photos

Take your pick: soup with analogue photography meet-up (on the right it says 'Beates Suppenparadies'):



or cake with psychic healing:

This was the Fürther Freiheit, the big central square, last Saturday. In the background is the massive and ugly building that used to be the Quelle department store (I once heard an American woman describing it as 'Quellies', just like we used to call Woolworths 'Woolies'). The fruit and veg market has been moved into the distance, onto the Kleine Freiheit.

The red structure in the middle is a mock-up in cloth of the original station of the first railway in Germany, the Ludwigsbahnhof. It will be finished and on view from 13th August for a couple of weeks.

The following close-up gives a better view of the steps from the Freiheit to the street. This was the bed of the original railway - the railway station is elsewhere nowadays.

This morning. I suppose shops have to plan ahead.

This is a photo of part of Nuremberg city wall, for those who don't know it.

It's close to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. They had an exhibition on castles (there's a parallel one in Berlin) so I went and had a look.

Scarcely had I entered the first room when I was overcome by a sense of information overload. I don't like these audio guides, as they are so long-winded. Looking at the explanatory texts by the exhibits was also difficult with bifocals. I looked at a couple of castle models and some Playmobil knights' castles, but I wasn't in the mood for it.

This Püsterich appealed to me. I sneakily photographed it in the guide (photography not allowed in exhibitions). It is made of ceramics or metal, is filled with water and put in the fireplace, and when it is heated it starts blowing out steam through its mouth. No-one knows why. It may have been to increase the flames, but water is not usually good for that. This is the most famous one and is probably from the 13th century.



In fact it is on the Web too. It is usually at Sondershausen Museum. Google image search reveals a couple of other Püsteriches too. And Sondershausen has a mining museum and an underground marathon (Untertage-Marathon). You have to wear a helmet.

It rained a bit yesterday. I wouldn't mind if it rained a bit today too. (Stadtparkcafé cat)

Herbert Erhard(t) was a Fürth footballer who died on July 3 three days before his eightieth birthday. The plaque in the pedestrian zone (photographed this morning) shows that he was in the German team that won the World Cup in 1954, although he didn't actually play in that game. The green flag is for the local team, Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth. (There's a Kissinger plaque outside my house - I wonder what they'll do for him?)

Wikipedia DE
Wikipedia EN
Fürther Nachrichten

Fürther Nachrichten seems to have confused the spelling of his name with Ludwig Erhard. Oh, and Ehrhardt was a sports teacher at the local Pfisterschule, which is also going down the tubes, till 1993.

LATER NOTE: Apparently the Erhard spelling is correct - it is the plaque that is wrong.

There are priorities in Fürth.

Meanwhile, there's a story at fucked translation of a 'bad pass' by Özil reaching Spanish as a 'fake passport'.

Here's the source, at Malaprensa:

En la noticia de Bild, que es simplemente un comentario al partido con Inglaterra, Hiddink dice:

Guus Hiddink (türkischer Nationaltrainer): „Schade, dass Özil sich für den falschen Pass entschieden hat. Er ist ein moderner Fußballspieler, den ich in meinem Team gut gebrauchen könnte.

Que traducido por Google translator, es:

Guus Hiddink ( entrenador del equipo turco nacional): " Lástima que Özil eligió el paso equivocado. Él es un futbolista moderno , bien podría utilizar en mi equipo.

Actually, since Bild was avoiding anglicisms - if not particularly on that date - it wasn't a bad pass, nor a fake passport, but the wrong passport - if Özil had chosen the Turkish passport, he would have been in Hiddink's Turkish team.

LATER NOTE: I see the story has got further. In fact, Google has a mass of links on the 'Özil fake passport claim scandal'.

Yesterday BILD claimed it was appearing without any English words. I can't confirm this. I do wish commentators would pronounce 'Stephen Gerrard' with emphasis on the first syllable of his surname.

How to pronounce Steven Gerrard.

I found another call for avoiding anglicisms from a publication called Deutsche Sprachwelt in Erlangen:

Anläßlich des WM-Achtelfinalspiels zwischen Deutschland und England am Sonntag ruft die DEUTSCHE SPRACHWELT ganz Deutschland dazu auf, während des gesamten Wochenendes entschlossen auf Anglizismen und englischsprachige Lieder zu verzichten. „Setzen wir ein Zeichen, daß Deutschland hinter der deutschen Mannschaft und hinter der deutschen Sprache steht!“, forderte der Chefredakteur der Sprachzeitung, Thomas Paulwitz.

Instead of public viewing (which I did see in an advert in BILD), Rudelgucken should be used. Ferrero and kicker have produced an album containing words like goal, facts, and Team-Sticker.

Meanwhile, the Apotheken are inspired:







The adidas slogan Impossible is nothing also deserves consideration - it is claimed to mean something different from Nothing is impossible.

Wool shop:



(Thanks to Chris Irwin for the Zeit reference to avoiding German in BILD)

I haven't seen any England flags yet.

On July 4, Bavarians will have a chance to vote Yes to protection of nonsmokers.

Some of them would prefer to vote No to the Yes.



Fortunately I can't vote, as I find the whole thing confusing.

Two more marathon photos. I seem to have captured a running blogger here - see The Running Company, picture at top, possibly Matthias Oberth.

I have a lot of work at the moment, but I did go outside for 15 minutes to watch the marathon runners going by.



I don't know how we supported marathons before the vuvuzela.



I think this is called pacing:



I might have stayed out longer if it had been the London Naked Bike Ride.