Going back three weeks to June 23, we were once again on our way to a beautiful place not too far away from home (O.K.'s home, that is). It was a hot day, around 30 C (86 F) in the afternoon, and so we were not feeling like a strenuous hike.
A short drive from O.K.'s village brought us to the small town of Oberkirch. We parked the car in a shady spot near the church and then walked up to Schauenburg, a ruined castle overlooking the town.
Approaching the castle:
Views from the castle:
A veritable flower garden had naturally grown on top of the thick walls:
St. Ulrich - I don't know why he carries a fish. He does not look exactly happy, does he? The statue stands in a little shrine let into a wall.
All that exploring and climbing up and down walls in the summer heat made us thirsty! Just below the castle, there is a café/restaurant. We took the last table that had some shade from the large umbrellas - the only seats left empty were those in the sun.
One last glimpse back on our way down. Another beautiful Sunday, and I so did not feel like getting on the train that evening! But all went well, no delays or cancellations this time, and I was home as planned just after 10:30 pm.
Schauenburg was built in the 10th century. It was abandoned in the late 17th century, and stones from its ruins were used in other building projects, as was the usual way back then. You can read more about the castle and its history here on wikipedia.
Medieval Europe
H.W.C. Davis
This was my parallel read to Hannah Hauxwell's Seaons of My Life (see previous post).
When I say parallel read, I mean that I usually read two books at once: One "physical" book (of paper) rests on my bedside table and is picked up for maximum half an hour before I sleep; my eyes do not allow for longer reading after a full day at work, looking at computer screens and at papers.
The other one is an ebook on my Kindle. Ever since I was given my Kindle as a birthday present in 2013, it has been my favourite non-human travel companion. No matter whether it is for the 10-minute journey on the local train to work or for the roughly 2 hours it takes to get from my place to O.K.'s, or a visit at a doctor's surgery where I am sure I will have to spend time in the waiting room, my kindle is always with me. It weighs so little and is so slim that it fits into my handbags without a problem. It allows me to carry around a library of dozens of books; there used to be more than 80 on it (and there was still plenty of room for more) before I started deleting the ones I read and was certain not to read again. Compare that to the few books taking up a lot of space (and weighing a ton!) in my suitcase when I had to decide which ones to pack for a holiday!
I've said this before when others have stated (here or on other blogs) that they will NEVER switch to ebooks: For me, electronic books do not replace physical books - they are an addition, and a very welcome one at that. Little beats the pleasure of browsing a large, beautifully made book of the coffee table variety with stunning pictures of landscapes, historic houses or gardens; photos of dishes to accompany recipes, travel guides with maps, information at a glance and photos of places of interest, pictures to illustrate a biography etc. etc. - all this my Kindle can not provide.
But what it can do is allow me to take as much reading material as I want with me without making my bag too bulky or too heavy. It also allows me to adjust the font size - very important for someone with eyes as bad as mine. Plus its grey background (instead of the pure white paper most books are printed on) allows me to read even in the glaring sunshine without having to squint, something I can not do with paper. Also, when I wait for the train on a cold winter morning and wear gloves, I can turn the "pages" of my book by simply pressing the side of my Kindle and do not have to either remove the gloves or risk damaging the delicate paper with clumsy cold fingers or gloved hands.
If you have ever carried around a paperback in your handbag, you'll know that at least after several trips back and forth, the book does not look its best anymore. In contrast, a Kindle can simply be slid into your bag without risking to bend pages or smudge the cover with the remnants of your sandwich.
And don't forget the huge number of free ebooks available for Kindle - all the classics, for instance! If you were to buy them as physical books, not only would the take up many meters of shelf space in your home, they would also cost you quite a lot of money (and probably mostly be collecting dust anyway).
See what I mean? For me, the Kindle has become standard equipment for any trip, short or long, to work or elsewhere. I still have shelves and a book case full of physical books, and still buy them or wish for them as a birthday or Christmas present when one captures my interest. But these are meant to last, whereas many of the ones I have downloaded to my Kindle are deleted as soon as they have been read and reviewed.
Phew - this has turned out to be much longer than I thought! But I hope I have made those of you who are so firmly set against ebooks think about your opinion and consider my points, just for a change :-)
Now for the actual review:
This history of Medieval Europe was first published in 1911, shortly before WWI changed the setup of our nations and their societies forever. Throughout the book, the optimism and near smugness of the author can be detected: To him, his is the best time to live in; what he observes in all areas makes him believe the solution of humanity's oldest and most deeply ingrained problems is at hand; progress in all areas of science is tangible and improving everybody's lives. Sadly, we know that although some of it came (almost) true, our biggest problems remain as unsolved as they were hundreds, even thousands of years ago.
The book gives a good and rather detailed (but not overly so) account of the thousand years spanning what we consider Medieval Times or the Middle Ages, the period between the 5th and 15th centuries. We learn about the transition from the classic Roman Empire to what was to become the new Roman Empire, how states and nations formed, were conquered or split up otherwise, reformed and split up again. How the very idea of what a state is all about changed in the minds of the people of Europe is also explained. Last but not least, the changing roles between clerical and secular rulers, between church and state, between rulers and ruled, between military and civil components of society, are looked at closely and provide some very interesting thoughts.
I enjoyed this book and found it very timely in parts; it fitted some of my activities at the time, such as visiting the ruin of a medieval castle a few Sundays ago. The writing style was not overly complicated; I had no trouble understanding every sentence in spite of English not being my native tongue and the book being relatively old.
Needless to say, this was a free ebook from Amazon's Kindle store.
The author, Henry William Carless Davis, lived from 1874 to 1928. According to wikipedia, he was was a British historian, editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History.
Seasons of My Life
Hannah Hauxwell with Barry Cockcroft
Were it not for Yorkshire Pudding's post about Hannah last year in November, I possibly would have never heard about her. But once I knew, I wanted to know more, found this book online and ordered it. Finally, I got round to reading it.
It is not the same book as the one YP read, but it is also her life story told in her own words, written down and put together in neat chapters by Barry Cockcroft, the man from Yorkshire Television who was responsible for her first introduction to the public in the early 1970s, and became a good friend of Hannah's.
Back then, Hannah was only 46, but with her snow-white hair and ragged clothes was soon dubbed "the old woman from the Dales". She lived on to become really an old woman; when she died last year, she was 91.
Hannah had grown up with loving parents on a farm in a remote Yorkshire dale, but her father was sick and they always struggled to keep the farm going, always relying very much on Hannah's help. In the book, she tells of some very fond memories she has of both her parents, but that childhood happiness did not last long.
Eventually, her father died, and an uncle came to live in the farm with her and her mother. One by one, her uncle and her mother also died. Hannah was all alone with the few cows and other animals that were left, in a farm house without electricity or running water, and of course no central heating, washing machine, fridge or any other of the comforts most of us can not imagine living without.
She loved her animals, they became her family; living on the remote farm with most of the other farms being abandoned, sometimes she went for 10 days without seeing or speaking to anyone but her animals.
Money was extremely sparse; the book says that her yearly income was sometimes as low as 150 pounds, 280 if it had been a good year. Malnutrition, the relentless hard work and extreme weather conditions took their toll on Hannah's health, but she plodded on, never even considering giving up, selling the farm and moving into a comfortable cottage in a village or small town.
The TV documtenaries made her famous, and she was even invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace - the woman who had only left the Dales for one or two outings with a group of her community when she was young! A modest wealth came with fame, but she was not interested in money as such - the first thing she did was buying more cows, which meant an even bigger workload for her.
Eventually, aftter years of urging from her friends, she sold up, auctioned most of her antique furniture and farm implements, and moved into a cottage in the nearest village. She now lived in comparable luxury, but never changed her ways or manners - she was always Hannah, the soft-spoken, well-read lover of music and animals, and of her land, which was the home she never wanted to leave.
As everybody knows, the longest day of the year (i.e. with the longest time of daylight and the shortest time between sunset and sunrise) is June 21st.
O.K. and I chose that day for a hike we've long been wanting to do: To Mummelsee and Hornisgrinde, two famous points of interest in the Black Forest.
The Mummelsee is a small lake, no deeper than 17 m. It used to be a very lonely spot, and people spun all sorts of stories around it, imagining it being inhabited by water fairies, and ghostly appearances were reported throughout the centuries. Now it is packed with tourists, but nonetheless a beautiful spot.
A walk around the lake is quickly done, and we were soon on our way to the highest point of our hike, the Hornisgrinde. At 1,164 m (3,820 ft), is the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest.
Apart from offering beautiful views across the Black Forest, the mostly flat top of the mountain is covered in moorland, where you are allowed to walk only on designated paths (some are boardwalks, which I love).Rare grasses and other plants grow there, making it an important area for nature conversation.
You can read more about Hornisgrinde here on Wikipedia.
On the way down, we came past the Dreifürstenstein (literally "rock of three princes"), a large natural sandstone slab which marks the border between the old duchies of Baden and Wuerttemberg (OK's and my home counties). It is also the highest point of Wuerttemberg at 1,151 m.
Since its designation as a border marker (and possibly before that) in 1722, people have been engraving upon it. The coats of arms of the bordering duchies are official, but the other markings - such as the heart that is barely visible in one of the photos - were made by tourists of long ago.
It had been a pleasant hike (more of a walk most of the time, actually), and we ended this longest day of 2019 with a barbeque on the balcony and watching the sun set.
