Random thoughts

I took a ton of pictures. I am going to take a lot of pictures at the Highland Games this afternoon.
So to get one batch out of the way, here's last week.

I went for a walk around the base with my camera.
So I can now give you: One day in my life in picture.
The movie starts with the camera zooming in on this building. The music tells you that something terrible is about to happen.
And it does!
An alarm clock rings.
Mine, of course. I'm usually the first to get up in my building.
I rise from my bed on my side of the room and stagger to the closet to get my shampoo and soap and am off to the bathroom.

After a shower, breakfast and cleaning up my room I leave for work to this sadly failed attempt in modern architecture. Mercifully, the trees hide most of its 70s horror from view.

On my way to lunch, I get the chance to admire the scenery. Lots of green stuff on the base, I really like that.

And after work there isn't that much to do, so it is likely I end up here, going to the swimming pool.

So there really isn't that much interesting going on.
When I first came to Hammelburg, I was surprised to discover the Protestant chapel on the base. The Catholic church is much larger and just outside the fenced area, but I don't like it. The chapel has the cutest windows.

I apologize for the bad quality of the pictures, but the lighting was really difficult.

Anyway, on Thursday I had Katrin take me down to Hammelburg with her, did some shopping and then wanted to walk back up to the base. Well. After I had done my shopping, it started to rain. And not a bit of rain, either. It rained really hard. So after walking a while I decided to get some shelter. As Hammelburg is in a Catholic area, who better to ask than Mother Mary? There's a figure of her just when you leave town, and it has a roof above it. She didn't seem to mind me being there, so I slipped in behind her back.
After a while the rain stopped and I could continue my walk up the road. I discovered that even in a place like Hammelburg, where you would think time last went forward sometime in the seventies of some unknown century, there are graffiti sprayers. Not a very creative bunch, though.
As the road leads uphill, you get a nice view of the town. Including two of the three much taller buildings they had to build. They look stupid in the silhouette of the town, but I am sure back when they were built, people were really proud to be so up-to-date.

It's a rather long and winding road up to the base. Especially if some really funny soldiers whom I probably knew but didn't recognize drive by and honk at you. Silly kids! They could have taken me up with them! But true, with all those bends in the road it's not a good idea to stop there. The car behind you might not be able to stop in time. Especially as just about everybody goes faster than the 60 kilometres per hour maximum speed that's allowed there. There are several crosses by the roadside to commemorate those motorbike drivers who lost the races with their friends in a very final manner. Not that this does have any consequence for any other person on the road.

At one point, the track I was using leaves the roadside and goes off into the woods for a bit. It's beautiful.

When I said where I would work, everybody always answered "Oh, Hammelburg, beautiful landscape". Which is what you say of towns that don't have anything else. And while this is true, it is also true that there is really a beautiful landscape around Hammelburg. I enjoy that very much.

But on the weekends, I don't mind seeing a bit of my home town.
The most famous view of Halle is that of the "Five Steeples". It's the so called Red Tower (either because it's made of red brick or because they used to do executions by its base) and the four steeples of the Marktkirche. (the "church on the market place". It's real name is "Unserer Lieben Frauen" - Our Lady(?), what would be Notre Dame in French.) It was one of the last deeds of the Catholic Church in Halle to tear down the two old churches and build this one, using the steeples of both old churches. There's a bridge connecting the two lower steeples. I've been up there several times. You have a wonderful view of the town from there.

Behind the church is my favorite fountain. Currently not in use as there is a lot of construction going on all around the market place. But the Dragon Fountain still is beautiful.

The church is beautiful from the inside, too. It's not overly decorated, the ceiling is just grand and the construction seems to be so light and easy.
In the back, there is a large organ in addition to the small one above the altar. It makes for a fantastic sound.

But Halle has many really nice houses. So much has been rebuilt in the past 15 years. One thing they are still working on is the, IMO, most beautiful courthouse ever constructed. It's symmetrical, but I concentrated on this side as the other is still under construction.

Opposite from the courthouse there used to be a red flag. All through GDR times. Large and ugly, massive concrete. I always hoped they'd tear it down after reunification. Especially after it had lost its meaning as a symbol of the working class by being used for graffiti spraying by the local youth. After they decided not to, I thought it would be cool to make a European flag out if it. No chance they'd turn it into a German flag, that would smell of the dreaded nationalism. But they didn't do that either.
However, they seem to have found a nice solution connected to the (failed) application of Leipzig to host the Olympic Games 2012. They seem to have turned it into a flame.
And surprisingly enough, the sprayers have left it alone so far. Though I have seen kids going down the last "folds" on their skateboards.

Oh, and I share my home town with this gentleman.

There you go, another guided tour. And I can delete the pics from my camera to make room for more.