The Red Line 赤ライン

22nd March 2025年3月22日

There I am, chatting to some fellow singers after a long choir practice. We are standing on the nondescript platform of the U6 metro line in Frankfurt. Just want to get home.

I turn my head. Amazing. Do we ever look at our surroundings? Is this the Elizabeth Line in London? The Minato Mirai Line in Yokohama? The Moscow Metro? No. Just plain old Frankfurt. But somebody has given a lot of thought to the design here. It's of course the nearest underground line for the Palmengarten....wonderful...

As the U6 arrived I slung my bag around my shoulder and boarded the little blue train. In my bag was a copy of Rossini's Petit Messe Solenelle, some madrigals by Thomas Greaves and John Bennet, a pencil, a thermos flask and two cranes. Cranes? Yes, paper cranes. Somebody had forgotten them on Langen station, and I had picked them up to show you.

If this was Japan I would have simply left them there, confident that they would find their way back to their owner. Not here.

They were beautiful. The symbol of post-Hiroshima peace.....

We could do with a few more cranes in the world these days.

Ofuna, July 2024. Memorial to A-bomb victims 曹洞宗仏海山大船観音寺

But let's not cross over that red line into politics. No place for it in this blog, considering it is read in democratic and autocratic countries. And countries at war. This red line is harmless. It even smells sweetly. This is because the town of Langen has now got around to marking its cycle route......

Talking of Japan, the cherry blossom season must be arriving there by now. But hello? what's this? Are these cherry blossoms? No. In an area south of here called the Pfalz, the climatic conditons are ideal not only for wine, but for also for almonds. So we have a Mandelblütenzeit (almond blosson season) here. It's not far from Mannheim, which is easy to get to from Langen*. Strangely, the train was punctual.........

(* note to hikers today - sorry to hear about the train problems)

And yes, I am on a hike again......

Sunshine all day and pastime with good company......

Neustadt an der Weinstrasse ノイシュタットアンデアヴァインシュトラーセ

The vines are yet to get going of course....

But there's lots to see......a stone marker in a village street.....

A crazy castle tower to climb.....

And if you are following the route it looks like this...(Thank you Vladimir for the organisation).

A local train is caught in Oleg's camera lens.....

And there is even a folly......which had funny little stained glass windows.....(what is a folly?.......https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly

.......where I was likened to Nosferatu (or Bram Stokers Dracula?)........or maybe Fagin of Charles Dickens fame? ("..........I'm reviewing, the situation...must a fellow be a villain all his life?....")

Nosferatu - (The German gothic horror film) ノスフェラトゥ - (ドイツのゴシックホラー映画)

Strange rock formations we saw along the way.........

...and some odd slightly pagan fairies......

.......time to look heavenwards......

.......or in front of your nose, where the town had displayed huge fake almond blossoms! Donald would love those. Just watch out he doesn't buy the town......