Clik here to view.
Nunnery and Ducal Burial - Wiebrechtshausen
The church in the small village of Wiebrechtshausen near Northeim is another of those pretty Romansque churches you can find in off road corners in Germany. It is one of the sites where I got a bunch...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy Easter
I wish my readers a Happy and Blessed Easter.Spring has been slow in coming, but now the first buds defy the cold nights and decided to sprout. And the pollen have started to attack innocent noses. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two Fairy Tale Castles - Trendelburg and Sababurg
I'll be away on the little trip to the Baltic Sea I mentioned in the post below until the beginning of May. But I'll leave you with some photos of fairy tale castles connected to the stories collected...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hansa Towns and Brick Architecture
I finally found time to sort through my photos and write the obligatory introduction posts to my latest little journey to the Hansa towns of Lübeck and Wismar, and visiting some Vikings in the open air...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vikings and Before
The open air museum in Haithabu near Schleswig - on the peninsula that separates the Baltic Sea from the North Sea - has been on my list for some years. Because Vikings. *grin* Actually, the site is of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Contested Imperial Fief, and A Lucky Escape - The History of Scharzfels Castle
I've briefly touched Scharzfels castle in the southern Harz back in 2009. I've now tried to find out a bit more about its history (1) to go with another set of photos. Scharzfels Castle, view into the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lost Branches on the Family Tree - The Counts Hohnstein (Part 1)
After I mentioned the Hohnstein family a few times in my post about Scharzfels, I thought they would make a good topic for the next posts. The history of Castle Hohnstein (also spelled Honstein),...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Between Staufen, Welfen, and Thuringia - The Counts of Hohnstein (Part 2)
I have mentioned a few times that the emperor Friedrich Barbarossa and Duke Heinrich 'the Lion' of Saxony and Bavaria, cousins and close allies for a long time, eventually had a falling out that led to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Time of Feuds - The Counts of Hohnstein and Stolberg (Part 3)
This is the third part of the essay about the Counts of Hohnstein and their main seat, Hohnstein Castle (as well as a few shots of the palace in Stolberg).(Left: View through a door, with remains of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ship that Never Sailed - The Vasa Museum in Stockholm
Well, she did sail some 1,300 metres before she sank on her maiden voyage in August 1628, but that doesn't really count. It was bad news for King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden who commissioned the Vasa,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Raising the Wreck - The Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Part 2
After the Vasa sank, the upper parts of her three masts with their rigging were still visible which must have made for a somewhat eerie sight.(Left: the main mast with the crow's nest)I was suprised to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Surviving as Sacrifice - The Nydam Ship
The peninsula (1) between Baltic and North Sea is a typical terminal moraine landscape which developed after the last Ice Age (~ 11,700 BC). Fertile marshlands - albeit prone to flooding - in the west...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hunting more Hansa
I'll be off again to find more Hansa League related things, and some more brick cathedrals and other buildings in Stralsund, Lüneburg, and Lübeck once more, where the new Hansa Museum has now opened....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nature, some Very Old Tombs, and a Slavic Ringwall
The Baltic Sea coast and the landscape further inland are beautiful in a way different from the mountains of the Harz and Meissner or along the Weser; places I've frequently blogged about. But I love...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More Mediaeval Brick Buildings
I'm back from my second Hansa League tour, with some 2,000 photos. The weather was a bit on the dreary side some days, but at least the rain poured down mostly during the night or when I could stay...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sub-Marinean Monsters - The Ozeaneum in Stralsund, Part 2
The tour of the Ozeaneum - follow the little footprints on the floor - will now take us to the North Sea in this second post about the tank displays of the Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund. Some fish...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sub-Marinean Magic - The Ozeaneum in Stralsund, Part 1
The Oceanographic Museum is part of the German Maritime Museum in Stralsund and specialises on the Baltic and North Sea. The underwater world of both seas is presented in a series of themed tanks,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Boat Tour on the Wakenitz River
I had a rather unwelcome visit by a nasty cold and didn't feel up to do much research. So here's just a little river tour on the Wakenitz from its outflow of Lake Ratzeburg northwards to Lübeck. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Belligerent Knight and a Faithful Wife - The History of Castle Weidelsburg
It's time for another castle, so I've been digging in my photo archives to find something interesting. My father and I visited the still impressive ruins of Castle Weidelsburg in 2008. The site was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It's Nano Time Again
I'm participating in the National Novel Writing Month again, and therefore I'm a lazy blogger and commenter. My regular readers may have guessed already. :-)After last year's unexpected success I've...
View Article