Vacation Report, Part 4: Images of Singen

Here are a few of the many pictures I shot in the city of Singen, the last stop on our vacation in Germany. Singen is a relatively small, grimy industrial city, the downtown part of which is easily walkable, but not especially scenic. It does, however, have a lot of nice photo opportunities around the outskirts and, especially, in the Stadtgarten (city garden). I've put up a lot of other pictures of Singen in earlier posts ... these are, I think, all new ...

Just in case you have any doubt of where you are as you drive into town via the Hauptstrasse (Main Street) ...

The major scenic attraction of Singen is the huge, ruined fortress of Hohentwiel, which sits atop a huge volcanic plug and can be seen from anywhere in the city. The city is only a few kilometers from the Swiss border and the beautiful town of Stein am Rhein ...

Germans love to walk (unlike Americans, who will sit idling in their cars for 20 minutes to get a parking place as close as possible to their destination). All over town are signs like this, which indicate the distances and the biking and walking times to various destinations ...

Pretty much every city in Germany has a war memorial, and Singen is no exception. Most of the memorials are dedicated to those killed in World Wars I and II, but this one is for Singeners killed in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 ...

By the way, that spiked helmet the soldier is wearing is called a Pickelhaube ("spiked helmet," duh). I want one. You can buy one here and send it to me for my birthday. Or Christmas. I'll wait.

While I was strolling around the edges of the Stadtgarten, I found this interesting sign attached to a woodpile shaped like a little house ... yes, it says "insect hotel" ...

Here are two pictures of nice scenes within the Stadtgarten. This gate opens from a busy street into the quiet calm of the garden ...

And this one is a view of the Aach River as it flows through the greenery ...

I think I've put up this whimsical picture before, but I love the scene ... it's a tree stump located in the Stadtgarten, cleverly and imaginatively carved in the image of a beaver chowing down ...

Finally, we spent two weeks living in room 206 of the Holiday Inn Express in Singen, which is convenient enough to all the places we needed to go, but is not a shining example of the luxury European hotel experience. This was the view from our window in the front of the building ... on the left is the Rathaus (city hall), and just barely visible on the right is the Stadthalle (multi-purpose event hall). Both of those buildings (and the Holiday Inn Express) are blocky, ugly, and functional; the view directly ahead shows some typically old-German architecture that I find a lot more beautiful ... 

And that finishes up my photographic summary of our trip to Germany. If you've never been there, it's beautiful and worth visiting. And if you need an interpreter, my rates are very reasonable.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo