Sunday 3 October 2021

On Top of the World 2.0

More than 9 years ago, I wrote a post by the title "On Top Of The World". It was about climbing one of the church spires of my home town and the views I had from there. Ever since, I have been wanting to repeat the experience, but the spire is not always open to the public, and somehow it never worked out on the few occasions when a visit would have been possible.

Sunday, the 12th of September, was "Monument Day" in Germany - at least I believe it was for all of Germany, or maybe just for the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, where I live. Anyway, I checked online what historical buildings and other places of interest, generally not open to the public, would be accessible that day. O.K. was spending the weekend here with me, and so I worked out an itinerary for us.

Our first stop was the former garrison church of Ludwigsburg, originally built for the military men stationed in the many barracks in town (we are talking pre-World War times here). After WWII, the church was renamed Friedenskirche, Peace Church. Isn't that a wonderful name? Much better than a church where arms and soldiers, intent on killing others, are blessed! It is not a very old church, but has seen some renovation work. I have never been inside for a service, only on other occasions, and I had never climbed the spire before.

On that day, we had the opportunity to join a guided tour of the beautiful church organ, then another one of the building itself, and last but not least were allowed to the top of the tower.

The views from there across my town in all directions were beautiful, and it was the perfect day for it, too:
The red arrow shows where I used to work until August 2019. The view from my office there on the 9th floor has featured on my blog several times, too:
The red arrow here marks more or less the area where I live. It was impossible to really spot my house from up there, but you get the general idea.
The larger buildings in the middle of this picture are all schools:
If you look carefully, at the end of the red arrow here you can just about make out two church spires. They belong to the church where we went next, the same one that featured in the 2012-post linked to at the start of this post:
In the picture below, the red arrow points towards the "rocket" I introduced to you first in this post from 2015:

Once we were back on ground level, we walked to the market square - another part of Ludwigsburg you have seen many times on my blog. The church with the two spires was our next stop:

This time, there was no guided tour of the organ or the building; we climbed up almost straight away. 

In the picture below, the red arrow points to the bell tower of the contemporary church a bit further up the road from where I live; the sound of its bells punctuate my days when I am home:

View of the small all-around balcony of the other spire, identical to the one we were standing on:
Across the market square; the bright buildings behind are the palace, which should be rather familiar to many of you through my blog:
Here is the "rocket" near Marbach again:
Market Square with the Catholic Church on the opposite side; its spire was not accessible that day:
"My" Irish pub is where the red arrow points to:
And last but not least, you can see the spire of Peace Church in this picture:

Climbing towers and taking photos was by no means all we did that day. To finish, we had booked a guided tour at the City Museum late afternoon. The guide was one of the architects involved in converting a former historical civil service building into the museum it is today; he showed us what was left of the original walls and what modifications were made (and why) - all under the restrictions of a listed building. Definitely not an easy task, but I think the result was well worth the effort (and the cost).

I went home that evening with a renewed feeling of affection for my home town, which has seen so many changes in the brief 350+ years of its existence.

14 comments:

  1. What a wonderful day! I enjoyed your pictures and descriptions very much. The arrows were helpful to understand the layout of the city. It must have been interesting to visit the City Museum with one of the architects as your guide. You live in a beautiful city Meike!

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    1. Thank you, Bonnie! It is just the right size for me, too: At about 90,000 inhabitants, it is neither too big nor too small. Where I live, I have only a 10-minute walk into the centre, less than that to the train station and the supermarket, and about 15 minutes to be out on the fields. Last but not least, both my parents and my sister live about 15 minutes on foot from my house, in different directions.

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  2. The idea of living in a relatively small town so near to friends and family and which one knows intimately appeals to me. You will know it's recent history and the people with whom you've grown up. I rather envy you. I did enjoy seeing the layout of the town from up high as well.

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    1. I know I am very fortunate in that I am still able to live where I was born, and was never forced to leave my home, unlike so many others who would not leave by choice but have no other option in the face of war or catastrophe.
      It is nice to know almost every corner here and to observe the changes over the years and decades I have been living here.

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  3. Thanks for these unusual views of Lovely Ludwigsburg and for the clever use of those red arrows. To use one of your favourite English words, I suspect that you and OK were "knackered" when September 12th came to its natural end.

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    1. We were definitely full of impressions, and had plenty to talk about! Knackered? Hmm yes, mainly after climbing all those stairs. But nothing a nice glass of rosé wine wouldn't fix!

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  4. Thanks for the pictorial view and orientation of Ludwigsburg from on high. What a beautiful day you had for your excursion. How fortunate you are to live in a place with access to so much. Glad you were able to make the most of your day.

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    1. More often than not, I have been away at the time of "Monument Day", but this year, our holiday started later than most years. In non-Covid years, many more buildings and places of interest were open to the public on that day; it was always difficult to decide where to go, as it was impossible to cover them all in one day!

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  5. You live in a beautiful town with well preserved old buildings so that you can appreciate its heritage.

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    1. It is indeed a beautiful town with a rich heritage, and it really bothers me when I see neglect and much more rubbish around than before. The city administration blame it all on the pandemic, but I guess it is an easy excuse for anything that goes wrong these days.

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  6. I just adore climbing up High and seeing views. Thank you so much for this post.

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    1. Thank YOU for reading and commenting, Cathy! I am glad you liked my views.

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  7. Lovely views, thanks. I've never been up in the church spires of my town, as I'm not very fond of heights and long steep stairs... I get the impression of quite a big town but looking it up in Wikipedia it seems that the size is probably rather similar to Borås (our population numbers depend on whether referring only to the main city or including the whole municipality).

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    1. I puff and pant my way up, be it church spires or mountains, because I love views from above. The town itself is not very big and can be easily crossed on foot within 1 1/2 hours or less, depending on what one considers its borders. There are several suburbs dotted around, much older than the town itself.

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