. I guess you can always preselect your trophy junk. Defensive armor of roughly organic shape on one heap and the rest on the other. The English common names refer either to place of origin 'Indian Cress' or, less obviously, olfactory properties. 'Nasturtium' literally means 'nose-twister'. Probably a second hand common name to start with. Justification: Some Tropaeolum species are used as tuber crop. Horse radish connection in this case well attested. Does probably fall under the head of non cladistic similarities. Common name in most Continental languages is 'Capuchin Cress'. One sympetalous cowl looks obviously very much like the other. Construction roughly alo...
48 Tropaeolum majus
49 fTropaeolum majus
50 Tropaeolum majus A stowaway is just visible in the narrow stemmed corolla. Most likely an earwig, rear end view. Reverse gear a must.
51 Tropaeolum majus
52 at the water edge
53 Besigheim railway station. Vineyards all the way. A wooded crest conspicuous by absence.
54 Besigheim track claw and fast food 'snowball'
55 Besigheim Paddle steamer junkyard. Not that the debris differs much from an undershot waterwheel.
56 space junk Enz valley: a modular section of truss bridge (vineyard beachball)
57 space junk
58 Hessigheim, Rathaus
59 Hessigheim, Felsengarten
60 Hessigheim, Felsengarten El condor passa. (A gravel boat with open loading bays will also do. We are hardly too fastidious. - Particular river magic: If you look at it from the other embankment it should become a 'péniche'. Does not always work for some unexplained reasons. We will add it to the list of life's little mysteries.)
61 Hessigheim, Felsengarten
62 Hessigheim, Felsengarten
63 Hessigheim , Felsengarten
64 Hessigheim, Felsengarten
65 Hessigheim, Felsengarten A half timbered framework might have prevented the vertical cleaving. Just a suggestion. (The stones of Greek temples were often hooked together with H-joints to forestall just this kind of fissuring.)
69 Hessigheim, Felsengarten May look like a coffee shrub (hopefully vague enough) but is in fact ivy. The emblematic, five pointed ivy leaf simply disappears once the plant reaches sexual maturity or has run out of suitable scaffolding material, whatever comes first. The alternative leaf manifestation is an unspectacular oval lance shape. Suggested jaw breaker: phenotypical heterophyllia.
Liquor spokesperson: The crest looks strangely naked without an Osborn billboard.
70 Hessigheim, Felsengarten This pedestrian cable bridge provides a shortcut to Besigheim. My map still did not show it. (Which probably says nothing for my maps.)
