February 24th 2025 年2月24日
"......Welcome aboard the Southern Service 🚆to Haywards Heath, calling at Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport and Haywards Heath, where the train will divide : The front three carriages will call at....bla bla bla....Lewis etc...the last three carriages will call at.....bla bla bla....Chichester etc.". It is like a chant or mantra which remains in my brain many year after leaving the UK.
A very similar thing happens in Frankfurt to the Regional Bahn 🛤️ Except that here they regard the two parts of the train as completely different trains and call them the RB 67 and RB 68 . They are coupled together at Frankfurt and get split at a junction outside Mannheim, where one bit goes to Heidelberg and the other to Schwetzingen. If you get on this coupled train at Langen you have to know which bit to board. One Japanese friend of mine wanted to go to Heidelberg but ended up (to her horror ) in Schwetzingen 😮.
So what about Schwetzingen then? On BBC Radio 3, I have often heard broadcasts from the Schwetzinger Festival 🎼 and wonder about the place. So.....
シュヴェツィンゲンに行って観光します. ここには宮殿だけでなく、壮麗なバロック様式の庭園もあります。
Sunday February 23rd. General Election Day (who will win?). I board the train in Langen. And in one hour I am in this famous place. First you walk though the town - it's not a typical town - an odd industrial building adorns the main road.....and you can see the Schloss in the distance...
You then pass the church, where the bell is tolling for mass (or is it for democracy?)
You cannot miss this sculpture before you enter the palace grounds....
Then it's in through the iron gates....
Whereupon you come face to face with the Schloss itself - home to that famous music festival.....https://www.swr.de/swrkultur/musik-klassik/schwetzinger-festspiele/index.html
It looks oddly assymetrical. But this place has a long history of building, destruction during the 30 years war, rebuilding......
I pay my 6 € to enter the gardens. The scale is staggering. I shall need a Phaeton, like the one imported from London (complete with footman) in 1775 by the then hobnob who ruled the roost.......
A semi-circle of buildings to my left and right reveal an orangerie, performance venues...and some statues of Apollo, buttocks and all.....
Those Electors Palatine, who also had a Schloss in Mannheim and one in Heidelberg, seemed to be interested in hunting, fishing and shooting, aswell as other entertainments........(there is a theatre in the main building)
These are the sort of statues which would ruffle the christian nationalists in America (they can't even cope with Michealangelo's David in Florence).
When I reach the end of the grand avenue I look back...it's a long way! On the horizon are hills behind Heidelberg and the Neckar valley.
Fashions come and go. For Ravel and van Gogh it was all Japan. In the 18thc. century it was all about Turkey. Think Mozart. The Entführung aus dem Serail. So this rather odd-looking building hiding amongst the trees turns out to be a Mosque - or at least an idea of one.......
It was never intended as a place of worship, and reminded me of similar pastiches in the UK - The Brighton Royal Pavilion for example. It is pretty impressive. Long passageways with open lattice work seem reminiscent of cloisters...
Everything is in strict symmetry...
The dome above the main prayer hall....
Aphorisms and poetry .....
....and Trompe-l'œil similar to Japanese palaces.....
(I was in Nikko, Tochigi, a few years ago and noticed this window in the former imperial residence....)
A peaceful place. A sort of fantasy theme park or playground for the wealthy. No commoner would have been allowed in here...
There is a meandering network of waterways nearby, where a ruin catches the eye. The British would call this a folly....
Here at least there is some evidence of spring.....
help! let me out! I only criticized that estate agent who thinks he is king of the world now...
As always, water is an essential feature of this garden....
I must come back here in the summer, when the trees are green and the flower beds are blooming. Maybe do a guided tour of the house, or better still, go to a concert here. It would be a nice relaxing day out.
Coffeetime. With this important German verb.........sometimes used by a person who wants to justify themselves, or feels a bit guilty......
I had no guilt.....
Back home. The dishwasher doesn't work. What's this? some alien creature has crept out of the wall..........Maybe it's an Elon Musk algorithm 😮!!!!
Time to call the Denki gishi 🧑🔧......I like that word 😉. It conjures up the image of a person who is adept at fixing fine, intricate little things.......except that the amiable Langen electrician who came might have laughed at this title でんきぎし 電気技師 .
Thank heavens the dishwasher works again.
".....I only do violins, violas and `Cellos..."
Well sometimes you have to make an exception. The poor guy had cycled all the way from Dreieich with this lute, so I helped out. Spread some good Karma.....
Now he can drool away with some melancholy Dowland song......
So, that's all for this week. As always, thank you for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do send it on.
読んでくれてありがとう
See you....... matane!
Nigel🙋
Comments welcome 😉
R.I.P.
Maggie, sometimes known as Maggy, our family cat.
2006 - Feb 24th 2025
THE END 終わる
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