weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

I finally did it! - I have been working for over 5 months on a series of photo albums from a drive we did in the fall of 2016 through the North European Plain. This work was substantially slowed down by the recent lengthy series of posts I did on the Arabian Peninsula here on UHH, but finally late last night I completed the ultimate finishing touches and set the albums live on my photo-website.

It had been a dream of ours for quite a few years to explore the lowlands stretching from the Northern Netherlands through all of Germany into Western Poland, and we finally managed to do it exactly 4 years ago. The region is maybe not that well known to international travelers, except of course for the big cities like Berlin and Gdansk/Danzig. We had visited many parts of Germany, particularly the South as it is close to my native Switzerland, as well as the very North bordering on Denmark, but the lowlands remained terra incognito for us until this drive.

The area is basically very flat, bordered by the Baltic Sea to the north and hilly landscape to the south, and bisected by a few major German rivers. It has been a major powerhouse of Germany for many centuries, part of the Hanseatic merchant "empire" that connected the ports as well as the major towns inland. Our main emphasis on this trip was to visit a number of the many interesting towns with outstanding architecture. For photographers interested in architecture, it is a fairyland, to perform the post work on the pictures afterwards can be quite time consuming with the perspective adjustments inherent to architectural photography. Our original plans did have a "green" ending, as we intended, after Poland, to visit the city of Dresden, and then to spend some time in Saxon Switzerland (Sächsische Schweiz) and explore this famous hill region. Unfortunately, I caught a nasty throat infection in Gdansk, which got really bad while we visited Wroclaw/Breslau, so we had to cut short the drive and hurry back to our base in Switzerland, with a brief overnight stop in the Bavarian city of Bamberg, known for its old architecture and its smoked beer.

In this post, I basically show one picture of each of the places we stayed in to give you an idea of the area. I plan to eventually do a more appropriate series of posts on UHH, but just wanted to vent my joy on having this project completed. And before I do this presentation, I have another shorter project in the hopper for UHH. If you are interested in seeing more at this time and are willing to spend the time, I invite you to have a look at my photosite at www.weberwest.weebly.com . I recommend clicking on the Chronological tab on top of the site, which keeps the albums together. These new albums are on the very top of the listing. The first album presents the Highlights of the trip, it is quite condensed however and sort of loses the "story line", but can provide a good quick overview. If you are then still interested, I would recommend looking at the short versions of the 5 individual albums.

I hope you enjoy this little "taster", look forward to your comments and questions and recommend viewing the downloads.
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1 - Groningen/Netherlands - The radically modernist structures of the Groninger Museum at the bank of the Zuiderhaven

(Download)

2 - Münster/Germany - Grosser Kiepenkerl Gasthaus with al fresco-restaurant, at rear the tower of the Überwasserkirche

(Download)

3 - Celle/Germany - Hoppener House, built 1532, Celle's most magnificent half-timbered house in the old town with six staggered storeys, in front the 16c historical Pipenposten fountain

(Download)

4 - Quedlinburg/Germany - Market square with the fountain and sculptures of the Münzenberger Musicians in the front and the ensemble of the Café, St Benedikti church tower and Rathaus at rear

(Download)

5 - Berlin/Germany - Berlin Cathedral (1894-1905): View from the Lustgarten with fountain

(Download)

6 - Szczecin(Stettin)/Poland - View from the Waly Chrobrego promenade to the West Oder river

(Download)

7 - Gdansk (Danzig)/Poland - Buildings on the western river bank of the Motlawa: At center the tall building of the Archaeological Museum, to its right the red-roofed St Mary's Gate, at far right the imposing medieval harbor crane

(Download)

8 - Poznan (Posen)/Poland - Stary Rynek/Old Market Square (1253): Eastern side of the square with a few of the Merchants' houses at left, the Town Hall and buildings on the northern frontage at right

(Download)

9 - Wroclaw (Breslau)/Poland - Market Square: Buildings in the center of the huge square with the New Town Hall (1864) at left and the Old Town Hall (end of 13c) at right

(Download)

10 - Bamberg/Germany - Old Town Hall built in 1386 on an island in the river Regnitz connected with the Obere Brücke to the river banks

(Download)

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Just as an addition: the map of our drive.

(Download)

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Interesting trip and images. Thanks for sharing.

NMGal Loc: NE NM

Wow! Joe, these are wonderful. Color and beauty everywhere. Looking forward to more.

kenArchi Loc: Seal Beach, CA

SO AWSOME!
So many colors and details.
Is amazing the servival of these structures which have been through so many wars and conflics.

Thank you for bringing this wonderfull trip to us.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Neat shots!

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Great set.
I was very interested in your photographs of Goslar as my wife and I had 3 nights there back in 2006. We were chasing her family history. Her, Ukrainian, parents were married there in 1945 (I think) and she was probably concieved there. Her mum went to work in Germany in 1938 (I think) looking after children who lived in a castle at Hornburg (near Goslar) and her father, who was a carpenter, was either a POW or forced labourer. They met in Hornburg. After the war they lived in DP camps and finally emigrated to Australia in 1949 from a DP camp in Naples Italy. They wanted to get as far away from Europe as possible.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you very much Stan for your kind comment, I am glad you enjoyed this set. Joe

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Barbara, I am glad you enjoyed this set. Will do more, but a bit down in the future, I have another trip planned to hopefully start the coming week. Joe

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Ken, glad you enjoyed this set. I will eventually do a full presentation, either later this year or early next year. Have some other things in mind first.

You brought up a very good point on which I did not elaborate: the area we traveled through is full of neat towns and cities with basically very old architecture, we could only select a few places to visit for this trip. - But unfortunately there was that horrible WWII war during which much got destroyed. So some of the buildings are reconstructions, almost always back to as much historical detail as was available. Some cities got lucky, i.e. Celle and Quedlinburg and had very little to no destruction, while others, particularly the Polish cities, were very heavily damaged.

Thanks for looking in and taking the time to comment! Joe

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Bill, I appreciate your comment.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Richard, I am pleased that you like this set. It was good to read your story and that you have a particular family affinity to this area. I assume that you looked at the pictures of Goslar in the albums. Goslar was just a way-station on our drive from Celle to Quedlinburg, but we did like our visit there. I just searched Google-map for Hornburg, it looks like we drove by very close to it on our final leg from Goslar to Quedlinburg. I trust all is well with you down in Sydney - take care. Joe

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

I did visit your site. We caught public transport for a very enjoyable day of just walking around in Hornburg. It was a small, very old, village that was frozen in time as it was so close to the East German border and youger people did not like living in the very old houses (according to the people in the rathaus). We were probably about 10 years too late to make connections to anybody who knew of my wife's family.
We are ok down here except for my wife who was placed in a nursing home, about 4 months ago, as she now has dementia and her short term memory span is about 2 minutes, if that.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Thank you Richard - I am happy my photos could rekindle some good old memories for you. Sorry to hear about your wife and the stress you must be going through - but you are in good, caring company: many of us are walking into the sunsets of our lives - and try to make the best out of the time we are still allowed to have. Joe

angler Loc: StHelens England

Excellent set Joe.