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: hike

  • 🏰 Crumble castle*

    🏰 Crumble castle*

    I don’t know how to translate this title into Japanese, except maybe simply to use the term Wabi Sabi – 侘び寂び.…..the beauty of imperfection and impermanence

    May 6th 2026年5月6日

    ▷ Hello again, and greetings from The Towers…..

    タワーからのご挨拶

    ▷ Now what’s this guy doing? Are they filming a new Anatefka , in which the fiddler drops his violin over the other side of the roof?

    屋根の上のバイオリン弾き

    ▷ Every day I am woken up to the sound of some new machine being delivered outside. (last week it was a massive cement machine that made instant Estrichbeton (floor cement)…they just pumped it straight into the house). Then there was the man and his fork lift truck……

    配達

    Hello. The electricians and plasterers have arrived….all at once…..

    Where do all the materials come from, and how are they transported?……

    建築資材はどのようにして入手されるのか

    ▷ I know a house in the Odenwald that could use a few plasterers and electricians. It’s owned by the Erbach-Fürstenau family, and the’ve lived there quite along time – since 1717 to be precise. Schloss Fürstenau has been converted neither into a wellness hotel nor a conference centre, and you can’t even visit the interior. In fact most visitors to the area miss it completely because they are all agog with famed Michelstadt, which is on the other side of the river.

    ▷ Acting on a hunch, and deviating from my planned komoot hike , I follow a path through dense woodland. Then unexpectedly I come across a charming old bridge and a Rennaissance-looking building.

    オーデンヴァルトで城を見つけた…
    L. Schloss Fürstenau Bridge 1850 R. Today

    Some defunct looking sluices and a weir suggested a mill of sorts – which indeed it is, built in 18thc.

    The Mümling river still flows past its walls…….

    水車小屋

    ▷ And on the other side of the bridge a rather out-of-place looking baroque house nestles amonst the trees…

    廷臣たちの家

    ▷ This is the Cavalier house built in the 18thc…for the members of the court.

    The court? Yes, cross the bridge and enter through the gateway to reveal…….Low and behold!……… A crumbling medieval castle adorned with a huge Rennaisance arch….

    Bearing in mind John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers , I instantly gave it a name: Crumble Castle. It is indeed badly in need of maintenance, and crumbling……..

    崩れかけた城

    ▷ Random ladies and gentleman, some with very few clothes on, seem to have been lounging about here for some time….

    They don’t look very happy. Maybe because of all this modern stuff over on the other side of the courtyard…..

    …..or because their owners are parking right in front of them….?

    城は改修が必要だ

    ▷ Now, have you ever thought about that stereotypical medieval castle 🏰 in children’s books ?….pennants fluttering from round towers, knights on horseback and ladies with tall conical hats….?

    Well here you have it. Right here In the middle of the Odenwald. This is a view which a resident must have taken, for I found no way to access this angle…..

    L. Schloss F[rstenau by Christian Kehrer 1800. R. Foto by Graf

    ▷ It is extraordinary. There are no signposts and no admission fee, no café and no souvenir shop. You are requested politely to respect the privacy of the place, and are allowed to wander around the courtyard.

    The inner courtyard is a eclectic mixture of medieval, rennaissance and classical buildings…

    …with views out to the meadows….

    …and some shiny art……

    Would you ring this doorbell?

    …….bits and pieces litter the place……

    …I even discovered a nice scroll…..

    ▷ Apparently the original castle was built in the 14thc. to “protect” the nearby Steinbach Abbey. What is left of this abbey today is the church. But not any old church. It was built by Einhard, advisor to Charlemagne (Karls des Großen). Charlemagne? yes, the emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian Empire. He united most of Western and Central Europe in the 9thc. and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire approximately three centuries earlier. Not a bad CV.

    ▷ It is incredible to think that this church – a Roman basilica in fact, has been tucked away in this corner of the Odenwald since the 9th century.

    In fact it only survived because it was used to store hunting equipment and timber. Timber has to be stored in a dry place. Hence the roof was always kept in good condition.

    ▷ Only about 100 years earlier, in the north of England (the Anglian Kingdom of Northumberland at that time, now County Durham) …..

    …..the little church of Escomb was built. It also still stands today.

    イングランドのエスコム教会は、エーベルハルトのバシリカより100年前に建てられた。

    ▷ And I still remember my teacher, Prof. Rosemary Cramp, telling us students to look at this building from the outside first, before entering. To build Escombe, they had to pillage a nearby Roman fort for the stone. Whilst here, in the Odenwald, there was excellent sandstone in abundance.

    ▷ I had been here before with some hiker friends, in 2013. It was a hot summer, and we were grateful for the cool interior of the basilica…..

    ハイキンググループと一緒 2023

    The main doorway….

    The interior….

    But this time it was not too hot.

    ▷ It was May 1st 2026, and I kept on encountering groups of merry men (and women), pulling carts of beer through the forest. None to be seen here however. Time for a hard-boiled egg……….(thank you Phe for this idea)

    森の中のひととき

    ▷ Sophia’s temple would have also been a spot to linger, but it had already been requisitioned by a homeless man. I left him in peace….

    18世紀の「寺院」

    ▷ On descending back down the hill to the town of Erbach my eye was caught by this monster on the hill. No need for plasterers or electricians here. The’ve got it sorted……I named it The Paperclip.

    私はこの家を「ペーパークリップ」と名付けた。

    ▷ And as if all historical eras had not already been covered on this hike, I bumped into this relic from the 1940s near Michelstadt station…..

    1940年代の古いトラック

    ▷ So there we are. My train took me back to Frankfurt via Hanau,

    ▷……..and then over the Deutchherren Brücke (passing the European Central Bank and the former Market hall) to Frankfurt Süd.

    フランクフルトへの帰路

    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🚶🏼‍➡️

  • Who is Jack? ジャックって誰ですか？

    November 26th 2025年11月26日

    It was a day when it would have been probably better to stay under the duvet.

    👉 It was cold enough….

    寒い朝だった。布団の中は暖かかったのに。どうして起きなきゃいけないの？

    👉 But I had a violinist coming first thing. I had given her instrument the full make-over, so was interested to hear how she would react. Of course after two or three notes I could tell she was not happy with something. It was the strings. Not her taste. Ok, so I changed all the strings. Result? A happy smile. Good. Now it was time to pay. This is usually dealt with pretty quickly, thanks to my card terminal…..

    今朝はすべてがうまくいかなかった ☹️

    👉 However when I activated it, for some insane reason it wanted me to log in and identify myself….bla bla bla…What, whilst a customer is waiting? Oh, give us a break. “I’ll give you the bill and you can do a bank transfer ” I said. I reached for the printer. Great. Today of all days it decided to run out of toner. …….☹️

    カードリーダーが動作せず、プリンターのインクが切れました…。……..🙄

    My customer saved the day by transferring the money immediately on her mobile. Phew!

    Ah, at last, now I can go for that morning walk. I glanced out of the window to check the weather….What the.…⁉️…the nearby tower block was emitting black smoke…..

    助けて！あそこで何が起こっているの？

    You feel very alone at moments like this. Are you the only person to have noticed this? All was quiet. Quick! call the fire brigade!…..but where is my mobile 🤳???? whilst frantically searching, the reliable, solid landline caught my eye ☎️.

    I was on to the fire department in seconds. The man at the other end didn’t ask me anything. He just said: “Weserstr. Wohnblock on fire, yes….is there anyone on the roof?….” (luckily not). Seconds later I heard the sirens. Phew 😮‍💨.

    That’s quite enough for one morning I thought. Ignoring everything else I pulled on a winter jacket and walked out into the freezing, but glorious sunshine.

    Winter has hit Europe. My Italian correspondent, Ciara, is driving to Rome to sing in a massed gathering for St. Cecilia’s day….

    ヨーロッパに冬が到来。イタリア特派員Mzは聖セシリア祭のためにローマへ向かう途中です。

    And whilst sunlight filters through the trees in Tochigi…Komorebi { 木漏れ日 }…….the next day in Hessen is far from bright….

    栃木とヘッセン!

    But wait. All is not lost. Blue skies are possible, and the pigeons in Darmstadt know where to enjoy it – under the gaze of Ludwig I, Grossherzog von Hessen und bei Rhein….

    鳩はどこに座るべきか知っています…ダルムシュタット

    When he came down from his pillar he looked like this…

    He was quite an open-minded fellow, and supported the arts. The opening up of Japan was a bit after his time, but I think he would have appreciated Japanese culture….

    フランクフルトの日本蚤の市でティーポットと本を売りました

    Even if it was only a Nomi no ichi – a flea market….

    https://japanisch-kulturzentrum.de/veranstaltungen/

    Yes, I’m back in my old haunt – the Japanese Cultural Centre in Frankfurt….🎏

    It’s a nice opportunityto chat.

    “Who did you fly with on your last trip to Japan?” 🛬 Finnair? Lufthansa? JAL?

    How many yen did you get for your Euros 💴( a lot!)

    “so on return you also find Frankfurt dirty and loud? 💩

    “so desu ne……🙄” ( *so it was, yes….)

    👉 Jack. Not a name you often hear these days. But when I was little the adults would talk about someone called Jack Frost. He seemed to be a rather spiky, mischievous character who came in the early hours of the morning and disappeared as soon as the sun rose…..

    イギリスでは「ジャックフロスト」(Jack Frost) が霜をもたらす……..🥶

    He’s still around….

    leaving a trail of spiky beauty……

    Anyone for frozen toadstool, accompanied perhaps by a crispy Chardonnay?…….

    What? You’re going hiking in this weather?

    こんな天気でハイキングに行くんですか？

    👉 I remembered the old adage……”There is no such thing a bad weather, there is only unsuitable clothing”

    And anyway, I have a nice warm winter jacket and a woolly hat……and I knew that the walk Yorgos had planned for Sunday would include a warm meal at the end.

    It’s wonderful 😊to be up in the Taunus hills, crunching through the frost but feeling warm inside…

    冬のジャケットとウールの帽子を着て暖かいです……😊

    The sheep looked quite comfortable…

    羊たちは暖かいですね！☺️

    “Guten Tag…”

    こんにちは!

    However, not a day for a dip in the pool ……

    私たちは泳ぎに行かなかった………..

    no, no….

    👉 In these hills you will always find a hut for walkers. There will be somewhere to sit down and the floor is dry…..

    ハイカー用の小屋

    But hang on….. this doesn’t look too friendly…..

    Photo > Phe ここは友好的な場所ではないようだ ………😯

    This is what physicists do on their days off. When they get tired of particle acceleration they go to see some tangible white particles – snow. To find them you have to go up to the Grosser Feldberg (the highest hill in the Taunus range)….I’m glad she didn’t get lost or eaten by a Grizzly bear…….🧸

    Photo> Phe

    👉 Well, that’s all from the Towers this week. As I write this my friends across the road have decided to dig another hole. They are good at that……..

    家の近くでまた穴を掘っています。穴掘りが本当に上手ですね🙄

    Thank you for reading, and feel free to forward on to anyone who might be interested.

    読んでくれてありがとう！。ご興味がある方にはお気軽に転送してください。

    See you またね 🥶

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    The End

    ⛄

    終わり

  • 🍴 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

    🍄‍🟫

  • 🖋️ The View from the Desk 机からの眺め

    August 9th 2025 年8月10日

    👉 The view from my desk can sometimes be rather distracting. I don’t remember, for example, having ordered a coffee table……

    コーヒーテーブルを注文した覚えがない😂

    So I must retain some fudoushin ふどうしん( 不動心) and remain imperturbable . I read this word in Japanese today and didn’t know what on earth it meant. But seeing that character 心 at the end should have prepared me for something deep. 心 means mind, heart or spirit, and I even have it on my wall at home as a calligraphy exercise!

    心

    I would probably never use imperturbable here in Germany because I know I would have to explain it. Here is the Oxford English Dictionary…

    難しい言葉 🙄

    So there you go. Pearls of knowledge from a building site.

    👉 There’s nothing quite like a spontaneous hike with friends. But with such a hot weekend a cool route is called for. So no to the open vineyards of the Rheingau or ruined castles baking in the heat. What we needed was a route almost entirely in the shade.

    東京ほど暑くはないけど、十分暑い！

    Those who can’t come offer you a colourful range of situations they find themselves in. The globetrotters: “I am in Brazil and flying to Chile tomorrow, otherwise would definitely join! The thinkers: “I am thinking about it”. The organized: “Sorry, I have a prior arrangement”. The unfortunates: “I feel worse and worse” (all sympathy here). The stay-at-homers: “I need a day at home”. The mysterious: no reply.

    Well, in the end there were only two of us left. But there are advantages to that – flexibility is one of them.

    👉 The route took us through the shady woods south of Darmstadt. It was very quiet – only the odd dog walker or jogger trudging by. Maybe everybody was doing their shopping. It was a Saturday morning after all. Nature stood still. Not a breath of wind :

    レストランのある静かな池

    At times the luxuriant vegetation was higher than myself….

    花は私よりも背が高かった

    One area of the woods was devoted to art installations. An imaginative “rain machine”……

    アート。「雨の機械」

    A dome which teased the eye – was this art or trees? It seemed especially designed to be photographed to produce a deception in your camera…..

    欺瞞的な芸術

    ………….chiming, tinkling, boat-at-harbour-like tones……

    フェーさんが「サウンドインスタレーション」に挑戦
    これは港の船の音のようだった

    👉 Climbing up a steep path, passing an observatory, we arrived at the Ludwigsturm (Ludwig Tower) on the Ludwigshöhe. From here you get a panoramic view of Darmstadt, and on the horizon, Frankfurt.

    展望台からはダルムシュタットとフランクフルトの景色が見える

    The rather impressive 19thc. tower has never been open all the times I have been here. And the adjacent restaurant was shut because the owners were on holiday (The summer holdays are a sacrosant period in Germany. My customers don’t pick up their violins, the Opera houses and schools don’t pay their bills…all because it is Ferien (holidays). Let’s not worry about that violinmaker who still has to pay his overheads. There is even a word for it: The Sommerloch (The “Summer hole”)).

    👉 I forgot to mention one piece of art poised between two trees. It was made up almost entirely of oyster shells……curious….

    カキの殻

    Is this art?

    それは芸術ですか

    👉 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.

    See you またね 😉

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    The End

    🚶‍➡️

    終わり