Where do you all come from?

[Christo]

Nice. But size isn't everything. Voilà my humble abode:

`Born in a field, living in a church' as befits mice, rats and some of us - and you being among them?

[marvinbrown]

Yeah, I married one    Seriously, she's from this area. Her hometown, Lampertheim, is across the river from Worms:



The blue area bordering the west side of the town is the Altrhein (the old Rhine), the course of the river before it was straightened for navigational purposes. It's now a protected wetlands. So Mrs. Rock was, literally, a Rhinemaiden when I met her.

You probably know Worms was where many of the events of the Nibelungenlied took place. Worms was the capital of the Burgundian tribe. The tribe's history became the basis of the Nibelungen saga. There are references everywhere here: a main street is the Siegfried Straße. There is a statue of Hagen on the riverfront and our micro-brewery is the Hagenbräu. There's a dragon fountain in the middle of town. The bridge over the Rhine is called the Nibelungen bridge. A few miles east across the river there is a town that claims to be the place where the historical Siegfried was murdered.

It seems I was destined from a very early age to eventually find a home here.   When my first marriage ended (I was stationed then at a nearby army base and living in Lampertheim), I stood on the Nibelungen bridge and threw her gold wedding band into the river. I thought that was appropriate 

Sarge

  Sarge, this is easily my favorite post on the GMG threads  .  It might surprise you to know that I have never been to Germany  , but I have been to Austria and in a different time that would might have counted, but let's not go there!  I know very little  about the actual history that inspired Wagner to compose/write his Ring saga.  I am pleased to learn from you that these places do exist and you live there!  Forget Bayreuth, you are actually living in the very heart of "Wagnerland"!

  PS: I have this striking image of you throwing that gold wedding band into the river!  If it were me I would have been overwhelmed by that experience.  The symbolism would have affected me deeply on so many levels.  That experience alone officially makes you an integral part of Wagner's Ring Saga  0:)!- Feel free to change your name to Siegfried, you have earned it!

  marvin

[Christo]

  Sarge, this is easily my favorite post on the GMG threads  .  It might surprise you to know that I have never been to Germany  , but I have been to Austria and in a different time that would might have counted, but let's not go there!  I know very little  about the actual history that inspired Wagner to compose/write his Ring saga.  I am pleased to learn from you that these places do exist and you live there!  Forget Bayreuth, you are actually living in the very heart of "Wagnerland"! 

Yes, he is. But in case you consider visiting Worms: I was there, last year, and enjoyed the place greatly while at the same time observing the historical sites to be mostly destroyed (by Louis XIV in the late 17th C. mostly, and again by the Allied bombing campaigns that annihilated most of the German cities in 1944/45). So, the historical Wagnerland references are mostly to be found in a special museum in a part of the former town wall.

(Now that I know the spot of the golden wedding band, next time I'll be diving the river :-)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Feel free to change your name to Siegfried, you have earned it!

Sargefried?

[marvinbrown]

(Now that I know the spot of the golden wedding band, next time I'll be diving the river :-)

  Just don't renounce love while you're at it  !

  marvin

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

  Just don't renounce love while you're at it  !

(I think he won't!)

[Benny]

Not this house, specifically, but born in this vicinity, within a mile or two.
The big river nearby and its bigger boats:


Water, water, everywhere!

[drogulus]

      I was born here:

     

      I live here:

     

      The tiny house in the middle is where I am now.

[Kullervo]

Not this house, specifically, but born in this vicinity, within a mile or two.

Looks like a lot of the houses around here. There was a massive storm in '93 (invariably referred to by locals as the "No-Name Storm") which wiped out everything that wasn't on stilts. Some places still haven't entirely recovered — you still find the odd abandoned shack in the swampier areas.

[Sergeant Rock]

I am pleased to learn from you that these places do exist and you live there!  Forget Bayreuth, you are actually living in the very heart of "Wagnerland"!

As Christo wrote, Worms was devastated by allied bombing, and the whole of the Pfalz (the Palatinate) suffered greatly from repeated French invasions during the 17th and 18th centuries. Not much of the historical old city remains today but what is left is impressive, particularly the thousand-year-old cathedral and the magnificent, and ancient, Jewish cemetary (which, miraculously, survived the Nazi era intact). But despite the lack of visual references to the past, I still feel a sense of the Saga here; and as a Wagnerite, it's a cool place to live  Where else can you drink a great beer named after Hagen while watching the Rhine flow by just as it did 1500 years ago or walk through the forest where Siegfried hunted?

PS: I have this striking image of you throwing that gold wedding band into the river! 

Well, I was a young and foolish Romantic then   Seriously, it seemed an appropriate gesture. The old world was ending (my world anyway) and although it was painful (I still loved my wife) I had to let it go and create something new. The decision I made, symbolized by that act, did make a better world for me.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Sargefried?

  Just don't renounce love while you're at it  !

[Bonehelm]

Born here:



now living here:

[hildegard]

Greetings from the Big Apple!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

That's a lovely picture of Central Park, hildegard! Could you tell me from where it is taken (Street/Avenue)?

[bhodges]

That's a lovely picture of Central Park, hildegard! Could you tell me from where it is taken (Street/Avenue)?

It looks to be the Northeast corner, which would make it Fifth Avenue at 110th Street.  That small lake in the foreground is the Harlem Meer.  (And I agree, quite a beautiful photograph.)

--Bruce

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It looks to be the Northeast corner, which would make it Fifth Avenue at 110th Street.  That small lake in the foreground is the Harlem Meer.  (And I agree, quite a beautiful photograph.)

--Bruce

Thanks, Bruce. And how nice to see our own Dutch 'Haarlemmermeer' transformed into 'Harlem Meer'!

[bhodges]

Thanks, Bruce. And how nice to see our own Dutch 'Haarlemmermeer' transformed into 'Harlem Meer'!

Heel goed!     (I know a smattering of Dutch, thanks to a tutor a few years ago.)

--Bruce

[hildegard]

That's a lovely picture of Central Park, hildegard! Could you tell me from where it is taken (Street/Avenue)?

It looks to be the Northeast corner, which would make it Fifth Avenue at 110th Street.  That small lake in the foreground is the Harlem Meer.  (And I agree, quite a beautiful photograph.)

--Bruce

That's right, the lower right hand corner is 110th Street and to the left is Fifth Avenue going South.

[hildegard]

Thanks, Bruce. And how nice to see our own Dutch 'Haarlemmermeer' transformed into 'Harlem Meer'!

Well, we owe quite a bit to the Dutch! 

[Wanderer]

I was born in Athens and grew up in Pyrgos (near ancient Olympia) and Kyparissia (my father's hometown). The first two photos are views of Kyparissia (click on the pics for larger versions) and the third is a view of the church of St.Nicholas at the central square of Pyrgos.







EDIT: The site where these pictures are hosted seems reluctant to allow for direct viewing; however, clicking on the - blank - pics would do the trick...