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Lovely day. Writing--I've gotten some great information from an expert for an article I'm working on, way more than I expected. I'm looking forward to working it in.
Life--we took an excursion out into the country and visited a ruin of a medieval church (built on the site of a pagan worship ground, people think, so it was really old). Then we hiked up into the hills and forest to see a bluff with a natural bridge and a number of caves. It looked just like the caves books say Ice Age people lived in. Very cool. After that, we continued our path by walking on top of an ancient Celtic wall. My husband has a thing for Celtic ringwalls (earthen fortifications), and usually they're small enough to see across. This was for one of the largest Celtic settlements in Germany, though, and it was built to go around a whole city. It was HUGE, even though it was abandoned around 400 BC and has crumbled quite a bit. Very cool. I love visiting ancient sites; I always want to find a connection between my own comfortable world and the people who lived in ancient times. Despite the obvious, outward differences, they were as real as us, you know? And they probably thought they were modern and hip, and had friends and rivals just like we do. The whole site reminded me a lot of Cahokia Mounds, Illinois, despite the fact that Cahokia had its heyday in the 1300s. But both of them were ruins of a great civilization that didn't write, so we don't know much about them.
I also just enjoyed the forest--beech and pine makes for little underbrush and a springy floor. And we saw a lot of interesting, shelf-like mushrooms on the trees, which made me think of ravelda (who would have taken nice pictures of them, I'm sure). I grew up with much more jungly and dangerous (poisonous snakes) forests, so these are restful.
On the way home, we encountered some neo-nazis and anti-neo-nazis after a large protest (and counterprotest) on the anniversary of the start of the Nurnberg trials. We had a bit of a detour in train plans, and had to change trains in a smaller station because we missed the one that would take us home. We got out and although the station was nearly empty of passengers, it was full of armed police and possibly the German equivalent of the national guard. It was um, kind of creepy, especially given the fact that we're Americans (the child having a tantrum didn't exactly help us fade into the woodwork). We grabbed a bite to eat and when we came back, the police told us quietly that the train was being diverted to another platform. We got on and watched as a group of people with rolled-up flags (probably because it's illegal to fly that flag in this country) arrived. The police swarmed around them and then the train people had to make the announcement of the platform change--only, they did it moments before the train pulled out. The neo-nazis tried to rush over to the next platform, the police followed them, and there was some yelling and pounding on the train windows, but we pulled out before they could get on. I don't think anyone was purposely trying to pick a fight; more like they were all just going home; but the police really didn't want the two groups mixing AT ALL, just in case tempers flared and someone got hurt.
All in all, just another day in German history.
Life--we took an excursion out into the country and visited a ruin of a medieval church (built on the site of a pagan worship ground, people think, so it was really old). Then we hiked up into the hills and forest to see a bluff with a natural bridge and a number of caves. It looked just like the caves books say Ice Age people lived in. Very cool. After that, we continued our path by walking on top of an ancient Celtic wall. My husband has a thing for Celtic ringwalls (earthen fortifications), and usually they're small enough to see across. This was for one of the largest Celtic settlements in Germany, though, and it was built to go around a whole city. It was HUGE, even though it was abandoned around 400 BC and has crumbled quite a bit. Very cool. I love visiting ancient sites; I always want to find a connection between my own comfortable world and the people who lived in ancient times. Despite the obvious, outward differences, they were as real as us, you know? And they probably thought they were modern and hip, and had friends and rivals just like we do. The whole site reminded me a lot of Cahokia Mounds, Illinois, despite the fact that Cahokia had its heyday in the 1300s. But both of them were ruins of a great civilization that didn't write, so we don't know much about them.
I also just enjoyed the forest--beech and pine makes for little underbrush and a springy floor. And we saw a lot of interesting, shelf-like mushrooms on the trees, which made me think of ravelda (who would have taken nice pictures of them, I'm sure). I grew up with much more jungly and dangerous (poisonous snakes) forests, so these are restful.
On the way home, we encountered some neo-nazis and anti-neo-nazis after a large protest (and counterprotest) on the anniversary of the start of the Nurnberg trials. We had a bit of a detour in train plans, and had to change trains in a smaller station because we missed the one that would take us home. We got out and although the station was nearly empty of passengers, it was full of armed police and possibly the German equivalent of the national guard. It was um, kind of creepy, especially given the fact that we're Americans (the child having a tantrum didn't exactly help us fade into the woodwork). We grabbed a bite to eat and when we came back, the police told us quietly that the train was being diverted to another platform. We got on and watched as a group of people with rolled-up flags (probably because it's illegal to fly that flag in this country) arrived. The police swarmed around them and then the train people had to make the announcement of the platform change--only, they did it moments before the train pulled out. The neo-nazis tried to rush over to the next platform, the police followed them, and there was some yelling and pounding on the train windows, but we pulled out before they could get on. I don't think anyone was purposely trying to pick a fight; more like they were all just going home; but the police really didn't want the two groups mixing AT ALL, just in case tempers flared and someone got hurt.
All in all, just another day in German history.
