Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
When you’re passing through the cities Espenau or Fuldatal north of Kassel, Germany you might see a strangely shaped tower on a hill – the Häuschensberg. It is the Volkssternwarte Rothwesten, an observatory above the village Rothwesten belonging to Fuldatal. It was finished in 1963 and offers the possibility to look at the stars – free of charge. At its location there was since 1912 a look-out tower that collapsed and was never repaired.
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One of the necessities of a medieval city is to have water – for the inhabitants and to clean the city. At Kassel, Germany water from the small flow Drusel (also called ‘Kleine Fulda‘) was directed into the city and distributed via small channels (‘Druseln‘) to clean the surface of the streets. For being able to do so the strong fortifications of the city had to be weakened at one point to allow the water to enter the city. As this would be the ideal target for an attacker the 44 meters high Druselturm was built in the year 1415 CE.
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The Fernsehturm (TV tower) of Stuttgart, Germany is an iconic building and symbol of German engineering art. It was opened in 1956 and was the first tower built with ferroconcrete and the architecture received different awards over time. The building is 216 meters high and stands on mountain Hoher Bopser (quite a funny name).
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The DORMERO Hotel at Stuttgart, Germany is a giant hotel with two buildings at the SI-Centrum a little bit outside of the city. It is a business hotel with many fair visitors but also used by people that visit one of the musicals performed at the SI-Centrum. The style is special: when you enter the room it is lighted in red and you’ll ask yourself what kind of hotel you’ve booked. But therefore you get free Sky TV and free drinks in the minibar (and you can switch your room to green, yellow, blue or white, if you want).
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The main railway station of Stuttgart, Germany is a dead-end station with many travellers: 300 000 per day, 1 280 trains stop here daily. It is one of the five most frequented railway stations in Germany and was opened in 1928 – the former station was 500 meters away but became too small. Since several years the Hauptbahnhof is a building site as within the project ‘Stuttgart21‘ it will be rebuilt as an underground station and it will be no dead-end station after that anymore.
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To be honest the Glockenteich lake near Mönchehof belonging to Espenau, Germany isn’t a big highlight – unless you love to watch birds and amphibians. The locals say that one of the church bells once flew very, very far and created this lake when touching the ground (therefore the name ‘bell lake’). At least the lake has the shape of a giant bell if you look on satellite-created maps.
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The hill Schäferberg (‘shepherd mountain’) near Espenau, Germany received its name because the farmers of Hohenkirchen often brought their cattle there. The inhabitants of Kassel mostly know the name because of the big hotel Waldhotel Schäferberg where you can get to have a good brunch or some cake. But there is also another story to tell: in 1943 the Nazis created here a camp for forced-labour workers from different European countries.
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One of the best places to enjoy the colourful sunset at Brighton, United Kingdom. The Brighton BeachClub is located directly on the Brighton city beach and close to the British Airways i360. It offers some seats in a glass house alike building (ensuring good views) and on a terrace surrounding the building.
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While walking through Brighton, United Kingdom you might wonder whether you’ve taken a shortcut through time and space to India. In the heart of the city you can find the Royal Pavilion, a building in the style of the palaces of Indian moguls. It was built between 1815 and 1822 by the order of George IV. It was also used by William IV – but as queen Victoria wasn’t in favor of the seaside resort south of London it was sold in 1850 to the city of Brighton.
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Once the city of Brighton, United Kingdom had two rivalling piers: the West Pier and the Palace Pier. The first one burned down and the latter is now a pleasure pier with an amusement park on the waters. It was built from 1891 to 1899 and offers rollercoaster rides, merry-go-rounds, gambling machines and candy floss. You can pay per ride or get a dayticket – but does someone really want to spend a whole day there?
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