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Allgäu winter: Fellhorn in the German-Austrian Alps

Above: A group of skiers gather before their run near the Fellhorn summit.

As a product of the Canadian southwest, I’ve maintained a fascination with mountains. I don’t necessarily need to climb the mountains, but I’ve always been curious about the names of mountains, the reasons for their names, and the people who named them. I’m not always going to get answers, but if there’s a lift to take me to a view, I’m always game.

With an easy bus from Oberstdorf in the southwest corner of Germany, I’m headed 10 km south to Faistenoy for the gondola up to the summit of Fellhorn (2038 metres) among the Allgäu Alps. There’s a lot of snow up top with a depth of about 1.5 metres; skiing and snowboarding conditions look good in the Skigebiet Fellhorn-Kanzelwand (Fellhorn-Kanzelwand Ski Area). But what do I know? I don’t ski or snowboard, but the winter-afternoon light is decent on the smooth snowy landscape. I’m drawn to the information displays to learn more about Fellhorn and the mountains I’m seeing in the near 360-degree panorama. In the distance the flat-topped Hoher Ifen mountain looks like a multiple-layer cream-filled cake. I arrive quickly at a couple of conclusions: one, it’s fun to stand on a border between two countries at altitude, even if an international frontier is set somewhat arbitrarily; and two, I promise to return in the summertime to do a loop: return to Fellhorn, hike along the relatively flat ridge-line west, take the Kanzelwandbahn gondola down into Austria’s Kleinwalsertal valley, have a sip and nosh in one of the alpine towns, and return to Germany’s Oberstdorf on a local bus.

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Vienna Steinhof Church: city- & Wagner-landmark

Above/featured: East side of the church, in afternoon light. Photo on 28 May 2023, X70 with wide-field WCL-X70 lens attachment, image corrected for geometric distortion.

Building: Steinhof church, also St. Leopold Church, 1907 // Kirche am Steinhof, Kirche zum heiligen Leopold.
Address: Baumgartner Höhe 1, in Penzing, the city’s 14th district.

Up on the city’s Baumgartner Heights is an example of Europe’s first modernist church at Steinhof. Dedicated to St. Leopold, the structure is one of the city’s finest examples of turn-of-the-century architecture, and one of the world’s most important churches in the Jugendstil or Art Nouveau architectural style. The church was designed and built by architect Otto Wagner, inaugurated in 1907 for patients and staff within the surrounding hospital complex the Lower Austria state, sanatorium, and nursing home for the mentally ill (Niederösterreichische Landes-, Heil-, und Pflegeanstalt für Geistes- und Nervenkranke) which included over 30 buildings and room for over 2000 beds. The bright, airy, and spacious modern design was met at that time with skepticism and criticism by local church officials. Of utmost importance on Wagner’s mind were the hospital patients: his church design was about gentle solitude, not fire and damnation.

The church was a collaborative effort with other Viennese artists, including mosaics and stained glass by Koloman Moser, angel sculptures by Othmar Schimkowitz, and exterior tower sculptures by Richard Luksch. The church roof is topped with a dome covered in gold-plated copper plates, whose bright yellow appearance in daylight merits the nickname “Limoniberg” (lemon hill) that’s visible in different parts of the city. The Steinhof church is an example of a “Gesamtkunstwerk“, where every detail and fixture contributed to a “total and functional work of art”; an architectural masterpiece of the period; and one of Otto Wagner’s most important creations.

I included this building as part of my description of Otto Wagner’s architectural legacy in Vienna and of the recent centenary celebration in Vienna of the city’s 19th- to 20th-century architectural transition from historicism to modernism.

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25 for 25: fotoeins fotos in 2025

Above/featured: “Göttin” (goddess), by AlfAlfA, also known as Nicolás Sánchez, for One Wall 2017. Photo, 17 Jun 2025 (P15).

In continuation of high spirits and enthusiastic support of leading choices, I’m very grateful to significant time spent:

in the Bay Area, to visit mum’s family in Sacramento and long-time friends in the South Bay;
in Vienna for the 4th consecutive summer; and
in Berlin for the 1st time in 4 years, as set up for a repeat in the new year.

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Berlin: S-Bahn S15 on its way

Above: Berlin S-Bahn S15 icon, from Wikimedia, by users F84 (original) and Minoa (rework).

15 June 2026

S15 made its debut today after the planned 25 March opening date was pushed back. The S-Bahn Berlin app shows the service is up and running with 10-minute frequencies (weekday). The “eastern” section Gesundbrunnen — Wedding — Hauptbahnhof is open for service, and although the “western” section of Westhafen — Hauptbahnhof is completed, there is no timeline set for the latter to open for service.

This marks the implementation of the first phase of the long-anticipated overall S21 project, which is to provide an additional north-south trunk which connects Berlin’s Ringbahn (circle line) directly with the city’s central station. Full implementation of the second and third phases is set for the 2030s to 2040s.

Schienenliniennetz, Streckenkarte, Berlin, BVG, S-Bahn Berlin, VBB, DB, Deutsche Bahn

Section of the Berlin AB-zone urban-transport route map, effective 15 June 2026. Two vertical arrows in light-pink point to the end-stations at Gesundbrunnen and Hauptbahnhof; between the arrows in light-pink is the S15 route which also stops in each direction at Wedding.

S-Bahn Berlin app: S15 service Berlin Hauptbahnhof ↔ Gesundbrunnen began 15 Jun 2026 just before high-noon.

22 December 2025

For me, living memories of countless times in Berlin since 2002 include public transport with her U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains and routes. Like many, I never want that S-Bahn three-tone door-closing signal to go away, but that only comes with the older Baureihe 481-482 vehicles used for the trains, which will go away with the requirement to comply with European Union regulations.

On my first visit in 2002, I immediately asked: why isn’t there a U-Bahn connection or an S-Bahn connection with the shiny Berlin central train station? The U5 finally answered the first question in 2020, whereas the S-Bahn connection is coming up in 2026. The S-Bahn line provisionally labelled S15 is part of the larger long-term S21 project to connect the north and south parts of the S-Bahn Ring with the central station, and helping to alleviate traffic along the existing north-south S1-S2 route. In late-2025, news came out with a scheduled opening: on 28 March 2026, the S15 will open for public service between Gesundbrunnen and Hauptbahnhof via Wedding. The updated map doesn’t mark any S15 service between Westhafen and Hauptbahnhof, which might await the future redevelopment and reopening of the Siemensbahn further to the northeast.

I’m looking forward to seeing for myself in the summer of 2026 how the S15 works out. Announcement items in German: RBB24 — Entwicklungsstadt

Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Above: Berlin Hauptbahnhof, 1. Untergeschoss (Berlin central station, basement level 1), with signage for tracks 1 to 8 below on the 2nd basement level. Labelled at right is entry to a passageway for the operating U5 U-Bahn line and not-yet-for-primetime S15 S-Bahn line. Photo, 15 Jun 2025 (X70).

Berlin Hauptbahnhof, 1. Untergeschoss (Berlin central station, basement level 1): sign for additional bus and tram connections up on street-level, as well as the U5 U-Bahn line and upcoming track 22 for the S15 S-Bahn line. At the time of this photo, there was no open access to track 22, which I’m guessing is behind that wall there in the background. Photo, 15 Jun 2025 (X70).

Westhafen, Ringbahn, S15, S21, S-Bahn Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Berlin Westhafen station, facing east from Putlitzbrücke bridge. At upper left is the Moabit power station, and at lower-right is the S-Bahn station Westhafen. Visible at the very right is the Fernsehturm (TV Tower). Tunnels A and B, respectively, are double-tracks for the new S-Bahn S15 line from Hauptbahnhof, and double-tracks for long-distance rail bypassing the station. Also visible is a Deutsche Bahn InterCity Express train bypassing Westhafen station on approach to Hauptbahnhof. Photo, 24 May 2025 (X70).

I made three images above on 24 May 2025 and 15 Jun 2025 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime (X70); the other two images are from Wikipedia and the BVG. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-x3s. Last edit: 17 Jun 2026.

Berlin U5-Museumsinsel: Mozart, Schinkel, & Dudler

Above: Museumsinsel U-Bahn station entry-exit ‘A’. Photo, 17 May 2025 (P15).

The Berlin U-Bahn metro station Museumsinsel adjacent to the world renowned Museum Island is located on the U5 line which connects the city’s central station (Hauptbahnhof) with Alexanderplatz and the city’s eastern neighbourhoods. Construction for the station began in 2012 and lasted over 8 years. For the station interior at track level, architect Max Dudler was inspired by Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s 1815–1816 design of the stage for the Mozart opera “Die Sauberflöte” (The Magic Flute). For the appearance of the Queen of the Night, Schinkel imagined a large dome-like space like the overhead starry night sky. Over each of the two tracks in the U-Bahn station, Dudler designed a dark blue barrel-shaped vault embedded with thousands of white point-sources of light.

The fully-completed U5 extension from Hauptbahnhof to Alexanderplatz opened to the public on 4 December 2020, which at long last connected the Hauptbahnhof with Berlin’s U-Bahn city transport system. The Museumsinsel station on the U5 line opened on 9 July 2021. In addition to the city’s bus network, the station now allowed visitors to use the U-Bahn metro to reach the Museum Island complex, inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site in 1999.

Artist and architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) has his “fingerprints” on many of the city’s early- to middle 19th-century architecture, including in the immediate vicinity of the station the Neue Wache (New Guard House), Schlossbrücke (Castle Bridge), Friedrichswerder Church, Bauakademie (Building Academy), and the Altes Museum (Old Museum).

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