Saturday 4 April 2015

Another Walk, Another Village

Last month, I told you here about a walk my sister and I took to a village on the other side of the river. Yesterday, we took full advantage of it being a day off (Good Friday) and being the first sunny and dry day of an otherwise very stormy, wet and rather cold week.

We set off in the opposite direction of where we'd been last time, with no particular plan - all we wanted was to be OUT in the open, catching sunshine and fresh air.

Along the way, we came across this scene. It is not the barn that captured my interest here...

...but this beautiful heron:




On we walked, and by now we had decided to explore Möglingen, a village next to our hometown of Ludwigsburg. Möglingen has nearly 11.000 inhabitants (Ludwigsburg has crossed the 90.000-threshold last year) and, administratively, is part of Ludwigsburg, but has its own mayor.
The first glimpse we had of it was this:

Coming closer, it became obvious how much older this one, like all of the surrounding villages, is than Ludwigsburg itself. The first written mention of Möglingen is on a document dated 1275. Our town was founded centuries later, when in 1704 building of the palace (which was supposed to be "just a tiny hunting lodge" at first!) began.


The church is called Pankratiuskirche. It is of Gothic origin and was extensively renovated in the 1970s. In the course of the work, frescoes from the 15th century were discovered. I would have liked to go inside and found the door open, but there was work in progress; some people were setting up scaffolding for I don't know what. Probably something to do with Easter services.


Near the church are what look to be the oldest buildings still intact. The building in the left picture is a 16th century structure, originally built as a barn where farmers were meant to bring a tenth of all their produce as tax. Nowadays, it houses a library and rooms for cultural events.

This monument to someone who must have been quite important to Möglingen is at the church wall. As you would expect, the language used in the late 1700s was somewhat different from German as it is spoken and written today. My sister liked the angel and asked me to take this picture.

Another one of the older houses near the church. A bit further down the road, much of what makes up the village center consists of ugly concrete architecture so typical for the 1970s, when the village had plenty of money to spend and wanted to "modernize" everything.


An otherwise unassuming residential street is made beautiful by this glorious magnolia tree.

 What's this?! Has a UFO landed in Möglingen?!


This unusual building was opened in 1993. It houses Möglingen's Youth Club and was built by the village's young people in cooperation with students from Stuttgart university. According to wikipedia, the top bit is a movable "sun-eye". In winter, it is turned towards the sun to catch and store solar energy. In the summer, it is turned away from the sun, following a 5-minute-rhythm of gradual turns so that the inside of the building remains pleasantly cool.

By the time we arrived back at my place, we had been walking for about 3 hours and were SO ready for coffee and a slice of cake!
We are already thinking about which village we can explore on our next walk.

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for taking us on the walk with you.

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    1. You are welcome! Thank you for stopping by and commenting on my blog.

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  2. Hello Meike,

    As soon as the sun makes an appearance, it is such a joy to be outdoors taking advantage of your wonderful countryside and most interesting villages. The winter seems to have been long and dreary and everywhere looks so very pretty in the sunshine.

    Moglingen is full of interesting architecture. So many styles which have added their characters to the place over the centuries. The timber framed buildings we find particularly attractive.

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    1. Hello Jane and Lance,
      If I don't go walking or running on a fine day like that, it feels as if I am wasting something precious.

      The timber framed buildings are nice to look at, but I know some of them from the inside and don't think I would like to live in one; the rooms tend to be on the small side, and they are darker than most newer houses (and not necessarily easier to keep warm!).

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  3. What a pretty village. Like your sister, I think the angel is very pretty. Somehow I think she'd translate very well into a needlework design. Thank you for taking us along on your walk!

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    1. Actually, it is one of the less pretty ones - I hope to be showing you some more picturesque ones in future posts. I am glad you enjoyed being taken along on this walk!

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  4. Another wonderful walk. I love the old buildings, the heron, the angel who looks like angels in some old American cemeteries....The youth club is very interesting. I like the idea of being able to move that upper part for warmth or for coolness, whatever one needs. It will be quite a few weeks before my magnolia will bloom.

    Btw, the mother of my son in law is here visiting from Germany and we had dinner together last night and played cards later and briefly we talked about the pussywillows. She said there used to be wild pussy willows in the woods near her home, but she hasn't seen any for quite a while. So sad. We have lots of other flowers for the bees here, and I only pick the pussy willow that I planted in my garden. I certainly do not want to harm bees! They have enough problems, mostly because of human activity, I think.

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    1. Thank you, Kristi!
      You are so right about the bees, and I know you would never harm then. To pick a few branches of pussy willow from your own garden certainly still leaves enough for them. Around here, there are still wild ones around on the fields and on the edges of woods, and I know of several people who keep bees on their allotments.

      The magnolia is magnificent, isn't it!

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  5. Your photos show a very pretty area. Your walk must have been invigorating on a spring day. I looked at your past posts and saw your post on Kate Atkinson. I do not know this author but will check to see if her books are at my library.

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    1. Hello Vagabonde, I think this is your first comment on my blog, so: Welcome!
      Well, when my sister and I reached my place, instead of feeling invigorated, we were just really very ready for sitting down and having a cup of coffee :-) But when I went out for a run later, I was amazed at how much energy I had and how well the run went.
      I'd like to know what you think of Kate Atkinson's books when you'll have read your first one.

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  6. Wow, I find that building with the movable bit for the solar energy quite fascinating. I would have loved to have been on this walk with you! You know I love that blooming magnolia tree and the heron!

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    1. Kay, I have no doubt that you would have spotted the heron, too! Others who were on the same path never stopped, I don't think they saw him (or her) there in the field.
      If we did not live so far away from each other, I am sure we'd been on walks together many times over the past few years :-)

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  7. Thanks for another interesting guided walking tour! :) We had nice weather here too but rather chilly, and no magnolias (or other blossoming trees) in bloom yet...

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    1. Apart from that Friday (which was not really warm, either), it was not just chilly here over Easter, but really COLD, with temperatures dropping below freezing point at night. Only this week it is warming up again; we're supposed to get to about 14-15 Celsius today and tomorrow, I think.

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  8. I would love a house like that youth club (well not exactly like it, obviously, but on that principle,. A sun eye. How lovely. That would be my dream house.

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    1. Really? How interesting! I think it's a fascinating building, but for living, I prefer something a bit more old-fashioned myself.

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