Topic: Michelstadt

[imagesfrugales]

This week I visited Michelstadt, a small "big" city in the Odenwald region. "Michel" doesn`t derive from Michael but means "big" here. Michelstadt has one of the oldest preserved timber-framed gothic town-halls from the 15th century. Many tourists come to Michelstadt, all bring a camera of course, and I tried to make some more unusual pictures.

All pictures are taken with a  humble 35 mm toy cam, fixed plastic meniscus lens, drilled out aperture (f/5.6?), 1 shutter speed of maybe 1/100, handheld IR or red filter.

Lets start with the famous town hall, which sits on majestic wooden pillars:


Michelstadt 01 by Imagesfrugales, on Flickr


Michelstadt 03 by Imagesfrugales, on Flickr

A little detail before we go to the municipal garden right outside the town wall:


Michelstadt 02 by Imagesfrugales, on Flickr


Michelstadt 06 by Imagesfrugales, on Flickr


Michelstadt 05 by Imagesfrugales, on Flickr

"Elefants House" below the church:


Michelstadt 04 by Imagesfrugales, on Flickr

Exhausted from the hard work I enjoyed delicous italian style ice cream apart from the main tourist trails.


Michelstadt 09 by Imagesfrugales, on Flickr

[jharr]

Great shots Reinhold. The softness of the drilled aperture and the plastic meniscus give the place an idyllic quality that I am positive is missing in the millions of phone pics that have been taken there. Really well done. Thanks for sharing these.

[ManuelL]

Great pictures! Really like the dreamy look!
The series made me smile as I have been to Michelstadt just a few weeks ago - didn't take any pictures though.

[Ezzie]

Dreamy pictures Reinhold.

Obviously German and Norwegian have a lot in common. In old Norse Mikla/mykla (from mikil, now often used as a boy's name: Mikkel) means big or large. Gard means town (nowadays "gård" and means farm or small village). A lot of places have been named Miklagard, the most prominent of them being Istanbul, then Bysantz, later Constantinopel. Norwegian vikings actually formed an elite guard in the city around the year 1000, most prominently Harald Hardråde who later went on to lose the battle of Stamford Bridge to Harold the I, who then lost to William the Conqueror.

[imagesfrugales]

Thank you for the gentle comments and encouragement James, Manuel and Eirik and for the additional linguistic insights.