The View from the Towers 塔からの眺め A web log by Nigel Ruddock of life in Germany as an expat, with excursions to Japan and the UK.

Tag: expat

  • ⌛ Vater Rhein 父なる ライン川

    2026年10月

    ” It makes me wonder….”

    🔵 The line comes from a song. Something buried deep in my memory…beyond the reach of A.I….

    When you are at the impressionable age of 13 or 14 things lodge in your brain and remain there a lifetime. So, after activating my brain muscles I eventually got there….the line was from Robert Plant, the English singer and songwriter singing “Stairway to Heaven”, accompanied by guitarist Jimmy Page in a band called Led Zeppelin…in 1971…. Wow, I must be an oldie!

    And when I saw this photo it “made me wonder….“

    レッド・ツェッペリンの有名な曲『天国への階段（Stairway to Heaven）』の一節、「It makes me wonder（考えさせられる）」

    🔵 It is of course a harmless prank. The picture was taken on a hike recently. Later, a friend added the wine glass using A.I. How would you know which photo is real? I do because I know that we did not drink wine on the streets of this town. So where does that leave us? To concert posters with musicians’ face wrinkles ironed out, to Instagram videos that look amazing- that is until you bother to read the note: A.I. content created for your amusement…so in other words I am looking at rubbish.

    Need I have “wracked my brain” at all? I could have just let A.I. do all the work and let my brain atrophy. And where does that leave my Japanese? or your Spanish? or your English for that matter?

    A wire basket filled to the top with bright yellow citrus fruits, likely lemons, next to a wall with a sign that thanks visitors.
    AIを使っていたら、そのうち私の脳みそも、このレモンみたいになっちゃうだろうな……。

    I could just give up now and use A.I. A frightening thought. My brain would soon look like one of those lemons….

    🔵 Creative people will always want to create. Whether it be writing, music, the visual arts, dancing or whatever. Because we know the satisfaction and happiness which comes from creating something. A.I. is remarkably clever and useful. Even on my blog creation website now there is an intrusive feature called Let AI improve your content. No thank you. I still have a brain and a creative imagination. I guarantee it. This is all my original writing.

    🔵 So. Back to that wine 🍇

    Or rather, to Father Rhine – Vater Rhein. What an emotive, soul-stirring name! The artery that courses down through the length of Germany and meets the North Sea at Rotterdam. The wine, the castles, the ships, the ferries….the spectular views.

    That A.I. edited photo was in Bodenheim, south of Mainz. As you can guess, I was on a hike…..

    A scenic view of a vineyard with rows of grapevines stretching across a green landscape under a clear blue sky.
    マインツの南、ライン川沿いのブーデンハイム

    …and we did drink wine, yes, but not on the streets of Bodenheim, but at the Weinfest in the vineyards. We also kept stopping and nibbling the grapes…

    Close-up of a cluster of ripe purple grapes nestled among green leaves on a vine.
    私たちはブドウを少しずつつまんだ。

    …and eating the apples…..

    A ripe pink apple hanging from a tree branch against a clear blue sky.
    そしてリンゴを食べた

    …and admiring the splashes of colour….

    Close-up of a vibrant pink flower with delicate petals and green leaves, set against a blurred natural background.
    ブドウ畑にはきれいな花が咲いています。

    Golden October and all that….

    Close-up of autumn grapevine leaves displaying hues of orange and yellow, with sunlight filtering through.

    🔵 But Vater Rhein himself is in trouble. The historically low water levels on the Rhein and the Danube are disrupting freight transport. This ship in Bingen looks ok in the photo, but it can’t load until the water levels rise again…

    A red and black cargo ship named 'OPUS' docked at a port with a blue sky and white clouds in the background.
    ライン川で深刻な問題が生じています。水量が不足しており、船舶は通常の20%の積載量でしか航行できません。

    This August, barges on the Rhine were only carrying around 20% of their usual load. And the water level at Kaub (a designated measuring point near Bingen) fell to just 8cms, well below the threshold 78cm at which navigation becomes restricted (that’s not the water depth by the way).

    🔵 I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so last weekend I took the train to Bingen, which is on the opposite side of the river from the (in)famous Rüdesheim am Rhein. At Bingen there is a well-known Rhein landmark, the Mauseturm . (Mouse tower – after a famous legend!) Here’s a photo from 1900……

    Historic river scene featuring a tower, a small rowboat, and a steamboat navigating the waterway surrounded by hills.
    1900年のビンゲンにある有名な「ネズミの塔」

    It was a customs control point for hundreds of years, but today serves as a navigational aide to a difficult bend in the river. When I reached the shoreline I was glad that I was wearing walking shoes. A large swathe of water is now a dry, rocky river bed, meaning that you can actually walk over to the little island …….

    People walking on a rocky path along a riverbank, surrounded by trees with autumn foliage and a cloudy sky.

    A view of the front…..

    A tall, beige stone tower with a rounded top stands on a rocky shoreline under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

    …and a picture taken a few years ago….

    View of a decorative tower situated on a small island in a river, surrounded by greenery and trees.

    The water now is unnaturally calm, like a shallow lake..

    A scenic view of a white castle tower reflected in a calm river, surrounded by greenery and hills under a partly cloudy sky.
    しかし今日、その塔は川から遠く離れ、取り残されたように高い位置にぽつんと立っている。

    The tower has been left stranded, high and dry…..

    A tall, castle-like structure with turrets, surrounded by rocky terrain and clear blue skies.

    …..exposing rocks eroded into curious shapes by thousands of years of fast flowing currents….

    Close-up view of a rock surface with several shallow water-filled depressions surrounded by textured stone.

    Vegetation has sprung up in the course of one summer…

    A patch of small, bright yellow flowers growing among various stones and gravel.

    and stains of iron hint at the regions geology…..

    Close-up of a rocky surface featuring pools of water, with reddish-brown hues and small pebbles visible within the water.

    However I didn’t touch any obviously recent rusty objects. Unexploded ordnance * (第二次世界大戦時の爆弾) is not uncommon here, although in this case we may only be looking at the fin of a bomb, or part of a ship….

    Close-up of a person's shoe on a rocky, textured ground with scattered shells and small stones, featuring a rusty metal piece and a larger gray rock.
    金属製のものには何であれ触れないよう警告されました。ここにはまだ不発弾が残っているのです。

    However, I couldn’t find any Rheingold 🎶 . Not even some desperate mermaids 🧜🏼‍♀️ flapping about on the rocks….

    I climbed up onto the little island, and saw the tower from an unusual angle….

    A pathway surrounded by trees leading to a white tower in the distance under a cloudy sky.

    There is a steady “traffic jam” of slow ships in the remaining navigable channel…..

    A narrow white tower with a castle-like design stands near a river, surrounded by greenery and under a cloudy sky.
    航行可能な残りの水路では、低速の船舶が絶え間なく「渋滞」を形成している……。

    At the far end of the island the sand is soft and inviting…..

    砂は柔らかく、きめ細かいです。

    …..relics abound…..

    swipe or click over these pictures…..*これらの写真の上をスワイプまたはクリックしてください……

    The water looks clean enough….

    水はきれいです。

    🔵 At the moment it’s still a curiosity. But the fact is this river has never been so low as long as written or anectodal evidence has existed.

    And when you look further into the consequences – environmental aswell as the reduced supply chain capacity – it is disturbing.

    A rocky riverbank with a white tower in the background under a cloudy sky.
    この乾燥した天候がもたらす経済的・環境的影響は、すでに明らかになりつつあります。

    🔵 Back on “dry land” I take time to explore Bingen. It is the antithesis of its neighbour across the river (Rüdesheim am Rhein) There are clean, free toilets, a traffic-free promenade with an attractive park, modern cafés and no kitsch or tat.

    View of the Rhine River and hills framed by a rusted structure with the word 'BINGEN' at the top.
    ビンゲンは興味深い町です……

    click or swipe……

    Adieu Bingen 🙋🏼‍♂️

    🙏🏼 Special thanks to Ummahanik for the street portrait without the wine, and Mehdi for the AI version. Also to Yumi-san for finding a suitable Japanese translation for “Father Rhine”!

    As always, thank you for your interest, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do forward it on.

    Wie immer vielen Dank für euer Interesse. Wenn ihr jemanden kennt, der an diesem Blog interessiert sein könnte, schickt ihn gerne weiter.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you…….. matane!

    Nigel 🙋🏼‍♂️

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock

    THE END 

    終わり

    A tall, white tower reflecting in a calm body of water, surrounded by green hills and clouds in the blue sky.

    *

  • 🍴 Fancy a bite? ちょっと食べたい?

    October 10th 2025年10月10日

    Fancy a bite? Someone does in these woods, but I assume they know what they are doing….

    お腹が空いていますか？誰かが……..🤤

    Because they always leave these guys alone….

    Perhaps the black and white pattern is a warning sign…

    誰もこれを食べない…..🤮

    Of course none of this is noticed by the passengers sitting in the cosy seats of their Inter Regio train which roars by…..

    乗客はこれらの小さなことに気づきません!

    I’m on a little walk between Neu Isenburg and Langen. Right beside the railway. My archaeological training is spurred to life by the sight of this bronze age artifact….a weapon of some sort maybe?…..It is well preserved I must say…….

    奇妙な物体

    However, on reflection…..hmmm. Has a rather late 20thc. aura about it.

    Back to those mushrooms. I prefer the fruits of trees. Like this one. The fig tree outside my door. The sensation of biting into that soft flesh – ever so slightly grainy and subtly sweet- so soon reduced to the mere stalk and then the need for the next one….

    イチジク！美味しい！

    Preceded by some Gyozas and a Kirin and I am in heaven…or at least in Takumi….(Mendelssohn Str. Frankfurt)

    天国

    Autumn………I must have been in an “flowing” mood when I drew this Kanji character…..

    まあ、ここでは翻訳は必要ありません！😅

    The turn of the season seems to affect different trees in different ways..The Acacia looks like it is getting a disease….

    …and reminds me of the time I once drew the Kanji character for tree (Ki), but realized after the first stroke that I didn’t have enough ink in my brush……😮

    ああ、まずい。インクが足りなかったんだ😐

    It is also easy to get too much ink on the brush. The ink itself has this extraordinary tendency to create forms – here the silhouette of a man’s head (?)………

    奇妙な形….

    Being confined to home this weekend with some bug or other I turned my attention to my calligraphy efforts. Of which there are many…..(!)

    今週末は体調が悪くて家にいなければならなかったので、書道を見つめ直す時間になりました…。

    With a well-loaded brush you can make music…🎵..The first character means “sound”, the second one “fun/enjoy”. Nice!

    🎵

    In the meantime I have found another little “bit of Autumn” ちいさい秋みつけた [Chīsai Aki Mitsuketa]…..This maple leaf has drifted graciously to earth…..

    ~

    What shall I cook today?

    Certainly none of those mushrooms near the railway…..Maybe some hearty European stew…? after all, the parsnip was a rare find in Aldi…

    Aha….let’s add a bit of Asian pep…..mmmm….

    In fact a warm vegetable stew was just right for the chilly downturn of the weather this week….

    寒い日には温かいシチューがぴったりです…

    ~

    The other day a Chinese friend of mine called round to pick up a ‘cello case. With her 3 yr- old son bounding about with far too much energy, I decided to dig out some childrens’ books 📔📚 as a distraction. Of course they were all in English, but this didn’t seem to matter. However, later on I found the book which I had been looking for the whole time.

    Lao Lao -🐉 is an old Chinese folk tale about a simple good person being maligned by a greedy emperor. The poor woman is forced to sit in a cold tower and produce paper cuttings ad infinitum (rather like the girl in Rumpelstiltskin who has to weave gold thread). However, in the end good conquers over evil through the intervention (Deus ex machina – rather like a Handel opera) of the dragon who roams the earth, who sees and hears everything.

    子供向けの本当に素敵な本

    The text is in Chinese and English and is beautifully illustrated…

    …..following the main theme of the story – paper cuttings…….

    切り絵

    …with the chance at the end to have a go yourself. This is a very special children’s book. I thought the story was probably an old Chinese classic, but my friend had never heard of it. One wonders what they teach children in China these days….

    ~

    Well, I’m told a typhoon is approaching Japan this weekend. And I see I once tried to paint the character. Not a good example of brushwork, but very fitting to the current season! Literally “great wind”…….🍃

    あまり上手な書道ではありませんが…

    And it also seems to be the season for that home-made plum wine…………..☺️

    Photo> 友子

    ~

    👉 Well, thank you for reading this, and feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might be interested. These days you can translate a web site instantaneously with A.I. or Google translate.

    さて、これを読んでいただきありがとうございます。興味があると思われる方に、遠慮なくお伝えください。

    See you またね 😉

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    The End

    終わり

    🍄‍🟫