Riding the Sound Wave

A fiery spectacle of elements took place in the town of Bad Neuenahr, and not in a bad way. The open air event Klangwelle (sound wave) presents water as the main character, set in scene by colour and music. 

Mighty fountains shoot billions of water drops 30 meters up in the air, while painted by light, fireworks and laser and synchronised with a musical medley out of well known movies. And bonus: the weather played along nicely, cold but dry. It was awesome!

Stumbling over Roman remains... again

On my Friday afternoon walkabout I came across the trail marker "Historic Road". 

As a matter of fact an ancient Roman road once lead through these woods. 

At various stations signs explain what happened while the early Italians lived in the area. 

The occasional view

There are signs of iron ore mining and the terrain still is full of sinkholes

caused by collapse of old near surface digging activities as well as open pit mines.

The trail opens up at the ruins of a smelting and casting facility where the ore was delivered to, 

likely transported by horse or ox powered carts.

There are also remainders of living quarters, a temple, a villa rustica with floor heating

and a graveyard, where its settlers and workers had been buried with honours.

As daylight faded I tracked my path back to the valley,

crossed harvested orchards and vineyards,

and I made it home just before dark.

Black Forest revisited

A friend had recently invited us over for a birthday party and we happily obliged. Although most of the time was spent with mingling, eating (a lot) and talking, I could sneak away for a bit and went for a hike in gorgeous weather. Temperatures were rather too mild given the time of the year and it did not feel at all like autumn.

For several miles I hiked up the hill until I reached the crest. From there onwards I was rewarded with several scenic views upon the village Zell am Harmersbach.

View towards Gengenbach and Offenburg and into the Rhine valley.

Allerheiligen (All saints) monastery ruin

and garden

Allerheiligen waterfall cascading over several steps 90 meters into the gorge.

View from the front porch of our apartment. Not bad, eh?