Schloss Lichtenstein

Lichtenstein Castle (Schloss Lichtenstein) is a privately owned tourist attraction built in Gothic Revival style and located in the Swabian Jura of southern Germany. It was designed by Carl Alexander Heideloff and has been described as the "fairy tale castle of Württemberg."^[2] It overlooks the Echaz valley nearHonau, Reutlingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The modern castle was inspired by the novel Lichtenstein (1826) by Wilhelm Hauff and was built in 1840-1842. The ruins of the medieval castle that inspired the novel are a few hundred meters away. The name Lichtenstein translates as "shining stone."^[1

Hello My Dear Great Ones,
A few weeks ago Celia and I had the privilege of going to Schloss Lichtenstein with our aunt Heidi and cousin Birgit.  It was fun being with them at such an amazing place.  When we got there the castle was shrouded in fog, but it gradually lifted revealing its grandeur and incredible location.  Perched on an edge of a cliff it has a commending view of the valley below.  Well situated with an impressive armory to protect it Schloss Lichtenstein is tiny but tough.

 The buildings near the main castle were impressive...

 Whimsical and interesting carvings are everywhere on the castle grounds.

 The Schloss "castle," coming into focus as the fog clears.

The valley that the castle overlooks is impressive.

Getting to the Schloss was exciting.  The bridge was rather precarious.  We were not allowed to take any pictures inside but I managed to sneak in a few.

Germany is a land of castles.  A trip there is not complete without visiting at least one castle.

Have a great week everyone!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

Strasbourg by Segway

Strasbourg (/ˈstræzbɜːrɡ/, French: [stʁazbuʁ, stʁas-]; Alsatian:Strossburi [ˈʃd̥ʁɔːsb̥uʁi]; German: Straßburg [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊɐ̯k]) is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and is the official seatof the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germanyin the historic region of Alsace, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhindépartement. In 2014, the city proper had 276,170 inhabitants and both the Eurométropole de Strasbourg (Greater Strasbourg) and theArrondissement of Strasbourg had 484,157 inhabitants.^[2] Strasbourg'smetropolitan area had a population of 773,347 in 2013 (not counting the section across the border in Germany), making it the ninth largest metro area in France and home to 13% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 915,000 inhabitants in 2014.^[5]

Strasbourg is one of the de facto capitals of the European Union(alongside Brussels and Luxembourg), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory) and theEurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is also the seat of theCentral Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights.^[6]

Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. Strasbourg is immersed in Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a cultural bridge between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic andProtestant culture. It is also home to the largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque.^[7

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

Celia and I spent a wonderful day in Strasbourg, France with my cousin Silke and her kids Raphael and Nathalie.  Even though it was raining a bit that did not dampen our joy in exploring the old part of Strasbourg via Segway.  

 As you can see here Celia was a little nervous at first but....

 Once she got the hang of it she was all smiles.

 Getting around on a Segway is fast and fun.

 This guy was a busker sending out hundreds of soap bubbles at once.

 Some of the buildings in Strasbourg are amazing.

Silke and her kids.

Have a great week.

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

Why Parisians Live Well

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

Paris is of course famous for being the City Of Lights, or the City of Love.  Well here is my take on why Parisians live well:

Happy women.  Lots of good shopping, lots of style, flair, hair saloons, and that french accent make women happy.  And when women are happy everyone is happy!

Not sure who started the lock with lovers initials scratched on it and put on a bridge thing, but in Paris there is a bridge where it is impossible to do that.  Instead the lovers locks are put on a light, on a bridge overlooking the Seine.  It doesn't get more romantic than that...

 Landmarks such as the Eiffel tower...

 the Louvre...

 Grand Palais...

 Jardin des Tuleires...

 Notre Dame...

 The Seine...

 Versailles, Hall of Mirrors... Make Paris interesting and creates a unique identity that sets it apart.

 Art also helps to inspire and Paris has loads and loads of priceless treasures...

Then there are the unique cafes and restaurants that slow life down and allows you to savor it...

 Parisians have numerous whys in getting around that are environmentally healthy and even fun...

 Police on roller blades....

 Electric cars!

Classic Citroen...

 The French also eat well and healthy.  Lots of colorful produce is always available in open air markets...

 Add it all up and it is easy to understand why life in Paris is tres manuifique!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk

The most famous landmark in the World

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

Last week Celia and I went to the most famous landmark in the world:  The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.  Here are some fun facts about the tower:

The Eiffel Tower (/ˈaɪfəl/ EYE-fəl; French: tour Eiffel [tuʁ‿ɛfɛl] ( listen)) is a wrought iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.

Constructed from 1887–89 as the entrance to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticized by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but it has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world.^[3] The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015.

The tower is 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building, and the tallest structure in Paris. Its base is square, measuring 125 metres (410 ft) on each side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. Due to the addition of a broadcasting aerial at the top of the tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Excluding transmitters, the Eiffel Tower is the second tallest structure in France after the Millau Viaduct.

A petition called "Artists against the Eiffel Tower" was sent to the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, Charles Alphand, and it was published by Le Temps on 14 February 1887:

We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection … of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal.^[8]

Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian pyramids: "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris?"^[9] These criticisms were also dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying,^[10] "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and he explained that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before, and construction on the tower was already under way.

Indeed, Garnier was a member of the Tower Commission that had examined the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"^[11]

Some of the protesters changed their minds when the tower was built; others remained unconvinced.^[12] Guy de Maupassant supposedly ate lunch in the tower's restaurant every day because it was the one place in Paris where the tower was not visible.^[13]

By 1918, it had become a symbol of Paris and of France after Guillaume Apollinaire wrote a nationalist poem in the shape of the tower (a calligram) to express his feelings about the war against Germany.^[14] Today, it is widely considered to be a remarkable piece of structural art, and is often featured in films and literature.

So there you have it.  The Eiffel Tower.  The most famous structure ever built by man.

Have a great week.

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk