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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The Hessisches Landesmuseum at Kassel, Germany is a museum about the history of Hesse from the very early days on. It is located in a building dateing back to the year 1913 close to the Brüder-Grimm-Platz and I guess I would have never visited it if I hadn’t received a recommendation. It’s the cumbersome name and the ancient building that didn’t let me expect anything interesting inside – but I was absolutely wrong.
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Whenever I‘m standing on my balcony I can feel a little bit like in Egypt. On the horizon, somewhere at the city quarter Niederzwehren of Kassel, Germany I can spot a pyramid. But it isn‘t the grave of a Hessian landgrave and it isn‘t a pyramid – it is in fact a catholic church.
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When you‘re visiting the city quarter Vorderer Westen of Kassel, Germany you‘ll definitely see the twin towers of the Friedenskirche – a protestant church located at the Friedrich-Ebert-Straße. It was opened in 1908 in neo-baroque style. The decoration is lean and modern – but also beautiful.
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