Bridges – Seite 8 – bruecken_schlag

Guest Post: The Bridge That Screams Lucerne

One of the most enriching and beautiful contacts I have made since I first got into the travel blogosphere more intensely is my friend Aggy of DreamExploreWander. We got into talking on twitter and I think she was the first person I ever met online to become someone I consider a friend before having met them. Her beautiful travel blog is both a treat for the eyes, with its gorgeous layout and beautiful pictures, and for the travel-itching soul. Aggy’s posts tell stories of travel with such passion and verve and such a genuine sense of emotion that even if you haven’t yet come to know her, you wil certainly want to be friends with her upon reading her posts, just like I did. In order to do that, you should subscribe to her blog DreamExploreWander, like her facebook page and follow her on twitter. I am honored and happy that Aggy decided to write a guest post for me on a bridge she recently discovered in Lucerne, Switzerland.

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I love the concept of a bridge, connecting two ends. This is why I love Mariella’s mission. Ever since I discovered her enchanting blog and become good friends with her, I now unconsciously look for bridges whenever I travel. This particular bridge I want to share with you caught my attention during my recent trip to Lucerne. Kapellbrücke Bridge is the bridge people look for once they arrive in Lucerne. I honestly didn’t know much about this pretty town, when I told some friends I was coming here in the weekend, they mostly reacted by saying “You HAVE to see Kapellbrücke bridge!”. I was thinking, “what’s the big deal with this bridge anyway?!”.

Spanning across the Reuss River, which is a gorgeous river, this bridge really does attract attention. The bridge is truly one of the prettiest and the most unique I have ever seen. Made from wood and with a roof covering the whole way from one end to the other. I have seen pictures of this bridge in the spring/summer where the side of the bridge is filled with brightly-coloured flowers which intensifies its beauty. Sadly, I was there in the cold winter but nevertheless the wooden structure of the bridge awed me. It is said that it is the oldest bridge in Europe with this kind of roofed structure.

In the past, this bridge acted as a connection between the new and old city of Lucerne. In the middle of it, there is a Wasserturm or a water tower – called this way as the tower looks as if it is standing in the water of Reuss river. From the bridge you can get a peaceful view of the river.

In 1993, the bridge was caught on fire and due to its wooden architecture, it destroyed almost all parts of it. The fire also destroyed the original paintings inside the bridge. They successfully rebuilt it although evidence of the fire still exists. The paintings were also recovered, which is great as you can now still see gorgeous paintings inside the bridge. Each painting is telling a different story, so it’s always nice to take some time inside the bridge to try to understand the meaning behind each picture.

The trip to Lucerne was another solo trip for me. In this particular solo trip, I found myself to be more relaxed and confident in travelling alone, the city of Lucerne certainly helped me. I have always found rivers and lakes a peaceful place to contemplate life. As I crossed Kapellbrücke Bridge, I felt like I was inside a museum and a gallery at the same time. The beautiful paintings captivated me. I stopped for quite sometimes at the edge of the bridge to stare at the calming stream of Reuss River. With the amazing landscape and standing in a bridge which has been through so much history, I felt a strong calmness towards me.

This bridge definitely defines the city of Lucerne and it is also the first roofed-bridge I have been. The paintings, the architecture, the water tower, the calming Reuss river – combinations which make this bridge more than just an ordinary bridge and one worth to take time to absorb its beauty.

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If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Karlshöhe in Stuttgart, Germany

März 17, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / 7 Kommentare

The bridge I am showing you today may not be spectacular, but I absolutely love how the picture turned out. This weekend, I met up in Stuttgart with my girlfriends from grad school. Even though I used to live very close, I never saw much of Stuttgart before. My friend lives here now, and being shown around by her I got a whole new perspective on the city. As if it hadn’t been enough to be around wonderful people and feel that great sensation when you haven’t seen someone in a while, but it still all feels as though you had seen each other yesterday, we were also really lucky with the weather. Spring was definitely coming about yesterday as we strolled through Stuttgart’s fairer corners.

After we had taken a beautiful walk through a forrest that was still wintery, we came back down into the residential areas of Stuttgart’s South. Beautiful houses lined the steep streets, and the sun was bright and warm to a degree that it really felt like winter was over. We decided to get a drink on Karlshöhe, another small hill that had a cute little restaurant. In search of the place, we came across a dent on the hilltop. The bridge in the picture led over that dent, and as my friends crossed it and I took this picture, I had so many associations once again that dealt with transgression. Me and these girls, together we’ve crossed over from being students to having jobs. Maybe also from being girls to being women. Now together we were crossing from winter to spring. And I really hope they’ll be around for more crossings into the next stages of my life.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Guest Post: Triple Bridge in Ljubljana, Slovenia

März 10, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / 5 Kommentare

This week’s Bridges on Sundays brings you the first guest post ever on my blog. I have the great honor to present to you my friend Sarah from Wake up Mona, a blog you should most definitely check out. Sarah is an art teacher in the US currently planning her six month RTW which will start this summer. She blogs about her previous travels in stunning photo essays and shares her thoughts on the power of travel in a strong and genuine voice. She and I share a deep love for Eastern Europe. Please follow Sarah on twitter, like her facebook page and keep up to date as she embarks on her journey through Central America, the former Yugoslavia, Greece and Egypt.

Today, Sarah brings to you a bridge that is unique, yet threefold.

Ljubljana is a city of bridges, each with its own story to tell. A river of the same name (Ljubljanica) flows through the city, making bridge-crossing a necessary and eventually a very natural occurrence. One of my favorites was the Tromostovje, or Triple Bridge, located at the entrance to old town. There are three individual pedestrian bridges to choose from, but I found myself always venturing to the sides; I’ve always hated being in the middle. The middle bridge is the oldest, built in 1842. It stood as a lonely single bridge for nearly 90 years until the two side ones were added in 1931. It’s impossible to know that by looking at it today, all three bridges unify as one.

But it’s easy to overlook its architectural uniqueness. Perfectly situated, connecting old and new, Ljubljana castle on one side and lively Preseren’s square on the other, Triple Bridge is the heart of Ljubljana. No visit to this lovely city would be complete without crossing it at least once, preferably three times. 🙂

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you also have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Oberbaumbrücke in Berlin, Germany

März 3, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / 8 Kommentare

In honor of ITB, Berlin’s International Tourism Fair, I decided to feature posts about Berlin and Germany as a whole on the blog this week. This Bridge has been one of my favorite places in Berlin ever since I first saw it.

Oberbaumbrücke is located between the U-Bahn stations Schlesisches Tor and Warschauer Straße. When one of the post-box-colored U1-trains passes over it on a sunny day and the red brick stone and yellow wagons stand before a bright blue sky, those colors are of such intensity that the image is among the most vivid and dominant associations I have with Berlin. I have mentioned before that I love red brick stone more than anything, and Oberbaumbrücke is no exception.

When Berlin was a divided city, the river Spree marked the border at this point – the bridge connected Western Berlin Kreuzberg and Eastern Berlin Friedrichshain until 1961 when the Berlin Wall was built. Now the bridge was no longer connecting the two sides of the river, it was no longer connecting the two cities and countries. In the 1970s the so called „Kleiner Grenzverkehr“ (literally: Small Border Traffic) commenced, and pedestrians could cross again. After 1989 the bridge was renovated thoroughly and today once more connects two sides of the river that no longer belong to different states.

On the Friedrichshain side of it you will find the East Side Gallery, the longest part of the Wall that is still standing in one piece exactly where it used to stand. It is canvas for street artists today and shows some terrific artwork, largely on topics of mutual understanding between people and cultures and of overcoming the dark parts of history. Actually the East Side Gallery is in danger of being partially torn down right now, so you should go there quick before Berlin, horribly, may lose one of its most important historical landmarks. You can read more on it in this post I wrote.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Tsarevets Castle in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Februar 24, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / 2 Kommentare

This Bridge on Bridges on Sundays seemed to stretch out between different layers of time throughout history.

This is the bridge that leads to Tsarevets castle in Bulgaria’s proud medieval town Veliko Tarnovo. It may have well been my favorite place in Bulgaria – small and cozy, of great beauty, and the people there were extremely friendly. While in many other places in Bulgaria I found the people to take some getting used to, in Veliko Tarnovo they were a lot more open, they smiled much and were very helpful and welcoming. I was in Veliko Tarnovo in late June. Inland Bulgaria at this time of year is really hot, and by that I don’t mean 30 degrees, but more like 45 to 50. As beautiful as Veliko Tarnovo was, in my four days there I did have moments when I just lazily stuck around the hostel terrace in the shade, wanting to roar like a lioness at anyone who would dare to try and tear me out of my heat coma.

But I did go to explore the fortress. Veliko Tarnovo was the capitol of the medieval Bulgarian kingdom at a time when this country was a true power in Europe. The bridge leads the way over the moat to the beautiful fortress remains. The church on the castle hill is fully restored, and its insides are dominated by modern art paintings that I adored and that I looked at for a long time – partially also because inside the church it was nice and cool. The same way that the church bridged the gap between the middle ages and today with its medieval architecture and its contemporary wall paintings, the bridge in the picture seemed to overcome a time lapse between a modern lively student town and Bulgaria’s proud and long history as a kingdom. If only it hadn’t been this hot… the flickering air and the burning sun are a ver dominant part of my image of that truly beautiful place.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Oderbrücke, Frankfurt (Oder) / Słubice, Germany / Poland

Februar 17, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / 6 Kommentare

Bridges on Sundays comes to you from a place today that brings the Bridge as my symbol of connection between cultures to quite a literal level.

This photo was taken out of the train on Oderbrücke that connects Frankfurt / Oder in Germany with Świecko (Słubice) in Poland. The river Oder has only marked a border since 1945. Before, both sides of the river were German. After World War II Germany lost its Eastern territories, namely Silesia and Eastern Prussia, to Poland, while Poland lost large parts of Galicia, the Wilna and Nowogrodek areas to the Soviet Union. This map might make it clearer. In 1949 the Odra became the official border between the newly founded German Democratic Republic and the Polish People’s Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany didn‘t recognize this border officially until 1970 when Willy Brandt was chancellor. He had brought on a political course of rapproachment with the East. It was perceived as scandalous back then. Federal Germans felt that Brandt was giving up on land that was actually theirs to re-obtain one day. Thankfully those times are largely behind us, and hardly any German wants these territories back, but resentments die hard, and there is still mistrust between Poles and Germans when it comes to this, especially in older generations.

I only visited Frankfurt and Słubice for the first time last May and walked across a different bridge then that is open for cars and pedestrians. I remember feeling elated. There was no border control. There were no fences or gates or barriers. There was, simply spoken, just free access between the two countries. I thought “Schengen”, thought “European Union”, but this meant so much more than politics. It meant bridging the gap between two countries and removing all obstacles for people to come together and work through the hardships that history has burdened them with.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Plank in Mavrovo National Park, Macedonia

Februar 10, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / Kommentare deaktiviert

This is a Bridge on Bridges on Sundays that is nameless, but still challenged me.

It is a tiny, improvised, informal and unofficial little plank in Macedonia’s Mavrovo National Park, just around the corner from Sveti Jovan Bigorski monastery. Mavrovo was one of the most surprising places to me in all the Balkans. I only passed through it between Ohrid and Skopje with a short stop at the monastery, and I made a definite note to self to come back again. Endlessly stretching green hills – but of a toxic, lurid color that is much more fiery than that of the hills in Bosnia that have always had a calming effect on me.

After taking a look around the monastery’s beauty I went back to the street where I was supposed to stop a bus coming through about half an hour later. I meandered around for a bit and found the tiny creek that ran parallel to the street with this improvised bridge across. I had my backpack on me and it was a very hot day, I am guessing well over 30°C. I saw the bridge and I was unsure whether to cross it because it looked unstable, but the moment I questioned my ability to cross it, I really wanted to get to the other side. Fear is a funny thing, and in this moment I allowed myself to feel it fully, even though it was s small, seemingly stupid fear. I stood there for a moment, torn, and all of a sudden the funny looking plank had a whole world of meaning, and it became any obstacle that stood to be overcome. I did cross it in the end, and from the other side I could reach the creek and cool my feet in the water for a bit. Having done that made me feel stronger. It is in the small experiences that we find ourselves to become wiser sometimes.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Ura e gurit in Prizren, Kosovo

Februar 3, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / 3 Kommentare

This week’s Bridge on Bridges on Sundays comes to you from a county that is often forgotten on the European map – partly because it isn’t recognized officially by every other country.

I am talking, of course, about the Republic of Kosovo. When I went to the Balkans with nothing but a list of countries in my head for an itinerary, my mom asked me: „But can’t you skip Kosovo, maybe?“ My answer was: „I am not gonna go down there and see everything but one country!!“ And going there was the best possible choice indeed. Kosovo is an interesting, rapidly evolving country full of energy and potential – and full of expats, for that matter.

This bridge crosses a tiny river that has different names – Lumbardh in Albanian, Prizrenska Bistrica in Serbian. The Bridge itself also has two different names: the Albanian which I used in this post’s title, Ura e gurit, and the Serbian Stari Kameni Most. Albanian is one of the languages that I have not the slightest understanding of, but the Serbian means Old Stone Bridge, and I am guessing that the Albanian might mean the same. At least the city where I took this picture, Prizren, seems to be called the same in both languages. When researching information on Prizren online, you will find bits that only use the Serbian names and bits that only use Albanian. I only just noticed that even when you google „Kosovo“, wikipedia will lead you to an article about the „region“, not to the article about the country. I haven’t grasped the conflict entirely and am sure to dedicate more posts to it. Surely though, Kosovo is a place where bridges have to be built and kept more urgently than elsewhere.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Neckarbrücke in Tübingen, Germany

Januar 23, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / 9 Kommentare

Last week I introduced a new series to my blog – one that shows you photos of bridges! It’s that time of the week again, and so today I bring to you the second post in that series:

I have written about how the Neckar is not a true river to me because I grew up next to a river that was several miles in width and about to open up into the North Sea. But when I first came to Tübingen, that small university town in Southern Germany not far from Stuttgart where I was going to go to grad school, the bridge that crosses the Neckar was one of the places that I liked at once.

It was in the midst of summer when I first set foot in Tübingen, and it was beautiful weather. If you want to walk downtown from the train station in Tübingen, you have no choice but to cross the Neckar Bridge. Its balustrades were decorated with beautiful flowers on both sides, and it felt like a guard of honor for anyone who wanted to cross into town. Later I would see those same flower decorations everywhere in town – on lamp posts. On the town hall windows. In planters by the university buildings. The same flowers in the same arrangements everywhere. It was endearing and felt a tad bit finicky in a cute way, which captures much of the towns character for me.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every week. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Stari Most in Mostar, Bosnia & Hercegovina

Januar 17, 2013 / bruecken_schlag / 6 Kommentare

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. From now on I plan to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog – ideally once a week. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

This is the Bridge that made me fall in love with Bridges.

When I first came to Mostar on a bus from Split in Croatia, it wasn’t a great start. The fifty year old bald bus driver made a pass at me, I didn’t find the hostel for an hour, and when I did, I was so relieved I started crying and had an asthma attack. But none of it mattered the minute I set foot into the old town.

I am in love with Mostar, with its complicated history and its cultural and ethnical difficulties, with the color of the Neretva river that is unlike any I had seen before I came there, with its people that have, or so it seems, never lost hope and radiate with the knowledge that it is a great gift to be alive, with its overflowing beauty and sadness and complexity and joy.

The river isn’t the line that divides the city into the Bosniak (muslim) and the Croat (catholic) halves of the city. The old frontline is, and it’s a few hundred meters to the right of this picture. I still feel the Old Bridge, or in Bosnian Stari Most, has the potential to connect the two halves. I learned from the locals that everyone loves the Bridge. It was destroyed by Croat forces in the Balkan wars in the 1990s, and was remodelled and finished in 2004. It is the heart and soul of Mostar, the city carries the Bridge in its name – Mostar means Bridgekeeper. People from all sides and backgrounds identify with the Bridge in this city – through their segregated schooling of Bosniak and Croat kids, through their different football clubs, even now that the Croat side is building their own bus terminal as not to have to use the one on the Bosniak side.

The Bridge brings them together as one.

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Brückenschläge und Schlagworte

Kategorie: Bridges (Seite 8 von 8)

Guest Post: The Bridge That Screams Lucerne

Karlshöhe in Stuttgart, Germany

Guest Post: Triple Bridge in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Oberbaumbrücke in Berlin, Germany

Tsarevets Castle in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Oderbrücke, Frankfurt (Oder) / Słubice, Germany / Poland

Plank in Mavrovo National Park, Macedonia

Ura e gurit in Prizren, Kosovo

Neckarbrücke in Tübingen, Germany

Stari Most in Mostar, Bosnia & Hercegovina

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