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| Garden in Handschusheimer - finally Spring! |
Albrecht has sent me a splash of Spring with this vibrant yellow plant growing in a garden in Handschusheimer - just north of Heidelburg. It looks very much like forsythia to me and is a real tonic for the eyes.
On the reverse is another sketch and a little map which I found to be absolutely fascinating as I unpicked it but by bit. This is what Albrecht says (I've added in the links to the places!)
The view from the garden overleaf (over the campus of the university of Heidelburg)Then he has annotated the little map in the bottom left to highlight:
This is a historic moment! One of the cooling towers of the Nuclear Power Plant at Philipsburg doesn't smoke anymore! Yesterday one unit has beeen shut down in response to the nuclear problems in Japan. Finally! From where we live the distance is only 35km!(21 miles)
- the Romanesque cathedral Dom Speyer (Speyer Cathedral) 1025-1106 by the River Rhine. I looked it up and it's been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Speyer Cathedral, a basilica with four towers and two domes, was founded by Conrad II in 1030 and remodelled at the end of the 11th century. It is one of the most important Romanesque monuments from the time of the Holy Roman Empire. The cathedral was the burial place of the German emperors for almost 300 years.
UNESCO
- a place where there are lots of hanging willow trees in a reserve (on what looks like an ox-bow lake) - and we already know how much Albrecht likes willows!
- an area where there are many natural reserves (nature reserves?) - so I guess these are places Albrecht likes to go to sketch.
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| Lots of information about Heidelburg |
I looked up all the places on Google Maps - like I always do - and was amazed to see the shape of the snaking River Rhine and all the old oxbow lakes it created prior to being channelled. These are so very evident from the satellite view and reminds us of the power of inland waterways to change the landscape over time.
