Another two shots of our visit to Königswinter, Germany, a couple of weeks ago. The first one shows the Saint Remigius Church. It’s to bad they put all those ugly signs in front of nice buildings. I had a lot of trouble by the way getting rid of the chromatic aberration in this shot.

And another shot of the ruins of the castle on the Drachenfels (Dragon’s Rock). The castle was built between 1138 and 1167 by the Archbishop Arnold I of Cologne for the protection of Cologne to the south. It was slighted in 1634.

The Münster Basilica in Bonn, Germany. Unfortunately the weather was not very good, with a very cloudy sky and it was rather cold. We couldn’t enter the church, because a service was beginning, so we came back an hour later. Unfortunately I didn’t get very good pictures inside, they shut off the lights and were quite unfriendly actually!

When visiting Cologne you cannot just walk by the cathedral (the Dom as it is called in Cologne). It is a VERY large church (it is the largest gothic church in Northern Europe). We went inside but couldn’t walk through the church because there apparently there was a service going on (didn’t see many people though), so I have almost no photos of the inside. Outside there are lots of people on the square, so it is very difficult (actually impossible) to get a shot without any people in it if you want the church as a whole. After waiting patiently outside one of the main entrances I managed to take the shot below.

We spent the weekend in Germany, near Bonn and Cologne. Because we got there early, and couldn’t check in the hotel first, we went to Königswinter, which normally is a very touristy little place. This time of year though there were very little tourists. We took the rack railway up the steep hill (20% uphill!) called the Drachenfels, or Dragon’s Rock in English. On top of the hill the ruins of a castle built in the 12th century can be found. Click for a larger version!

Why, why would you want to have a $ 31.000,- camera? Okay, the lens is nice, but why?

What can I say? Click for larger version!

The Hoeg Brögk (literally High Bridge) in Maastricht was designed so ships are able to go underneath. She was placed on quite high pillars, so she would have needed very steep ramps. Instead a controversial lazy stair construction was chosen. The depth of the steps is now so small (little?) you can’t decide to take one or two steps, either is a bad choice!

The current church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, dates back to the 11th century, but a previous church must have been built in the 5th century, making this the oldest church in the Netherlands. The church is also called Star of the Sea.

What you see here is the south tower next to the westwork. Underneath one of the buttresses remains of a Roman fortress were found. During a later excavation In the garden remains of a Roman temple were found.

This bastion (in Dutch called a “rondeel”) is named Haet ende Nyt (Hate and Envy). It was built in 1515 as part of the second wall of Maastricht.

Coming days I will be making several posts a day since I have some catching up to do!

I shot this one earlier during daytime, the Old Hickory Monument. This monument is to remember the Old Hickory division that freed Maastricht in the World War 2. At this very spot they laid a temporary bridge. The monument was created by the renowned Maastricht sculptor Appie Drielsma. Click for a larger version!