Sights Archives ⋆ Page 66 of 143 ⋆ The Passenger

May 4, 2019May 31, 2019

Thierberg

Fortunately the Thierberg mountain between Kufstein, Austria and Kiefersfelden, Germany isn’t the highest mountain of the region. It is quite a task to get up there but it is doable and you should do it because of the ruin and the chapel on top. The castle was built in 1280 and the last restauration works were done in 2001 – you can now climb up on top of the tower and have fantastic views on Kufstein and the Kaiser Mountains. The chapel also includes a nativity scene in realistic Arab style.

May 4, 2019May 30, 2019

Achensee

The Achensee is a long-stretched lake in Austria between Kufstein and Innsbruck, not far away from the border to Germany. It is the largest lake of Tyrol and up to 133 meters deep. The area was formerly mostly used for hunting and fishing, the lake has a high variety of fish species. Today tourism plays an important role and you can go do a roundtrip by boat which takes about two hours. This is beautiful because of the high mountains surrounding the lake with snow on top, some long waterfalls and everchanging vegetation.

May 4, 2019May 30, 2019

Steam engines

When visiting the railway station of Jenbach, Austria there’s a high probability of dense smoke. That’s because here two special railways are starting that often operate with steam engines: the Achenseebahn and the Zillertalbahn. The Achenseebahn is rather short and takes you 6.7 kilometers to nearby Achensee lake (which is really beautiful, by the way). It is narrow-gauge cog railway opened in 1889. At the final stop you can board a ship doing a roundtrip on the lake in between high mountains.

May 4, 2019May 30, 2019

Museumsfriedhof

People dislike to think about the end of their lifes. That is one reason why there aren’t many museums about death, even if it is inevitable for everyone. The special burial traditions of the region of the Alps is shown on the Museumsfriedhof Tirol in Kramsach, Austria. If you’re going via Brennero through the Alps it is a good stop. Don’t expect a scientific approach – it is rather an obscure collection of graveyard signs that make you wonder and laugh.

May 1, 2019May 30, 2019

Porta Lapidaria

Within the forest on the Brasselsberg mountain of Kassel, Germany and between the Teufelsmauer and the Bismarckturm you need to pass a gate made of stone: the Porta Lapidaria. At least these are two rocks consisting of basalt originating from volcanic activity. One of the left-hand side of the path, one on the right-hand side. The rest is your imagination.

May 1, 2019May 30, 2019

Zwehrenturm

The Zwehrenturm is just a tower next to the Fridericianum at the Friedrichsplatz of Kassel, Germany – why wasting a word about it? Well in fact it is not only a tower, it is the last preserved ancient city gate. It was built in 1330 in gothic style and served as the gate in the direction of Frankfurt, Germany. The building was also used as a prison and from 1709 on landgrave Charles of Hesse-Kassel made an observatory out of it.

April 28, 2019April 28, 2019

A new home

It was one of the most interesting artworks of the documenta 14 art exhibition at Kassel, Germany: the obelisk (‘Das Fremdlinge und Flüchtlinge Monument‘) by Olu Oguibe originally located on the Königsplatz. A simple geometric figure with the words of Matthew 25,35c on it in German, English, Arabic and Turkish: ‘I was a stranger and you took me in‘. It was the right artwork at the right time and place, as in Germany there were long-running, very emotional debates how many refugees the country can take in.

April 25, 2019May 30, 2019

Sky Garden

The latest insider tip if you want to combine good drinks with perfect views on the city of London, United Kingdom is the Sky Garden. It is a garden in the glassy top floor of the building 20 Fenchurch Street that is called walkie-talkie by the locals because of its shape. Within the Sky Garden you will find a bar and a restaurant. In addition to good food and drinks you can enjoy perfect views on important sights like the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge as well as on other skyscrapers like the gherkin, the shard, the cheesegrater and the lipstick.

April 25, 2019April 19, 2022

Under the Thames

The river Thames is not a small one while it is passing through London, United Kingdom. I crossed it many, many times on bridges and within (underground) trains. But there is also the possibility to walk through under it at one point: the Greenwich foot tunnel. It connects the Isle of Dogs north of the river with Greenwich – the entrance is close to the Cutty Sark. Construction works started in 1899 and the tunnel was opened in 1902. The purpose was to bring the workers in a fast and reliable way to the docks.

April 25, 2019May 30, 2019

Prime Meridian

To refer to a specific place on the planet a coordinate system is needed. We’re using longitude (west/east) and latitude (north/south) to tell where we are. The latitude is 0 on the equator but for longitude a position for 0 – the prime meridian – had to be defined. On a conference in Washington, United States different alternatives were analysed and it was defined that the prime meridian should be the one going through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London (as it was used most often by that time).