Category Archives: environment

Weekend Mountain Blogging: Mittenwald, Scharnitz, Seefeld

I needed to go to Mittenwald because of something I’d promised to do, and since I had the day free it seemed like a good idea to get some hiking in along with some sights. As there’s only so much … Continue reading

Posted in Austria, culture, environment, Germany, history, literature, Mountains, nature, travel | 2 Comments

Forgotten Innsbruck: The Irrwurzel

Fellow-blogger Paschberg has posted the following 1966 article from Innsbruck’s local newspaper, about a mysterious root found in certain places  which, should you step on it, will send you wandering through the mountains, completely disoriented. Here is an English translation … Continue reading

Posted in Austria, environment, Innsbruck, Life Abroad, Mountains, nature, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Forgotten Innsbruck: The Irrwurzel

Those Damn Socialist Roman Roads

Just poking around the internet for information on the Via Raetia (the Roman Road from northern Italy to Augsburg) and exactly where it would have joined the Via Julia (the Roman Road from Salzburg to Augsburg). I found this, and … Continue reading

Posted in America, archaeology, culture, environment, Germany, history, travel | 2 Comments

Frühjahr

The German word Frühjahr is, according to the online dictionaries, a synonym for Frühling, or “spring” (the season). However I sometimes have taken the word to mean “beginning of the year”, and so, with the proximity of the advent of … Continue reading

Posted in environment, garden, holidays, Innsbruck, nature, travel | 2 Comments

>Weekend Mountain Blogging: Wildblümchen

>I went out to look for an endangered flower called the Innsbrucker Küchenschellen, or Innsbruck Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla oenipontana,) for which there are areas set aside on the sunny slopes north of the town. This unusual flower only grows around … Continue reading

Posted in Austria, environment, garden, Mountains | 2 Comments

>Glacier First-Aid in Bavaria

>Part of the Schneeferner Glacier on the Zugspitz, Germany’s highest mountain, is getting a big white sunshade put over it for the summer months, to keep it from melting away entirely. The reason for this measure is not purely ecological, … Continue reading

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>Mein Freund Der Baum Ist Tod

> An enormous old tree across the street had been taken down early this morning. It had probably succumbed from the construction work on the underground garage, or maybe city life had just taken its toll on it. Telling my … Continue reading

Posted in environment, music | 1 Comment

>Reschensee (Lago di Resia): II

> I was looking — unsuccessfully — for an image of the actual village on the internet for the post below. Today I found (buried among other papers, of course) a postcard that we picked up when we had visited … Continue reading

Posted in diving, environment, history, Italy, travel | 3 Comments

>Reschensee (Lago di Resia)

>The Reschensee is an artificial lake on the Italian side of Tirol, or South Tirol. When the dam was finished in 1950, the waters rose over several evacuated villages, including Graun (in Italian, Curon), where 163 houses were destroyed. The … Continue reading

Posted in archaeology, environment, Italy, travel | 3 Comments

>SOWI’s "Iron Cage"

>Behind my workplace is a complex of buildings referred to as SOWI (“so-vee”), a contraction for the University of Social Sciences. On one of its lawns stands a large, apartment-sized iron cage, containing a small, dense forest and doing double-duty … Continue reading

Posted in Austria, environment | 2 Comments