Miss Marple

Miss Marple, London bus, Göttingen

As in every German city, right-hand traffic is the rule of the road at Göttingen and therefore also bus stops are always on the right-hand side. But there is one bus stop that is on the left hand-side: the one for city tours with a classic London bus behind the old town hall. The bus company of the city (Göttinger Verkehrsbetriebe, GöVB) has acquired an old iconic red bus built in the United Kingdom in 1960. It is named ‘Miss Marple‘ after Agatha Christie’s fictional character and it is the gem of their fleet; something they really need to care about as spare parts aren’t available anymore for this classic.

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The Great Stink

Crossness Pumping Station, London

It is an unusual place to visit at London, but also an impressive one: the Victorian-era Crossness sewage pumping station. The fast growing city had a massive problem to get rid of the human waste produced by the rising number of inhabitants. Initially, cesspits were used that had to be emptied by the night soil men: they’ve put the solid remains (and ‘night soil‘ was the euphemism for them) on their carts and sold them to farmers on the land surrounding the city as fertilizer. On the way back they used the same carts to transport grain into the city. Well, hygiene wasn’t so well developed in these days.

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Bushy

Bushy Park, Richmond, London

It was a Saturday morning when I was walking through massive fields of high fern in the west of London when a white stag appeared in front of me on the path. What sounds like the beginning of some fairy-tale is daily routine at Bushy Park: the vast park is roamed by many deer that are pretty much used to visitors. Every now and then you will see one pass or you can see a group of horns peaking out of high grass. They are in this place because of king Henry VIII who was a passionate hunter.

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Wetlands

Walthamstow Wetlands, London

Wetlands at todays London, is that even possibly? Well it is, but of course the Walthamstow Wetlands aren’t natural. A city like London needs to do water management and that is how these artificial lakes between Walthamstow and Hale were created between 1863 and 1904. The first reservoirs protecting the city from droughts were even dug by hand. Today the wetlands are a protected nature conservation zone which is especially used by birds passing through the metropolitain area.

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Abbey Road

Abbey Road, London

In 1969 The Beatles published their 11th album, one of the most successful albums of all times with still today well known songs like Come Together, Octopus’s Garden and Here Comes the Sun. It was the last studio album of the band and recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in the city quarter St. John’s Wood of London. The band initially wanted to name the album Everest and fly to the Himalaya to shoot the cover picture, but then found it more convenient to just walk out the door and take the picture directly in front of the recording studio.

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Corvey

Karolingisches Westwerk, Kloster Corvey, Höxter

When scrolling through the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany you’ll discover the Cloister Corvey near the smalltown Höxter in Germanys North Rhine-Westphalia. In fact it is not the entire monastery that is inscribed on the list, it is only one part of its church (the Westwerk) and something invisible today: the city once surrounding it (the Civitas). What’s that all about? Corvey was a Carolingian monastery founded in 822 CE. Charlemagne wanted to drive Christianisation in Saxony after he conquered it.

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Rhumequelle

Rhumequelle, Rhumspringe

A lake with clear blue water within a forest – that is the main spring of river Rhume close to the village Rhumspringe. In many other cases people have framed the source of a river, but here it is untouched: there is just a swimming pontoon for better views and some tables for a picnic. It is said to be the third-largest spring in Germany and one of the most productive Karst springs (with up to 5,000 liter per second).

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Scharzfels

Burgruine Scharzfels, Bad Lauterberg

A massive staircase in the forest close to Scharzfeld easily shows that something big was once standing here. It is leading onto a 20 meters high dolomite rock which was the location of the Burg Scharzfeld from the 10th century CE. There is not much left of the once massive fortification – just some remains of walls, arches and gates; but you can have an amazing view from up there. The staircase is in such good shape is king George V (the last king of Hannover) had it restored in 1856 and today it looks a bit alien in this landscape.

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Einhornhöhle

Einhornhöhle, Herzberg am Harz

Are you in the mood to search for unicorns? Then the Einhornhöhle near Scharzfeld might be the perfect destination for you. Researchers have come here for a very long time as the 700 meters long cave is filled to large extent with sediment that contains the bones of extinct animals like mammoths, cave bears and cave lions. In 1672 the physicist Otto von Guericke reported that he had found a unicorn there which motivated the famous mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to get there and to construct a unicorn from bones. It were in facht mammoth bones, but his reconstruction is now the logo of the cave and the name ‘unicorn cave‘ attracts a lot of visitors.

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Peyto Lake

Peyto lake, Canada

Turquoise ice-cold water forming a lake between forests and mountains of the Banff National Park, that’s Peyto Lake – maybe the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen. It is fed by the glaciers surrounding it and its color is special because of fine rock particles (‘glacial flour’) that are carried into the lake. It is named after trapper Bill Peyto who was active in this region in the 19th century.

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