Castle Talk

beyond our time photo by Frizztext

As I wrote about the old German castle Burg ELTZ, I enjoyed many feedbacks in my photo blog flickr. They talked, as if we had the time of medieval human beings, not always in a hurry. So let me feature a collection of responses:

question by “Carpe feline”: I want to go spend several days there! Do I have to walk up?

frizz-feedback:
1. you have to walk up many stairs, no elevator there
2. there’s a big cat hating dog
3. the best is inside, but you are not allowed to take interior photos

response by “Carpe feline”: Ah well! I’ll practice climbing stairs and we won’t take the cats with us!

response by Geoff Quinn: my cats are very unhappy about the cat-hating dog (is there not enough hate in the world, can we not send this divisive dog to sensitivity training). Who will take care of the castle rats if the castle dog persists in his discrimination. But I digress. It is very sad that the masters of the cat-hating dog discriminate against photographers. Such people are bound to have cat-hating dogs. But that is why God has created, in his (or her) wisdom, the i-phone and made it so complicated a device that one can accidentally — accidentally — take a photograph while attempting to place a phone call. Worse things have happened…and while speaking English with the Japanese tour group you could act very confused and everyone wold understand and in this setting pictures could be taken. Then you could use Michel de Montaigne as your excuse. Surely no one complained when he gave such a vivid word picture — the photograph of his day. I should add that in your vivid blog, I am most charmed by his words and travel back 500 years in an instant to the little cozy room with the fire and the window.

comment by allr1: Damn, that looks fortified. The vertically of this place makes me dizzy. I have a hard time imagining what it must be like on the inside. Or what life would have been like to even need a fortified castle. Not so different than our ‘modern’ wars.

comment by Hendrik, Netherlands: German castles are so fancy that they have become the prototypes for Hollywood. Personally I am reminded of the days I was playing with my Marklin model railway and Faller building kits. Never had a castle …

comment by Tailor’s family: I have a scale model which I built of this castle! – it is good to see its surroundings! – thank you.

comment by Ben Visbeek, Amsterdam: Waiting also for your winter shot with snow!

frizz-feedback for BEN (who is a pilot):
of course I am longing for a photo with snow – but it’s a three hour distance by car – on snowy roads? I fear, I will never manage this; maybe I should paint the castle in a snowy landscape? or you’ll rent a small airplane, helicopter or zeppelin (nearby is a little airport) – that would be a joined venture.

Geoff: Nice place to try to heat in the winter.

comment by mezze, Arnhem, Netherlands: ah, het nest van een adelaar! Would that be ‘ah, a vulture’s nest!’ ?

frizz-feedback for visitors from the Netherlands: from April to October tourists can visit the castle; the guides are English-spoken; the tourists are coming from all over the globe, when I’ve been there a month ago I joined a group of people from Japan; the guide spoke English, that’s O.K. – I do not understand Japanese (cannot read this too, of course); the castle (near the river Moselle and the city Koblenz, river Rhine) is built 1156 and had been never destroyed because it is not easy to find that building in the forest; it’s not built on the top of a hill, the castle is placed in a hole – see the other pic, made from another, much higher point of view; sorry to say: it is not allowed to take pictures inside of the building – though there is a so amazing interior!

comment by Geoff Quinn, San Francisco: Frizz — Congratulations of being among the 500 most interesting of the 37,906,284 photos uploaded to flickr in 2007!

frizz-feedback: It’s like diving into a fairytale, every time, when we visit the ELTZ castle, Germany. And I like to sit there and play on my guitar some ancient pieces like ALLEGRO by MAURO GIULIANI; tabs for guitarists: www.chordie.com/chord.pere/?url=http://www.lindesign.se/u… it’s an easy instrumental for beginners, try!

question by bihua, Munich: Wessen Traum ist das?

frizz-feedback: ..wessen Traum ist das? Vielleicht der Traum der Zurückgezogenen und Arroganten, der Global Player und Einkommensmillionäre, derjenigen, die nicht zur Masse gehören wollen. Wir allerdings waren heilfroh, als wir diesen unheimlichen Talkessel mit der menschenleeren Anlage (geschlossen vom 1. Nov. – 1. März) wieder verlassen hatten und eintauchen konnten hinein in das fröhliche Gemurmel einer Autobahnraststätte… aber WARUM verehren so viele so sehr die Stabilität der Burgmauern? Weil wir uns überflutet fühlen, weil wir lieber die Chance zur Selbstversenkung wenigstens zuweilen erleben wollen?

= frizztext: We admire the stability of the castle-walls. But why? Because we feel over-flooded? Because we want to use the chance of self-exploring in silence, free from media-over-kill?

photo by frizztext, more than 100.000 views!

comment by Ken in Texas: If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.-Lichtenberg

frizz-reply: yes, kja-texas, that’s the best place, to present this Georg Christoph Lichtenberg quote! my compliment; I hope my personal air castle is not tumbling down: to write daily a blog article …

frizz: what do you think: would we be the same, living 1000 years earlier?

feedback to the question by allr1: We would not even come close to resembling our ‘today selves’, if we were born 1000 years ago. That is my opinion.

“tuneindoseout” added to the dialog: I hope we don’t live the same way, there are a lot of changes and hopefully growth in (for lack of a better word) a new light of awareness ahead of all of us.

comment by Astrid Günther, living near by this castle (on her daily jogging path): Ich kenne die Burg gut. Auf diesem Foto gefallen mir die roten Fensterläden besonders. An Sonnentagen kann man in dem Gemäuer oft Eidechsen beobachten.

frizz-reply: ja Eidechsen habe ich da auch fotografiert auf den Wegen drum herum. Mein Traum ist, die Burg einmal bei Schnee fotografieren zu können – aber genau dann kommt man ja mit dem Auto nicht hin. Auch sehr schade, dass in den Innenräumen das Fotografieren strengstens untersagt ist. Da kommen Besucher aus Japan und den USA, und dann dürfen sie auf einmal nicht fotografieren. Das können sie überhaupt nicht begreifen. Deutschland eben…

question by Hugo Palma: Which city is this castle located?

frizz: no city, only forest; you have to walk half an hour (no car is allowed to drive close to the building); near the river Moselle, city: Cochem, villages: Wierschem, Münstereifel…

comment by Will Wilson, San Francisco: The child in each of us knows he has been here before.

comment by Helga21: Eine gelungene Aufnahme eines Märchenschlosses…. vielleicht hat hier Dornröschen gewohnt… als Kind wäre ich davon überzeugt gewesen……. heute stelle ich mir vor, wie es sein mag in einem Turmzimmer ein Buch zu lesen oder Chopin zu hören…, die Landschaft zu genießen. Sonderbar, dass nur wenige Dichter an der Mosel Verse verfassten, alle besangen den Rhein, dabei ist die Mosellandschaft viel idyllischer… Dornröschen wird nicht besungen, sondern die Loreley. Warum bloß?

answer by frizztext: männer haben wohl keine lust, sich mit dornenhecken abzuquälen – lieber werden sie von singenden weibern eingelullt (und fahren auf grund – so war’s doch bei der lorelei? – dem prinzen mit seinem dornröschen aber geht es hinterher blendend!)

comment by lalobamfw: great location for defense; nice conical tower roofs.

comment by Jeff Holbrook at flickr:
Such amazing accomplishments with such primitive technology!

frizz-feedback: Yes, Jeff, primitive technology – even with our modern machines it would be hard, to build such a thing. I’ve heard from architects, that in Dubai actually many workers from Pakistan found their death during the work on the modern hybrid skyscrapers. Cynicism is still up to date by those, who have the money vs. those who are poor. Nothing changed in certain hierarchies …

comment by abej2004: wise use of land and rock.

Montaigne: “My library is in the third story of a tower; on the first is my chapel, on the second a bedroom with ante-chambers, where I often lie to be alone; and above it there is a great wardrobe. Adjoining my library is a very neat little room, in which a fire can be laid in winter, and which is pleasantly lighted by a window…” Michel de Montaigne (1533 – 1592)

more at Burg ELTZ