You only see what you know (Goethe)
The Residential Palace of Ludwigsburg (Residenzschloss Ludwigsburg) is one of the largest Baroque complexes among the castles of Baden-Württemberg. A park behind the palace shows scenes from well-known children’s fairy tales with elaborate buildings.
At the fairy-tale garden of Ludwigsburg this tower is portraying Rapunzel’s Tower. The garden is part of a Baroque park on the grounds of Ludwigsburg Residential Palace. The tower itself is part of a small castle named Emichsburg, which was built in 1798-1802.
Bensberg Palace (Schloss Bensberg) was designed by Italian Baroque architect Matteo Alberti in the beginning of the 18th century. Today the former hunting lodge for the Counts Palatine of the Rhine houses a 5-Star Grand hotel.
The Japanese garden of Leverkusen, founded by Carl Duisberg, is a 15,000 m2 area open for the public. It is located near the BayKomm, an exhibition hall where one can learn about the products made by Bayer AG.
Godesburg Castle (Godesburg) is placed on a hill in Bad Godesberg, a part of Bonn. It was built in 13th century and was destroyed following a siege in 1583 at the start of the Cologne War. Today it houses a restaurant and is known as fine lookout.
On a train journey along the Rhine Valley from Mainz to Koblenz I took this photo of Burg Pfalzgrafenstein. The building situated on a tiny island served as toll station until 1866.
In Paderborn I visited a palace in the style of Weser Renaissance named Schloss Neuhaus. In 1994 a garden festival took place on the grounds of the palace (Schlosspark) so I had a nice walk along beautiful plantings which were still there.
This is one example of several wall paintings I saw in the arcades of the Munich Court Garden (Münchner Hofgarten). The paintings display episodes in the history of the House of Wittelsbach. I was especially impressed by the fact that these paintings are displayed in public. They are protected against wind and weather only by the arcades.
Photo of Michelsberg Abbey in Bamberg taken from the grounds of the New Residence (Neue Residenz).
In Köln (Cologne) there are still remains of a strong Roman fort to see. Actually the name of the district Köln-Deutz is deriving from the name of this fort called Divitia. During Roman times this fort guarded the big Rhine bridge connecting the Germanic side of the river with the Roman town Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium.
Below the ‘Spanische Bau’ in Cologne there are the remains of the former Roman Praetorium. Right next to this there is also the entrance to a Roman sewer which is still accessible.
Near the Roman Museum in Cologne one can see this reconstruction of an ancient street. In Cologne it is generally known as ‘Hafenstrasse’ though it isn’t really leading to a port. It isn’t an exact reconstruction of the former street either but the basalt stones are from Roman times at least.