LEGO Exhibition in Ludwigsburg

Another visit to the castle in Ludwigsburg.  This time to see the exhibition by the LEGO fan group Kloetzlebauer Ulm.

We really liked the fairy tales exhibit. A busy, but lovingly built display incorporating scenes from a dozen plus fairy tales.

The Simpsons exhibit was fun. Several well-known scenes are built and set with LEGO Simpson figures.

The contrast between the LEGO displays and the historical setting is kind of cool.

I very much liked the Ghostbusters station for the arrangement and its clever use of effects.

Oskar liked it, too. That's good enough for me.

The even have a village with two well-known french characters.

The Kloetzleland Amusement Park display fills most of one room.

A whole room was dedicated to exhibits related to Star Wars, which is not really my thing, but I liked this Death Star scene and the detail of the Death Star surface.

It was getting dark when we left. A fun visit.

Linsen, Spaetzle und ... Steak

Our traditional New Years meal. This year with a small twist: steak instead of franks.

Cleanup

My wonderful wife was faster at cleaning up the leftovers from the New Years celebrations. I had the honor of collecting the mess at the rocket launch site. The rain didn't help.

Hofladen Eppinger

On the way to Ludwigsburg I stopped at Eppingers, a local dairy farm. The cows are hanging out, relaxing from their New Years activities.

The Hofladen (farm store) is open daily 6am - 10pm.

High-tech with fresh, locally produced milk and egg products. Very cool.

Happy New Year

We spent New Years Eve with family and at midnight enjoyed the killer view across the Neckar valley to Ludwigsburg. It's amazing to see the night sky light up with fireworks all over town. Here's a short video to get an idea what this looks like.

Of course we launched our own rockets, too.

Light the fuse

Fire in the hole

Lift off!

After all our rockets where launched, we went out on the street and continued with fire crackers, fountains, and other noise making devices.

At 12:45am a light drizzle set in which put a rather definitive end to the celebrations...

Rasthaus Seligweiler

A little oddity on the way back home from Bavaria. Rasthaus Seligweiler near Ulm is built on the border between Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg. A fun photo op before buying coffee.

Winter morning

We're visiting friends in Bavaria. I went for a walk around the village this morning and enjoyed the fresh fallen snow. Alas, it's not going to last long. Warmer weather and rain is in the forecast.

Ready for Breakfast

Cousins

Together for the first time.

Limes: Watch towers in Murrhardt

The actual location of the Limes and the forts is barely visible today. In our area it consisted primarily of an earthen wall with palisades and a moat that didn't survive the course of time. To help with that markers were erected more recently where roads cross the line where the Limes used to be.

Aside from the forts, the other defining feature are the watch towers ("Wachturm" or "Wachposten"), that are located right behind the palisades wall. This foundation of such tower is right next to the road from Welzheim to Murrhardt at Spatzenhof. It was discovered in 1814, and fully excavated and preserved in 1977. 

In Murrhardt we hiked to the partially reconstructed tower at Heidenbuehl.

The view from further up Linderst is very nice, and I'm sure the Romans appreciated it as well. However, in their time the forest was full of wild game, and hostile Germans, so you had to be careful.

The last tower foundation we visited was near Lindersthuette, off to the side between trees.

Doesn't look like much. Once again, the explanations on the panel provide context.

We headed back to the car on a less step and less muddy route through the forest.

Limes: Ostkastell Welzheim

Today's program included a visit to Ostkastell Welzheim (eastern fort), an archaeological find from Roman times. As it turns out I lived a good chunk of my life not far from the famous Limes, the second-longest man-made structure on Earth, ... and never visited. Today we fixed that.

The Ostkastell is a smaller site than the Westkastell. However, whatever is left of the Westkastell is now buried under the town of Welzheim. Even the finds at Ostkastell is not really that exciting at first. Here's the bath house:

However, various panels with pictures and explanations, as well as partially reconstructed structures like the main gate below bring history to life.

On the outside of the fort wall, there's a reconstructed section of the moat as well.

Drinking water for the fort was initially provided by way of four wells. Later on they fell into disuse and junk and garbage was thrown into the well shaft. Very cool for us living 1700 years later, since garbage is very useful to learn about daily life in ancient civilizations. Here's a reconstruction of one of the wells.

There's a nice relief that shows the locations of east and west forts in relation to each other as well as the Limes in the area.

An interesting, but rather cold, way to spend some time in the morning. During the summer months the city is staffing the site with volunteers. The local museum with its extensive collection of Roman artifacts would also be open. We continued on to see if we can find other remains of the Limes.

Fiery Skies over Ludwigsburg on Christmas Day

The sky was on fire at sunset. When it was dark the kitchen window was lit with original artwork from Thuringia.

Evening

A nice evening with church, presents, food, and -- above all -- family.

Christmas Eve

Yesterday, we did the tour the family and the kids decorated the respective christmas trees.
Presents are wrapped. Food is prepared. We are ready for the big evening.

Merry Christmas