28 September – Teddy comes for a walk
For our 2 favourite girls in Berlin.
Music for this walk
Hey Teddy, do you want to come for a walk?
Which way, which way?
Wow, what’s that?
Apples! Just lying on the grass!
Found me, found me.
Where is Teddy?
Just my size and I love the colour.
Hey! I‘m hungry too.
Mmmm. Cheese roll.
What‘s that?
It’s very pretty.
Gerhild found me a necklace under a mushroom. Maybe it’s magic?
Peek a boo.
Bet you can‘t see me!
Huh. There‘s nothing under this mushroom.
This way home.
27 September – Early start in Teis
Breakfast with some Kamut rolls.
Ancient Tyrolean fence-making craft.
What is Gerhild taking a picture of?
Vilnößtal, what else.
25 September – 3 churches again
Nice clouds this morning.
How do you like Vilnößtal?.
Popped into St. Peter’s church for a quick peek, having listened to its bells every 15 minutes since we’ve been here, and vainly tried to read the clock in its tower.
Kim finished reading his first ever Stephen King novel. It‘s a bit strange with invented „horror“ creatures as the author can invent the rules as he goes along. Not exactly a Sherlock Holmes story where things have a logic to them.
Gerhild finished „The little shop on the corner“ and she liked it a lot – just the right thing for a holiday.
21 September – Halslhütte
1860 m to start from the Halshütte carpark. What a glorious day!
Walk up through the magical woods.
There‘s something magic here. What can you see?
Fresh fish at about 1800 m on the Rungtscher Wiesen. Looks really delish that fish!
An unflutterable owl.
No idea what it is but it‘s interesting.
As one does, we discussed the art painted on a stone here with a passing couple and the woman said it reminded her of one of Tony Hillerman‘s stories about the Navajo tribal police. Having never heard of him, I will borrow one from the American library in Berlin.
Can you believe it, Gerhild ate this work of art and it was quite delicious too.
20 September – Lazy day in St. Peter
Breakfast on the balcony.
Little constitutional walk around the village.
Shopping for some local goodies in Pizak.
19 September – Teis
Teis is at the end of our valley, Villnößtal.
This small chapel is bizarrely surrounded by concrete trenches built during the 1st world war, with a bunker underneath.
The tiny chapel shows Mary with the 7 swords symbolising her 7 sorrows.
Our pocket sword comes in handy to harvest some nice parasol mushrooms and cut off the woody bits.
They shrink amazingly when cooked.
Gerhild used her stick to carry the bag full of mushrooms. Stock und Hut, steht ihr gut …
17 September – 3 churches, Peter, Valentin & Jakob
Time follows its own rules in South Tyrol. This was when we started our walk today as shown on St. Peter‘s clocktower.
This plain little church in St. Valentin was started in 1090. (webpage)
So this toothy chap might be getting on for 1000 years old.
In 1945 Brazilian bombers just missed the church and the farmer‘s house next door, so the survivors expressed their thanks by setting up two (hopefully) empty bombshells in front of a small shrine.
And here‘s the third church, in St. Jakob.
15 September Travel
See everything on one long page here, or choose a day.
- 15 September Travel
- 16 September – The Panorama walk
- 17 September – 3 churches, Peter, Valentin & Jakob
- 18 September – Zanser Alm
- 19 September – Teis
- 20 September – Lazy day in St. Peter
- 21 September – Halslhütte
- 22 September – St Magdalena
- 23 September – Rainy reading day
- 24 September – Halsl the other way around
- 25 September – 3 churches again
- 26 September – Dusler Alm
- 27 September – Early start in Teis
- 28 September – Teddy comes for a walk
- 29 September Travel
St. Peter, dem Hauptort des Villnösstal
Bahnfahrt
260 km 3h 5 m von München nach Kabishof
https://www.villnoess.com/de/aktivitaeten/wandern/
The view from the east balcony.
The view from the south balcony. Gerhild just hanging out.
Street Automata in Nantes
Street Automata in France
“La Voyage à Nantes” is a regular summer event designed to promote the currently not very well known city of Nantes, which in 2019 took place from 6th July to 1st Sept. It is very simply organised around a long green line painted on the floor which leads visitors through the streets, passing both temporary and permanent artworks, including the amazing giant elephant which David Soulsby described in the January 2019 edition of the magazine.
The green line also leads you through the rue du Maréchal Joffre. This small, trendy French street includes a baker, hairdresser, bookshop, burger joint, which is no surprise, but if you look up a little you will find that things are on the move. Over the hairdresser’s shop, there is a barber with that curious critical pose which is so typical of his trade, all the while his scissors snipping incessantly. In the base with its transparent cover, a giant comb moves back and forth. Over the vintage clothes shop a woman keeps trying on the same red and white spotted dress, the gearwheels of indecision spinning beneath her feet. All along the street there are a good dozen of these creations, which can be seen during the annual event held in France’s 6th largest city, Nantes which is near to the Atlantic coast and the Bay of Biscay.
The automata were designed by Nantes-based English artist & illustrator Gavin Pryke. He is quoted as saying “I like the idea of making an interactive work that appeals to children and their grandparents alike.” Implementation of the full size automata started in December 2014 with a team of 8 people involved in their production and installation. Installed above shops and restaurants they are quite large so that they can be easily seen and enjoyed from across the street. The bases are reminiscent of the bases of table top automata where turning a handle visibly puts cogs and levers in motion. In rue du Maréchal Joffre the real mechanisms are concealed and the bases have a transparent front revealing mechanisms which are part of the show but do not actually make things move. It’s a hard life as an outdoor automaton, so they are only installed for the duration of the Voyage à Nantes event during July and August. At night the wooden performers are allowed to rest, to get ready for their next action-packed day. After the event they are taken down and moved indoors for some tender loving care to make them fit and ready for the next year.
There is a short film of the street’s automata in action here https://youtu.be/bNFZ6Ya0MsM.
Download images of the automata from here https://www.wordwise.de/Nantes_automata_images.zip
Nantes 20 July la nuit Bretonne
Last trip to the Jardin des Plantes. Found some funny text about the pots in the garden https://jardins.nantes.fr/En/Accueil/Ponti/2015/WTEnQrc.asp?c=9
…on our way to LA NUIT BRETONNE – CONCERTS ET FEST-NOZ in the chateau
https://www.levoyageanantes.fr/agenda/la-nuit-bretonne-2018/
Starting with an Irish band, the Four Winds
Ending up with traditional Breton dancing on a huge wooden dance floor.
Nantes 19 July Jules Verne walk
We walked to the Jules Verne museum today.
Cup of tea anyone?
To encourage people to read at the library, provide some comfy outdoor seating
and wheel the books out to the readers! Believe it or not, Gerhild is reading, in German, about the “Vegetable Orchestra” found in the book truck.
Writer’s block in stone
How to liven up the marking for the pedestrian part of the path next to the Loire.
Great carved trees in the Quai des Plantes.
Old school skateboarder without a battery.
Nantes 18 July LU biscuit factory
Today we went to the old LU biscuit factory to see a Richard Mosse exhibition. Funny to travel all the way to Nantes to see a huge infrared picture of Berlin’s old Tempelhof airport.
The video “Incoming” was very impressive.
Then we prepared a picnic, split a nice bottle of French red into two plastic water bottles and found a good spot behind the cathedral for the free concert.
Tables for your picnic, lamps hung from the trees, two great bands and a mild Nantes evening.
Nantes 17 July Saint-Nazaire
We took a boat to Saint-Nazaire today and on the way –
Not a planning disaster but a work of art…
Erwin Wurm having fun
Exclusive place to live.
Mum, please mum, can I take it home!
Nice additions to these buildings, if some head scratching is called for.
Never seen a lock with a bomb-proof roof before
What to do with a useless submarine base
Japanese style garden of the stars with a boys’ and a girls’ tower.
Kim and his keep-kool hat.
Nantes 16 July la vie est belle
It took us a while to discover that this shop sign is of a “Gouty Rat” which was the eccentric name of a shop familiar to the young Jules Verne.
21:30 Choeur Mikrokosmos in front of Museum d‘histoire naturelle. Sat on comfy shop step until we got bored and drifted off to find this nice little rhyme, loosely translated if rhyme-free as “life is beautiful, just like you”.
Which was also used in “les enfants de paradis”… Go on, try out your French comprehension!
Nantes 15 July Galerie des Machines
What’s that?
A nicely planted street pissoir – only in France.
On the “Arty” walk. Nantes waiters are so friendly!
What is Gerhild doing in that basket in the galerie des machines?
Waiting for takeoff with Heron airlines.
You’ve never seen a hummingbird like this.
A wooden goose.
Testing the plants for the Heron Tree.
On our happy way home.
Nantes 14 July Erdre walk
Today we went for a pretty walk along the river Erdre, accompanied by Sunday joggers, a few bicycles and people looking for a picnic spot.
Creative use of bits of tree to make a nice picnic area.
One way to paint your boat.
There’s a message in this somewhere.
Kim likes this skeleton tag which we have seen on a few pieces of black street furniture.
Where the path is blocked by posh gardens they built a nice boardwalk.
Nantes 13 July Trentemoult
Strolled along the green line today, after buying a baguette for lunch.
The park opposite is reflected in this pierced facade.
Nice signs for the butcher‘s shop
Cheeky fellow stepping on Gerhild‘s head.
Bookshop sign!
In the evening we took the ferry to Trentemoult.
Where there are some great paintings lurking behind the ivy.
Not to mention this large clock with no hands.
As it got dark, the rings on the île de Nantes lit up (les Anneaux -Daniel Buren)
Which looked good from the ferry on the way home.
Nantes 12 July Chateau
Had a look at the Chateau today.
Anne and her royal namesake, the Duchess Anne.
Lunch on board a boat on the Erdre (Pépé Guingette). In the foreground „Amours“ by Karina Bisch.