Category Archives: Public art

Museumsdorf Bayerischer Wald, pt. III: Faith of Our Fathers

Bavaria has been overwhelmingly Roman Catholic for centuries. Even today, Bavaria contains the highest percentage of Catholics of any state in Germany, as the following map from the German Bishops’ Conference (Deutsche Bischofskonferenz) shows. This faith helped define the identities … Continue reading →

Posted in Churches and religion, Europe, Folk traditions, German art, German history, German house decoration, Public art, Tourist destinations, Village life | 1 Comment

Not your Grandma’s Religion

One of my blog readers recently had a “culture shock” moment. He’s a nurse, and he was filling out a patient questionnaire with a German woman. When he asked her religion, she became upset. What went wrong? Religion and society … Continue reading →

Posted in Churches and religion, Daily life, Folk traditions, Public art | 4 Comments

Reminiscent Only of Itself

If this blog seems cathedral-heavy, that’s because I love cathedrals. Stunningly beautiful even in our day, cathedrals represented heroic effort and almost miraculous achievement in their day. Each one is unique. They’re not just buildings; they’re audacity and imagination in … Continue reading →

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A Fish out of Water

When I was a little girl in Denton, Texas, my brothers and I played with the Goetz boys, who lived around the corner. We were terribly excited when they arrived because they came from Germany. (Our experience of Germans up … Continue reading →

Posted in Folk traditions, Gardening, German house decoration, Public art, Rural scenery, Texas, Tourist destinations | 2 Comments

An Afternoon Walk around Rodenbach

The town I live in is like Grandma’s cookie jar: I never know what I’ll find when I shut my front door and walk outside, but I can be pretty sure I’m going to love it. There are lots of … Continue reading →

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My Last Garden, continued

Joe and I found the example graves at the Koblenz National Garden Show completely fascinating. They were so unlike anything we’d seen. Some were as elaborate and elegant as a Japanese flower arrangement. Others were just downright different. Joe’s favorite … Continue reading →

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My Last Garden

Graves. Headstones. Birth and death dates. Are we in a cemetery? No, we’re back at the Koblenz National Garden Show, where the program assures us, “a romantic woodland glade is the perfect setting for cemetery landscapers and stonemasons to demonstrate … Continue reading →

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A Circular Reference in Stone

Around the corner from the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz is a church that has stood, more or less (in spite of being renovated, bombed, and shot at) for the last twelve hundred years. This is the beautiful Kastorkirche, the Basilica … Continue reading →

Posted in Churches and religion, German art, German history, Public art | 1 Comment

A Monument from a Bygone Age … the 1990s

This enormous bronze equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I towers over the crowds at the Deutsches Eck, the spit of land in downtown Koblenz where the Mosel flows into the Rhine. Standing almost fifty feet high (14 meters) from plumed … Continue reading →

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Flowers in Downtown Koblenz

This weekend, Joe and I drove to Koblenz to visit the National Garden Show, a traveling event which takes place every two years. For six months, a German city transforms part of itself into a blooming paradise, and millions of … Continue reading →

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