#castle ruins drachenfels

[wishmaker-astra]

Anyways, aside from the Maxie shit: Landed.

Apparently Nebby was using abilities to shield us from the wind, and was in fact going faster than I thought.

This ain't the tower itself, but part of nearby ruins. Yup, sure is ruins.

//Image credit: "Ruin of the castle Drachenfels in Königswinter.", Stephan Mense, CC BY-SA 3.0

[lordbrezel]

Iskierka in the wild

@travellingdragon​ and I took Iskierka on a trip to Drachenfels (”dragons rock”) and its castle ruin.

Here are some of the highlights of this trip:

And as a bonus: Iskierka wearing a gold coin as a hat.

[heterotopian]

The Tale of Two Cities according to Stephi and Heiko - Part 425

It’s summertime and vacations are just around the corner. School will be out in Cologne next week and a lot of people will go on trips. People from Munich and Cologne have some destinations that are more or less typical for every city/region. This week, I will present you two destinations that people from Cologne and surroundings like to travel to.

The first picture shows you the Siebengebirge, which is just about an hour away by car or train from the center of Cologne. There you will fin Burg Drachenfels, an old ruin from a castle up on a hill. You can hike up there, which will take about an hour or you can also go by a small train, which is an adventure in itself. This destination is great for a daily trip when you go with children, but is also pretty cool for a grown-up. The picture shows the sight from up the hill and it’s a marvelous outlook over the Rhine and the valley. You can see the bigger buildings of Cologne as well.

The second and probably even preferred destination is the coastal region of the Netherlands. You need to take a car drive of about 3 hours or more, depending on where you want to go. A lot of people go to the IJsselmeer but I prefer to go the island of Texel. The drive is a little longer but being on an island and being by the North Sea is special to me. The second picture shows the beach on Texel on the side to the North Sea. The weather is always changing and you might have some rainy days even in the summer and sunny days in October. But no matter the weather conditions, it’s always great to get some air from the sea.

Next week Stephi will present you two locations people from Munich like to travel to. Maybe even I have been to one of those places, even though I have never lived in Munich.

Do you guys like to have your vacations closer to home or rather go on worldwide travels?

[dampfloks]

“Neue” Drachenfelsbahn Königswinter

Die Drachenfelsbahn existiert seit 1883. Früher noch unter Dampf (siehe ebenfalls Bilder hier im Blog) wird sie heute mit Strom betrieben. Der Drachenfels ist ein beliebtes Ausflugsziel im Siebengebirge mit Sehenswürdigkeiten die Burgruine Drachenfels, Schloss Drachenburg (erreichbar über die Mittelstation), die Nibelungenhalle (selbstverständlich mit Drachen im Garten) und natürlich die Zahnradbahn. 

"New" Drachenfelsbahn Königswinter

The Drachenfelsbahn has been in existence since 1883 and used to run on steam (see also pictures here in the blog), but is now powered by electricity. The Drachenfels is a popular destination in the Siebengebirge with sights such as the Drachenfels castle ruins, Drachenburg Castle (accessible via the middle station), the Nibelungen Hall (including dragon in the garden) and of course the cogwheel railway.

[goryfluff]

Warning sign at the foot of the path leading up to Schloss Drachenburg and the castle ruins of Burg Drachenfels, both located on the Drachenfels ("Dragon's Rock") between the cities of Königswinter and Bad Honnef.

[stories-from-the-warp]

[ For Skritchitt ]

“ H-Hello — ! Uhm. Yes-yes, forgive me, O Great and puh-powerful almighty one, I come with ne-news from Castle Drachenfels under the permission o-of Mistress Bethanne! “

A small scribe peeps up, fidgeting with her paws nervously. It seems as though she has a nervous stutter..

“ W-We wish to discuss your great knowledge on thu-the Lore of Ruin! “

The scribe's fearful praise had caught the Seer's attention. It was exactly how Skritchitt believed everyone should treat him. Of course, he was skeptical of this self-titled "Mistress", but perhaps she had something he could use---for one purpose or another.

"Yes-yes, go-scurry to your mistress," Skritchitt waved. "Tell-tell her that the Great and Wise Seer Skritchitt will hear her offer-deal."

[weeping-gospels]

The Keep was beginning to deteriorate.

After years of worn, reconstruction, destruction, and destruction again, the poor building began to offer less and less quality. Despite the fact it served as a powerhouse to fuel not only the invisible barrier to ward off selective company but the same magic that kept up her humanoid facade — the power thinned horrifically from the corroding and was losing it’s touch. Unwanted visitors would show up thinking her abode was free to roam and browse, much to her intense distaste. The skaven sigils were broadcasted to the public for a reason — and by public, only for skaven kind to behold. The barrier existed for this very reason and was doing an awfully dreadful job of being a simple barricade.

Memories were made but now was the time to let out a sigh and consider taking over other settlements. Perhaps a fresh new start was long overdue. Thus, the Dhampir begrudgingly packed up her belongings and set foot toward the one area she had been eyeing up since the day she stumbled upon it —

Castle Drachenfels.

A ruined, gothic castle nestled on the peak of the Grey Mountains between The Empire and Bretonnia, Drachenfels’ ancient castle held a powerful myth that drove away many of the weak hearted. Explorers would come and go but would also never leave without the whispers of the damned, traumatized hearts daring to spill the horrors they had beseeched upon entering haunted catacombs. The castle would eventually become home to lingering Fester clan and Rotblood — all the more dangerously lethal for whatever sorry fuck decided to spend the night there during the frequent thunderstorms. Mangled bodies became a decorative choice and a warning.

A decently sized section spared in one of the cozy nooks became Bethanne’s new home where she’d spend days sprucing up the place to her aesthetic pleasure, dusting the shelves and renovating in order to set up shop and tally up her current orders set to travel the Under Empire’s market via trade. Bottles of enchanted liquid lined the new wooden shelves, bubbling and sizzling, crackling and popping, each giving off an odd and eerie scent even through corked mouths…but the Dhampir was not within the confines of solitude this dreary night.

“ This is your new home-abode? Yes-yes? “

Eyeing her ‘former lord’ through the corner of her evergreen eyes, Betty continued to unpack,

“ Da, this is where I will be residing from now on, my lord. Is it not fitting? I will not have to dawdle on any unwanted visitors this time nor use my energy to create an invisibility spell. “

“ Hm. “

Scratching at his fluffy, ashen beard, Rasknitt absentmindedly ran a claw down one of the elixirs,

“ I suppose. But how does undead thing wish to have customers-guests? You are located-found high-high up mountain. Only some of my slaves come here. Not good-well for profit. Too far-far from Under Empire, concrete bad for digging, not like dry soil-earth in Keep. “

Picking up the amber elixir, the Grey Seer studied the floating contents within. Betty rolled her shoulders and moved to unpack her many journals, placing the worn books on the table,

“ Exactly, you have some of the slaves here. That is more than enough to hold me off. I can simply hand them a cart of my elixirs and trust they will do their job and transport them readily — as always, most of the profit goes directly to you. I have no use for your silly leetle tokens. I only wish to have my name travel amongst the tunnels.

Speaking of…you have not forgotten our deal, nyet? “

Side eyeing him once more, the undead’s eyes narrowed.

Sensing her skepticism, the white rat sneered back and waved the bottle in irritancy,

“ Almighty and AMAZING Grey Seer Rasknitt does NOT-NOT FORGET SO EASILY, STUPID CORPSE! OF COURSE I REMEMBERED!

Does corpse thing ALSO remember HER side of deal-bargain? No deal unless Betty thing cough-hacks up HER portion. “

Suspicious but relenting, the red head cautiously picked out a crimson colored journal from the pile and slid it across the table as if distributing a secretive stash. Rasknitt greedily scooped up the book and tossed the amber elixir ( that Betty had to panic and catch before it shattered on the floor ) , flipping through the crumbling pages with the eyes of a hawk,

“ Yes-yes…good….mhmhmhmHAHAHA! YES-YES! HAHAHAHA! GREAT ALMIGHTY RASKNITT WILL SOON-SOON REIGN SUPERIOR OVER ALL CLANS! “

“ D-Da…my lord. Clan Moulder, home to Throt The Unclean and his many experimentations and children. Within those pages are all of the studies I have conducted whilst collaborating with them. You can find the location of Hell Pit, the various types of defense and offensive rats, Rat Ogre types, work scheduling in the day, and as much information as I could get on Throt.

It is a hefty Clan with a lot of strong rats, my lord. I do not advise dwelling unless you are stocking up on slaves and heavier weaponry as well. Perhaps you should look into striking up a meeting with Skryre then…? “

“ BAH. Undead thing talk-squeak too much. Almighty Great Rasknitt does not NEED-WANT advice. Amazing FEARLESS RASKNITT KNOWS WHAT-WHAT HE IS DOING. Do not need undead thing’s help. Clan Moulder won’t know what hit-struck them when The Great Horned One’s most CHERISHED Grey Seer DISINTEGRATE-CHARS THEM ALL TO FRIED PIECES! Then…then the remaining quivering whelps either convert to MY will-rule on their sniveling knees or DIE-DIE WHERE THEY COWER.

BUT! But….Grey Seer Rasknitt will take time to gather best options instead of scurrying-skittering forth unprepared. “

Shutting the book, he then nodded up at Bethanne,

“ As promised, Betty thing. The slaves currently here are under your possession-property. Will scurry back-back to base and send back more slaves and Globadiers. “

“ …Hm. Throw in two Storms. “

“ Eugh. So needy-greedy. CORPSE THING SHOULD BE HAPPY-SATIATED WITH WHAT PITY MARVELOUS RASKNITT OFFERED. “

Unfazed by his pompous bastard attitude by now, Betty poured herself a cup of red wine and swished the liquid in place. One hip cocked and her head tilted upwards, looking down at the rodent with a hiss,

“ I willingly ventured into Moulder base and pretended to be OBSESSED with their obese fucking BLOB of a lord in order to gather as much information as I could for your STUBBY LEETLE RAT PAWS.

Two Stormvermin. I need assistance in carrying down that throne chair in the upper level. “

Stomping his foot, the Grey Seer pointed a claw up at her accusingly,

“ DO NOT-NOT SPEAK-SQUEAK TO YOUR LORD IN SUCH TONGUE, DEAD THING. KNOW YOUR PLACE BEFORE I SCORCH YOU TO BITS-PIECES LIKE THE PATHETIC ABOMINATION YOU ARE! YOU SERVE M E ! ME-ME!! “

“ Too late to that party, grouchy fuck. Grey Seer Heliinx already beat you to that magic trick. Two Stormvermin. “

“ AAAAAGH!! F I N E ! TWO STORMVERMIN TO SHUT YOU UP. UNDEAD THING’S CROAKY VOICE IS CAUSING GREY SEER RASKNITT’S EARS TO BLEED. “

Turning on his heels, the Grey Seer then began to scamper away on all fours toward Deathrattler at the entrance of the building. Betty giggled and cupped her hands over her mouth to shout back,

“ THROW IN A RAT PUP TOO FOR GOOD LUCK! “

Fed up with her voice, the temperamental rat spun around to shoot a bolt of warp lightning at the wall,

“ FUCK YOU! “

“ DO NOT THREATEN ME WITH A GOOD TIME! “

[morathicain]

This is a free coupon/excuse for you to infodump on the current topic you’re obsessed with. Take some time away from internet discourse and share with us something you find interesting.

Mana! Ahhhhh, thank you! That's so sweet of you =^^=

A topic I'm obsessed with? I'm gonna ignore all my fandoms then and take something I've been obsessed with for so many years: Ruins.

Like, I've always been fascinated by history, but especially by ruins and weird historical facts. Which is so much easier to remember than numbers ... c.c

Where I grew up, there was a very famous fortress in ruins and I have very distinct memories of thinking of way too many plots as a kid and also being pissed at my mom bc she wouldn't want to take a 7 year old with her to a Chris de Burgh concert XD

On the fortress Tyrant, we learned that it was a very popular spot bc it's directly next to the Rhine. Mostly for trade and taxes. Both the bishop of Cologne and Trier fought for it and in the end they simply split the fortress in half (it's not so big, so ... have fun, I guess). Each side has a tower and in the tower of Cologne there's still an actual skeleton down in the basement (you can't go there directly, only see down to where prisoners were being lowered to).

In Burg Eltz they told us how portraits were premade and the head-bit would often be left empty. So, artists would go from castle to castle and show people their collection of pre-made-portraits. Then, families could choose which one it should be and that's the reason why sometimes the body doesn't seem to fit the head, especially age-wise. Also, this magnificent fortress (which isn't really a ruin) was never conquered bc it was too far from the river and basically not important enough.

The Drachenfels is one of my earliest memories. It's another ruin above the Rhine and the path to it is littered with little bits about the story of Siegfried and the dragon. There's a small puppet theatre you can put money into for the story and a big stone dragon. Back as a kid it was kinda creepy but also awesome. Now, I love it.

Also, did you know they never really used tar and feathers as a defence bc those were too valuable? It was usually hot water, piss or even old soup!

And in Nürnberg there's also a castle (if I remember correctly) which shits on the way the Nazis had tried to recreate the room. Like nope, completely wrong, total failure! And then they redid it, but still tell people how WRONG the Nazis were. It's glorious!

Or the fortress of a lady and I was told she threw people out the window several times. Funny it happened more than once, but good for her!

So, yeah, I am glad I remembered a few things bc of course my mind suddenly went blank XD

Thank you for asking! <3333333

Ps. the skeletons in the tower are beneath the cut ;)

[dabauzz]

Drachenfels Ruine bei angehender Nacht. 🌃🌛🏰🐉 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 📰 Folge @dabauzz und check' meine Hompage unter www.dabauzz.de ab! Freue mich jederzeit über konstruktive Kritik 😉👍 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #germany #castle #ruins #deutschland #travel #historical #germanytourism #photography #castles #germanytrip #night #photographysouls #nightlife #beautifulgermany #travelgermany #hikingday #hikeingadventures #siebengebirge #wanderlust #rausundmachen (hier: Siebengebirge) https://www.instagram.com/p/CT29Wt4q0e5/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mrlowkey167]

Drachenfels Ruine 

The ruined castle Burg Drachenfels, on the summit of the hill, was built between 1138 and 1167 by Archbishop Arnold I of Cologne and bears the same name. It was originally intended for the protection of the Cologne region from any assault from the south. Originally it consisted of a bergfried with court, chapel and living quarters for servants. The castle was slighted in 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, by the Protestant Swedes and never rebuilt. As a strategic asset it had outlived its usefulness. Erosion due to the continued quarrying undermined much of the remains and only a small part is left today.

The rock, like the rest of the Siebengebirge, is formed by the remnants of a volcano and has been the site of a trachyte quarry since Roman times, which, amongst others, delivered the building material for the Cologne Cathedral. Of all the hills in the Siebengebirge, it is closest to the river Rhine, which facilitates easy transport by barges, thus making it an excellent place for a quarry. Quarrying ended in 1836, when the Prussian government bought the quarry. In 1922 the first protection measures were put in place and in 1956 the site was declared a national park. 

-----Wikipedia

[lordbrezel]

That's where I live!

Drachenfels my beloved. Great for hikes and the castle ruin on the peak of the mountain is also nice to visit, on nice days you can see so much of the landscape, sometimes even the towers of the cologne dome in the distance.

Fafnir, der Drachen, hütet das Rheingold. Drachenhöhle, Königswinter

[picworth1000words]

The Drachenburg Castle (left) and Drachenfels ruins (right), on the Rhein above Königswinter, Germany.

[heterotopian]

The Tale of Two Cities according to Stephi and Heiko – Part 277

In the times and life of COVID-19 (for those wondering the pandemic is still around), a lot of things have change as we already discussed here. With the upcoming little series in a series, we explore another facet of this development: the way we spend our vacation. People used to travel all over the world and while air traffic is going up again, people rarely leave the country anymore by plane to go on vacation. Instead they chose place within the country and often close by to the city.

Today we will show you two castles, more like palaces, that are not too far away from Munich and Cologne; we are talking about a two respectively one hour drive by car. But then you get to see a wonderful palace as well as some breathtaking nature sights.

The first picture shows Schloss Neuschwanstein that was build in the late 19th century. It is one of the most prominent sightseeing spots in Germany. It’s referred to as a fairytale castle and King Ludwig II had it built according to an idealized perception of a castle from the middle ages.

Burg Drachenfels in the second picture is about an hour drive away form Cologne and was built by the Drachenfels in the late 19th century as well. It was first intended to be a living place but these days it is a museum. Most people today only walk by the palace on their way up to Drachenfels to see the ruins of the old castle and get a view over the Siebengebirge.

Obviously, these places are not only for people on a day trip form the city but for tourists form other countries as well. So, if travel can get back to normal and you are in the vicinity of these places: don’t hesitate and go there. Both places are truly awesome!

[langernameohnebedeutung]

Live your dreams, take hold of a castle, acquire a hoard of gold, become the new dragon of Drachenfels, Siegfried is dead, no one can stop you

I mean, the Drachenfels is a ruin but I’d get to ride that neat little train every day to greet the hordes of tourists in my living room?

[geralddeslandes]

Turner on the Rhine

I have just got back from a six-day cruise from Cologne to Mainz on which I gave four talks about Turner’s visits to the Rhine. The first talk concentrated on his early life before his first visit in 1817. It described his training in life-drawing and from casts of classical sculptures at the Royal Academy Schools and contrasted this with the picturesque studies that he made as an itinerant artist and the works that he made in a sublime manner such as his portrayal of the Alps. It explored his use of classical imagery to represent the Napoleonic wars in his allegory of Dido Building of Carthage and The Decline of Carthage. More speculatively, it suggested that Turner may have deliberately used different classical modes in his landscape studies in the Liber Studiorum. In doing so it compared articular landscapes to the use of the Dorian, Lydian, Phrygian and Ionian modes by Reynolds, Joseph Wright of Derby and Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun respectively.

The second talk focused on Turner’s tour of the Rhine in 1817. It examined the evidence for how many of the 51 watercolours were made on the spot and how they related to the three notebooks of drawings that he made on the trip. It described the influence of John Gilpin on Turner’s use of striking viewpoints and compositional devices as well as his adoption of anecdotal imagery to depict medieval castles. It discussed the influence of the Grand Tour and the contemporary preoccupation with culture as a means to self-improvement and social mobility. It then related these to Northanger Abbey where Catherine Morland is impressed by Henry’s picturesque description of ‘foregrounds, distances and second distances….side-screens and perspectives…’

In the third lecture I described Turner’s use of the sublime and compared his portrayal of the Lake District, the Alps and Tintern Abbey to that of Wordsworth. I also talked about Turner’s work in the context of Caspar David Friedrich, Philippe de Loutherbourg and John Martin and explained how their use of vivid colours, rough surfaces and lack of detail related to what Edmund Burke called ‘a sense of pain and danger’. I compared the ideas of Goethe and Schiller to those of the English Romantics and examined the paintings which Turner painted on the Rhine in the context of the contemporary fascination with what Jean-Jacques Rousseau called ‘torrents, rocks, firs, dark woods, mountains, rough tracks and precipices’.

In 1839 a crisis in the Middle East prompted France to threaten to extend its borders to the Rhine. This inspired 400 patriotic musical works by German composers in the decade that followed.  More than ever the Rhine came to epitomise what Friedrich Schlegel had called ‘memories of what Germany was and could be.’ The association of the river with restlessness and change became linked with the German concept of ‘the people’ as a community united by blood and by a shared identification with nature. I described how this organic narrative contrasted with the concept of nationhood promoted by the French Enlightenment in which citizens entered into a quasi-contractual relationship with each other that was based on the classical precedents of ancient city states.  The relevance of such ideas to Turner can be found in his selection of subjects similar to those that were first made popular in the Rhenish folk songs collected by Achim von Amim and Clemens Brentano in The Boy’s Magic Horn of 1805. They were later taken up by popular composers in the 1840s and subsequently reworked by Wagner in The Ring Cycle. Among such subjects were the Lorelai Rock and the Drachenfels, which were immortalized by Schumann and Wagner and which had already become familiar to English audiences through the publication of Byron’s Childe Harald. The poem had been an important inspiration for Turner’s first visit to the Rhine since he had hoped to make a series of 36 prints of the Rhine, including several locations mentioned in the poem, until his plans were upset by the publication of Baron Johann von Gurning’s publication of A Picturesque Journey along the Rhine in 1819.

Other works inspired by Byron were Turner’s numerous depictions of the Ehrenbreitstein, the fortress where the young French general, Marceau, was killed and The Field of Waterloo, which Turner presented alongside quotations from the poet. His links to German thinkers can also be found in his portrayal of The Opening of the Valhalla, the classical temple dedicated to German heroes such as Arminius, who had defeated the Romans on the Rhine. The temple was completed in 1828 but its creator, Ludwig of Bavaria, was forced to abdicate in the European-wide revolutions of 1848 in which Wagner took to the barricades against the Elector of Saxony in Dresden. Another of Turner’s paintings with links to German Romanticism is his portrayal of Heidelberg, the ruined castle of the daughter of James I and the Elector Palatinate of the Rhine, that became a meeting place for German nationalists and for the collection of fairy-tales, folk-songs and legends.

My final lecture discussed the way in which changes in markets, materials and techniques affected the status and perception of artists associated with the Rhine at different periods. I looked at the work of Durer in the context of the invention of printmaking; Turner in relation to the improvements in artificial colours and reprographic techniques that were devised during the industrial revolution and Gerhard Richter and Andreas Gursky in the context of digitization.

I talked about Turner’s adoption of bright, ready-made colours after 1815 and described the travelling pouch that he adapted to carry them. I described his debt to Goethe’s manual, The Art of Colour, which he carried with him on his painting trips. I also talked about the transition that took place in Turner’s life from the delivery by artists of commissioned works to ones that were made speculatively and exhibited to a paying audience in mixed exhibitions at the Royal Academy. I compared the incentive to use sensational effects to Philippe de Loutherbourg’s charging of admission to view his scenes of the Battle of the Nile and Beethoven’s arrangement of large and spectacular concerts in which audiences were able to hear the thunderous effects of the new iron-framed pianos.  At the same time I described Turner’s continued dependence on the lessons that he had learned as a young man from his fellow itinerant artists - Thomas Girtin, John Sell Cotman and Alexander and Robert Cozens. For in his frequent visits to the Rhine, he was not only returning to the locations of his youth but revisiting earlier experiments with materials and techniques in ways that evoke a life-long vinyl enthusiast leafing through his record collection.

One of the delights of the cruise was the opportunity to visit museums and galleries such as the Middle Rhine Museum in Koblenz, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and the Guttenburg Museum in Mainz . We also visited the cathedrals of Mainz and Cologne, where we saw Richter’s great tribute to Goethe in his stained glass window of 4,900 digitally produced colours. Performances by musicians and entertainers, good company and perfect weather added to the experience. Since I would gladly do the cruise again, I would be grateful if anyone who went on the cruise or who would like to receive information about forthcoming river cruises on which I might speak to email me their comments. You can do so by by using the Contact button on my website at https://www.geralddeslandes.com/