Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
The Nordstadtpark is one of the smaller green areas at Kassel, Germany – but it is well-known and highly frequented because of its location next to the university and the university hospital. It offers a playground, a large meadow to relax and terraces to sit on next to river Ahne. The location also determines the atmosphere here: the visitors are younger and more international than in other parts of the city.
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Because of its massive weaponry production the city of Kassel, Germany was a primary target for air raids in World War II. Therefore you can still today find different bunkers under the city and above ground. One of them is the vast Weinbergbunker within the Weinberg mountain (where once wine was planted) close to the city center. It was created in 1821 to store and cool beer – the temperature down there is always between 8 and 11 degrees celsius. In addition in winter times ice from the frozen river Fulda was brought there.
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In the forest between Landwehrhagen, Staufenberg and Heiligenrode, Niestetal you can observe a special border situation: as both, the kingdom of Hannover and the landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel wanted to use a path through the forest they found an easy solution. The border stones are simply placed on the left and the right side of the path creating a ‘Niemandsland‘ (no man’s land) not belonging to one of these two parties. When you’re standing in between you’re neither in the kingdom nor in the landgraviate.
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The Ickelsbach is just a tiny flow beginning at Lutterberg, passing Landwehrhagen (both belonging to Staufenberg) and ending at the river Fulda close to Wahnhausen, Fuldatal (which is located on the other side of the river). Unfortunately you cannot walk near the riverbed but on paths close to the river. It is a nice walk from Landwehrhagen down to river Fulda where you can decide to continue via the watergate to Wahnhausen or along the Fulda to Speele.
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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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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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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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