Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
The Hechtsee is a small lake with a surface of 0,28 squarekilometers between Kufstein, Austria and Kiefersfelden, Germany. It was created by tectonic movements and a glacier during the last glacial period. It is surrounded by mountains with the Thierberg being the highest one of them – a beautiful scenerio and it also gives many options for hiking.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I don‘t know how often we have crossed the Alps when I was a child. Every year I‘ve seen the Brennero on our way to Alto Adige, Italy – and many other families did so, too. We always drove the complete way from northern Germany – but if you want to split the long way in two the Gasthof Zur Post at Kiefersfelden, Germany is a good option.
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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.
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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.
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I don’t know how many times I passed the entrance of the Stadtmuseum of Kassel without entering it. It is located within the old Karlshospiz at the Ständeplatz but has the entrance in the rear. Maybe it were the windows closed with bricks that kept me from entering the building with the nice portal. At least I didn’t expect too many interesting things inside.
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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.
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