Bayern | Fotoeins Fotografie

25T84 Nuremberg, after 22 years

E83, N01.

The only time I had visited Nuremberg (Nürnberg) was 2003. But it’s now the 30th of July in 2025, as I arrive from Vienna by train. I check into my hotel, and hurry over to the German National Museum (Germanisches Nationalmuseum) to take advantage of their extended Wednesday hours. Founded in 1852, this is the German-speaking world’s largest museum on Teutonic culture. I’m here to see 2 specific objects in their collection.

Long thought to be the world’s oldest pocket watch by Peter Henlein from the 16th-century, additional research with non-invasive non-destructive scanning technology has shown the central parts likely to be late-19th century, although many parts date to the 16th century. But it sure is pretty and interesting to see in person. Mechanism: worked iron and brass; Case: gold-plated brass.

Terrestrial globe, Nürnberg, 1492-1494 CE: about 50-cm in diameter; designed by Martin Behaim, and painted by Georg Glockendon the Elder. As one of the oldest surviving globes in the world, the Behaim terrestrial globe has since 2023 been inscribed into UNESCO’s Memory of the World program.

*For late 15th-century, India and Southeast Asia appear to take shape, with a lot of coastline yet to be mapped.*

North and South America are missing, but east Asia seems to hold some promise, especially with Japan (the large island of Cipangu on its own at right). The South Pacific is also missing representations of Australia and New Zealand. I’m reminded by terrestrial globes I’ve seen in Vienna’s Austrian National Library (Prunksaal, Globenmuseum).

*Sketch of the Behaim globe (Wiki). Europe and Africa are at far-right, and Cipangu is where Japan is supposed to be.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 30 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T73 Eckbauer and Wamberg

E72

A tiny church stands proudly in a sub-alpine environment surrounded with meadows, with a winding road below and solid rock pyramids above. Not bad, actually, for a fixed-lens camera and digital zoom.

The hiking paths up to Wamberg are steep, but there is the option of the Eckbauer aerial-way or cable-car to cut some of that time and effort. I’m suitably lazy on the ascent, but the steep descent exacts a cost on wobbly knees and shaky hammies and calves. I’m gettin’ old, and I already recognize these “mountain days” are lookin’ scant for the future.

*Ascent on the Eckbauer cable-car; over Olympic ski-jump & Garmisch-Partenkirchen.*

*Haymaking above Garmisch-Partenkirchen.*

*I like to think of this as a gateway of sorts.*

*A signature snap of Wamberg’s St. Anna, in haymaking season.*

*Wamberg, first mentioned in 12th-century AD/CE.*

*St. Anna inaugurated in 1720. Sundial reads “1pm”, at 1336h CEDT.*

*Facing west, the steep descent on foot begins.*

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 19 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T72 Zugspitze, from 3 viewpoints in the arena

E71

Today, I‘m in the midst of Wetterstein mountains in the Northern Limestone Alps to gain new and different perspectives on the tall limestone massif that is the highest mountain in Germany. Here at the border region, it’s easy to get around by train between Germany’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Austria’s Lermoos.

🇩🇪 Eibsee lake, 973 metres above sea level.
🇦🇹 Grubighütte, 2050 metres above sea level.
🇦🇹 Lermoos’ Loisachweg, 1000 metres above sea level.

Eibsee

*730am, quiet and chill on the lake; Zugspitze at centre-righ*t.

Grubighütte

*View of Zugspitze massif from the Grubig II mountain station, next to the Grubig lodge.*

*Thunderhead forming over Zugspitze; next set of photos below are from the area of light green in the valley floor below (between Lermoos and Ehrwald).*

Loisachweg

*The view from Lermoos: Alps formed by the northerly drift by continental Africa into continental Europe.*

*Lermooser Moos (Lermoos Marsh): river marsh plains here and graded gravel roads are ideal for hiking and biking*.

*The grey-white chalky rock that is limestone means that the rock seen elevated today was once sitting at the bottom of an ancient ocean.*

I surpassed 700 km of total walking distance on travel day 72. I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 18 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T71 The humble gorge of the Partnach

(E70)

I’ve been here in town a half-dozen times since 2002, but I’d never wandered into the cool misty roaring depths of the Partnach river gorge, known also as the Partnachklamm. That all changed today.

Erosion starts slow in a trickle. But flowing water is patient, and begins to wear a small narrow groove into “impenetrable” rock. Ten thousand years later, the groove is a mighty gorge, about 1 kilometre (0.6 mile) long with walls as deep/high as 85 metres (280 feet).

*The* *drama of light and shadow, splashes of colour, depth, height.*

https://videopress.com/v/bmxFRcuw?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

A massive roar.

There’s city bus service from Garmisch-Partenkirchen train station to the Olympic ski-jump stadium, but the one-way walk is about 5 km from the train station to the far-end (south) gate of the gorge. To enter the gorge proper, the admittance charge is 10€ (2024). Conditions “inside” can be dark, wet, and much cooler.

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 17 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T70 From Vienna to Garmisch-Partenkirchen

(E69 V36)

Travel day 70, Euro day 69, and Vienna day 36. Morning wake-up in Vienna’s 6., and I’m sleeping tonight among the Wetterstein mountains.

Euro24 in Germany is done and dusted, although I didn’t watch any of the matches because I’d already spent time and energy on the ICC T20 World Cup and that extraordinary up-and-down final between India and South Africa. Time to head back into Germany for the third and final leg: but first, the mountains.