There are war memorials all over Germany, many of them in the massive Teutonic style often thought of as typically German, and others very poignant. These two photos show a memorial in an odd place...beside the parking lot behind Agnes's parents' apartment building. It commemorates those killed in the bombing of Singen on Christmas Day, 1944...the inscription reads, "In memory of our dead, 25 December 1944." By the way, "RIP" actually stands for the Latin "resquiescat in pacem," or "rest in peace." Nice that the abbreviation works in two languages.
An interesting historical side note: when my father was flying with the 8th Air Force from England in B-24s during World War II, one of his missions was to bomb Singen. Due to a navigational error, they missed the city and bombed the nearby city of Schaffhausen in Switzerland, instead.
This memorial is located in downtown Singen, next to one of the churches, and remembers those killed in the First World War. I almost walked past it because it is so thickly covered with greenery...
There are lots of religious statues around, too. This is a statue of St John of Nepomuk which overlooks one of the picturesque bridges over the Aach River in the Singen Stadtgarten (city gardens)...
Germans generally love to walk, and the country is crisscrossed with tens of thousands of marked hiking trails and walking paths. This handy guide was located in the Singen Stadtgarten...
And this one, a bit more scaled down, was located along the trail leading up to Hohenzollern Castle...
Germans love dogs, and you can find refreshment stations for them in many stores and restaurants. This one was in the courtyard of the Hohenzollern Castle...
I just liked this sign for a bookstore in Singen. The name of the store is "Reading Fodder"...
And finally, for those of you who don't like my travelogues...
Well, sadly, vacation is over and it's time to get ready to go to work. Sigh. Back to work today, back to the usual curmudgeonliness here tomorrow.Have a good day. More thoughts coming.
Bilbo
That was definitely an interesting side note about your father nearly bombing Singen! Did Agnes's parents live there back then too??
ReplyDeleteHundes Bistro has a certain charm to it also. Bistro in English is a sit-down, but fast restaurant. According to legend, the name arose after the Russian Revolution, when the aristocrats that could, fled to Paris. Since many of the men were rich enough to drive cars, but had no training in any useful profession, quite a few became taxi drivers. When they stopped to eat, with their limited French, they would call for their food in a hurry, using the Russian words, "bistro, bistro" for the French "vitesse" or our "hurry up." (They needed to get back on the road and earning a few sous as fast as possible.) At some point the restaurants they favored for their good food (after all, they still had aristocratic tastes!) began to call themselves "Bistros." This may be all be apocryphal, but it hangs today with some logic. From a former Bistro owner!
ReplyDeleteEminence Grise
Agnes's mother was living in a small town near Singen at the time. Her father was in the German army fighting in the Balkans.
ReplyDeleteThat handy guide post would take me an hour to figure out. And besides that there's a sign nailed to the tree.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the final travel segment.
ReplyDelete"Germans love dogs..."
ReplyDeleteWhat do they call German Shepherds in Germany? Are they just Shepherds?
In France, are French fries just fries?
Inquiring minds want to know.
ok this is creepy. my word verification is "dedly" as in deadly as in.. war memorials. .. dead soldiers... ooooh lala. creepy
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - I've heard the same story, and I think it's more or less accurate.
ReplyDeleteMike - and I thought I was the one who had trouble with directions...
Leslie - you can pay me back on the dance floor...
John - in Germany, German Shepherds are called "Schaferhunde," which means "shepherd dogs." In France (as in Germany), French fries are called "pommes frittes." Hope I've eased your mind.
Twinkie - nice to hear from you again! I should have set my blog up to play some creepy organ music for you...