Isabelle Nagel brought me to see the sights in the town of Detmold, Deutschland:
Pedestrian walkway. I love the old ladies off to do their shopping:
…and the old men sitting around watching:
Look, fat people even in Europe! They want us to believe only we are fat.
A typical old building in this region now a restaurant:
A close up of the wood support beams. I find the curved beams on the ends of the two lower levels fascinating. I wonder if there is an architectural purpose to them or if they are just for design?
An interesting couple at an outdoor cafe:
A huge tree, it doesn’t look so big in the photo, but I could but you could only get your arms half way around it, I would guess is it is well over 100 years old. Nearby is the town’s schloss. I have a picture of it but the other buildings are more interesting:
I took this picture of this little girl whose big sister turned out to be a school friend of Isabelle:
Then she heard me speak and she covered her eyes. Funny that normally happens when people see me the first time, not when they first hear me!:
Isabelle with her friend and her friend’s sisters:
Clean and neat is the standard for German towns and Villages:
A cafe and the maître d’:
A construction site in the middle of town. It is wonderful how they are so careful to preserve the old buildings and charm:
People working on the construction site, they looked like they were drawing?
I asked Isabelle to stand next to this statue to take her picture. I am sure she was thinking this is the stupidest thing ever, however, she is very sweet and humored me.
Another fabulous old building in such perfect condition I wondered for a moment if it was new construction. The poured concrete in front is obviously new, but the building is from the 1800’s.
It is now a bistro.
Julie, absolutely lovely and very interesting photos and captions. The corner braces on the old buildings were to keep the structure true and square when exposed to stresses such as high winds, storms, and just settling. The first buildings builders probably had some unusual curved strong wood and artfully utilized it for the support braces. The second building went with the more common straight beams for bracing the corners and center door openings of the wall. Corner braces are still used in some types of construction today – they’re just hidden under the exterior siding. I didn’t even know that I knew all this until I remembered I helped build something on the farm with a German carpenter and we did the corner brace thing. This fellow really earned his money and beer cuz I not only worked alongside him but I also asked a gazillion questions about construction!
Margot, I agree – wonderful photos with stories to tell. You are a wealth of information! I always enjoy reading your comments :~)
Margot you should be doing a DIY show!