Running Around Koblenz Station The Other Evening, I Couldn't Resist The Cute Message On This Local Train.

After that news post, back to Thann, for this view of the Thur valley and the Vosges mountains. On the day of my visit, I climbed here first, before continuing along a ridge to the Grumbach summit and down to the Grumbach pass, before circling back down to Engelbourg Castle which I posted about first. A nice hike, not too difficult - most of the climbing is done when you've reached the Roche Albert viewpoint. There's something to be said about why it's called "Albert's Rock", but I'll save that for another time.

Where I grew up (initially): Great Chesterford

Going back to Great Chesterford with my current eyes was quite interesting. I hadn't realised (as no 6-year-old would) how pretty the village centre was, with many charming houses and thatched cottages. The nearest town, Saffron Walden, is even better, but I'd need to go back and visit properly. This time, we just passed through there to go to the shops - and pick up a bunch of biscuits and sweets I remember from my childhood!

Said sweets and biscuits are very nice, of course, but also a tad underwhelming. I remember feeling disappointed by the size of Party Rings the last time I bought some, and I had a similar sense of underwhelming when passing near the school. The wall along the street was much higher in my memory, as was the hill at the back of the playground - in my mind, it was a proper hill! But take into account the fact that I was so much smaller back then, and it all checks out, really!

The old school building itself was apparently built by a single person between 1845 and 1849. Chesterford has a very rich history, dating back to Roman times (and if nothing else on the topic, I remember dressing up as a Roman at school once), and the church dates back to the 13th century. The village's biggest claim to fame is probably having been the home of Germaine Greer, a feminist author from the 1970s, for a few decades.

Sounds like a train, but isn't: the Saig to Titisee Rodelbahn

In fact, it's just a footpath. OpenStreetMap puts it at 1.2 km in length, and it's all downhill from Saig. A 165 m drop to be precise, which means an average gradient of nearly 14% - that is steeeep with four Es. In the winter, it should be covered in snow, and, with its four turns, you'd figure it would be a really cool route for tobogganing...

Well, that's what a Rodelbahn is, it's a sled/luge/toboggan track! If you look up the term, you'll come across summer Rodelbahns which are rides on rails (little roller coasters, I've seen one next to the Arzviller boat lift that I'll probably talk about one day, and the Bobbahn is a cracking bobsleigh-style ride at Europa-Park), but this is a natural Rodelbahn. Which runs on a hiking trail, so a few rules need to be laid out, such as pedestrians should hug the inside of the corners.

Most of the trail is in the forest, but once (if!) you reach the final stretch, the ride into Titisee with this view of the lake must feel incredible.

Notice on the left that the base of a pole has got some padding around it... That's not (just) for visibility in the snow! If you can zoom in that far, you might notice that the walls of the bridge at the bottom are padded too.

You'll probably be thinking "again!" once you've reached Titisee, but, as we joked with my sister, that "again!" won't come soon - you've got a long, steep climb back up to Saig first! Those numbers, 1.2 km and 14% gradient, aren't so amusing when starting from the bottom... And the train from Titisee to Schluchsee mentioned yesterday doesn't stop at Saig! XD

Triberger Wasserfälle

In the heart of the Schwarzwald region of Southwestern Germany, we find the town of Triberg and its waterfalls. Following a fire in the early 19th century, the town was rebuilt with a high street that aligned with the falls. Here's how that works out today, from the opposite hill.

With the arrival of the railway, Triberg became a leisure hotspot. The falls were visited shortly after that opening of the railway by the ruler of the recently unified Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm I, for which a memorandum was carved into a rock. The writing is just legible:

"Zur Erinnerung an den Besuch der deutschen Kaiserfamilie am 30 September 1877"

In time, Triberg has become a renowned tourist destination for the falls of course, but also for all things related to Schwarzwald culture, such as typical costumes and music, cuckoo clocks and local food - Black Forest gateau of course, but also ham, which has a festival in the town next weekend. The entrance fee to the falls includes tickets to three of the town's museums and indoor attractions.

At a total of 163 m over 7 drops, the Triberg Waterfalls are among the tallest in Germany. Triberg advertises them as the tallest, and a review check reveals some heated argument about the claim. I'm letting Wikipedia settle the debate: the claim is not correct, and it's not even close - the Röthbachfall in Bavaria is 470 m tall. However, Triberg undoubtedly offers the tallest easily accessible waterfalls in Germany, and they are still very much worth the visit. They are in the same size range as Nachi Falls in Japan.

The falls have also been used by Triberg in the late 19th century to become pioneers of hydroelectricity. Power stations were built at the top and the bottom of the falls, and enabled Triberg to become the first town in Germany with electric street lamps.

For an extra euro at the gates to the waterfalls, you can buy a bag of peanuts to try to attract the squirrels. As such, squirrels might come close to you whether you have some or not. This one still moved a bit too quickly to get a good photo.

All in all, the falls make a very solid start to a day trip in Triberg in the mid- to late-morning, and there's plenty and a variety of things to see and fill the afternoon after that.

My favourite cherry blossom spot in Strasbourg is the Citadelle. The remains of the garrison built under Louis XIV are now a gorgeous park by the Rhône-Rhine canal, and the cherry blossoms there are of the variety that bloom into pompoms.

I haven't been to the park this year, only spotting from a distance that the trees are currently in bloom, somewhat earlier than usual. So here are some pictures from a previous year - the year I first saw this wonderful tree at the ruin's entrance.

July 1830: the Revolution I forgot

This is Bastille square in Paris. As anyone who's had history classes in France will know, this is Bastille as in Bastille day, 14 July 1789, when Parisians raided the Bastille prison to get weapons for their revolt against the king - the flashpoint of the French Revolution.

It's also rather well known in France that the Bastille prison was demolished shortly after, as Paris rid itself of symbols of the Old Regime. So it would make sense that this monument commemorates that, right? It's super famous, after all.

Wrong. This column commemorates the events of July 1830, some forty years later, the significance of which, I'll admit, I had forgotten.

So here's how it goes. Since 1789, France had oscillated between fragile compromises of constitutional monarchy, revolutionary fanaticism and the iron fist of Napoleon. Following the defeat of 1815, Paris entered a period of calm acceptance under King Louis XVIII, but his successor, Charles X, wanted to go back to the old ways.

So, in July 1830, Paris revolted again. Disposing of the king was a surprisingly quick affair, as in just three days, Charles X was gone. He was replaced by his cousin, Louis Philippe, who seemed more willing to placate the bourgeoisie. A new constitution was drawn up, known as the Monarchie de Juillet, or July Monarchy.

In this context, a monument to the victory of 1830 was commissioned, and this is it: the Colonne de Juillet (July Column), a 47 metre-tall column adorned with the names of the fallen revolutionaries, a mausoleum at the base and the Spirit of Freedom on the top - and is that camera surveilling the street below?

Louis Philippe had ascended to the throne after a revolution, but he would also descend from the throne after the next. In February 1848, Paris revolted for a third time, swiftly ending the July Monarchy and establishing the Second Republic... which, within just 4 years, would become the second Bonaparte dictatorship.

Retired: the E4 and 700 Shinkansen

While we were on the topic of trains which will soon be retired, here are two that are out of service today, that I got to see in 2016. These are the 700 Series and the E4 Max Series.

The E4 Max, which stands for "Multi Amenity eXpress", was the second and so far last double-decker high-speed type operated by JR East, and was withdrawn in 2021. With a top operating speed of 240 km/h, they were mainly used on the Jôetsu line between Tôkyô and Niigata. They featured some "commuter" class rooms with 3+3 seating, and two E4 Maxes coupled together could carry a total of over 1600 passengers, the highest capacity for a high-speed service.

But of course, all people will talk about is the very distinctive conk. I didn't take as many pictures of trains at the time, so I didn't walk around to get a better view of this unique vehicle.

The original 700 Series was the first Shinkansen model that JR Tôkai and JR West cooperated on, for joint service on the Tôkaidô and San'yô lines between Tôkyô, Ôsaka and Hakata. Combining knowledge acquired by each company with the 300 and 500 Series, it has formed the basis of new models since then.

To be precise, the 700s which are now retired are the white and blue, 16-car sets, withdrawn in March 2020. Covid caused the cancellation of the type's celebratory final run on the Tôkaidô line. Eight-car trains painted in grey and branded "Hikari Rail Star" can still be found on the San'yô Shinkansen, as well as JR West's Doctor Yellow inspection train (JR Tôkai's set was recently retired).

Daylight Saving Time, Edo style

These Edo-period clocks are on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo. They are unusual in two ways: the display looks kind of like a ruler, and you may notice on the left example that the marks are irregular. This would seem to suggest that hours in one half of the day are considerably shorter than in the other half.

The basic idea is that the Sun always rose at 6 in the morning and always set at 6 in the evening. In between, the same number of hours, no matter the season. This means that in the summer, an hour was quite a bit longer than an hour in winter, and vice-versa for the nights. It turns out the Romans were doing this too, on a more elementary scale as their clocks were sundials, and soon noticed that they weren't getting as much rest at some times of the year...

Today, most of Europe and the US have Daylight Saving Time, and we're going through the "ugh, clocks forward, less sleep" movement in Europe tonight. But let's take a moment to consider that the owners of these clocks would have owned a set of rulers and changed them each month!

Update: Moulin Rouge has got new sails, and celebrated with some French cancan in the street.

Article France Info

Le moulin rouge du Moulin Rouge a perdu ses pales!

Was going to take a break from posting today, but we had a bit of breaking news out of Paris: the famous cabaret Moulin Rouge's red windmill has lost its sails! They fell off at around 2 in the morning apparently, cause unknown. No injuries.

Article France Bleu Paris

Arrived here a year ago today: Nagoya station. I did little more than settle in at the guest house and wander back to the station for food before getting a good night's rest.

At each end of the station concourse, there's a distinctive clock - one called the Silver Clock, and the other the Gold Clock, which make good meeting points.

At basement level, there's a good row of restaurants, and I settled on one that serves miso katsu, pork cutlet fried with a hatchô miso sauce. It turns out I'd hit the jackpot, because that's a local dish, and because I loved it! I went back for more another evening with fellow guests, and once again when I made a stop-over at Nagoya on the way from Western Japan to Tokyo. I'm definitely eating there again if I get the chance!