Daylight Saving Time, Edo Style

Ruine Schauenburg

My hike in July took me to the South side of Oberkirch, while on the North side sit the ruins of Schauenburg castle. It's a short, but steep, climb from town centre (or you can drive up).

The castle was built at the end of the 11th century by the Duke of Swabia. It saw action mainly in disputes between local lords, most notably after much of the land around the castle was sold to the Margrave of Baden-Baden, around 35 km to the North. It became a ruin following a French invasion in 1689.

Today, a restaurant sits beside the ruin. When I was last there, there was a camera stand to take a clean selfie - you know, the one where you set a timer instead of holding at arm's length. That's where my photo on my professional website comes from.

As is the case from the South side, the castle has a good view of the Rhine plains, and Strasbourg cathedral sticks out. It would have stuck out even more back in the day, without the modern tower blocks. The lords of Schauenburg would have seen the massive gothic cathedral and its monumental spire being built... over the course of a few centuries.

The CFTR's steam train

In a serious rain shower, the Chemin de Fer Touristique du Rhin's train stops at Volgelsheim station, where the association that maintains the line has its museum. The train itself is made up of former Austrian carriages built in the 1920s with what I suspect were 2nd and 3rd class seating.

The locomotive is a T3 tender built around 1900 at Graffenstaden, just South of Strasbourg, for the Alsace-Lorraine Railways. At the time, the region was under Imperial German control, hence the Eagle logo and German inscription "Elsaß-Lothringen" above the number. The association has two of these, nicknamed Berthold and Theodor. These are supported by small Diesel engines; on our trip, one of these hauled the train to the depot, where the extent of the association's work is on display. The active engines are maintained here, while others are being restored.

Peut-être un jour? - To run again one day?

The town of Breisach, on the other side of the Rhine and therefore in Germany, is visible, and a boat carries passengers across the river from near the depot.

Nijô-jô

In my experience, Nijô Castle in Kyôto is one of the most unusual in the Japanese castle landscape, in that the main focus of the conservation and tourist attraction is on a palace, the Ni-no-maru Goten, rather than a dungeon (whether reconstructed or original). It is true that, as the Tokugawa shôgun's residence in the Emperor's back yard, it was a focal point of Edo-period politics.

The palace sits behind a grand gate, decorated with lots of gold and colours. And as all noble residences from the Edo period go, there's a vast, carefully crafted garden on the side, complete with tea houses.

But all this is part of the Ni-no-maru, the area around the Hon-maru main keep. Given that the mountains around Kyôto are largely occupied by temples and shrines, there's not much of a height advantage to be gained in the city, to the point where, when the Hon-maru burned down in the 1780s, nothing was rebuilt, it was left bare!

Eerily, the Tokugawa shôgun's Kyôto castle has a similar story to the one in Edo: there was a keep, but it was destroyed during the Edo period and wasn't rebuilt, and both castle grounds were transferred to the Imperial Estate at the start of the Meiji era. It was in the 1880s that the Hon-maru palace was built, in the space the Tokugawas had left vacant.

Toba Castle ruins

After Hikone Sawayama and Numazu Nagahama, a final entry in my mini-series of castles that are outside the Top 100 and Next 100 lists - until I get to see more! - is Toba Castle, located on the glorious Shima coast, and of which little beyond a few walls and foundations are left.

Now a park, the top level offers some good views of the coastline, only a short climb up some stairs from Toba's attractions sea level. Admittedly, the best views require a longer hike, and when I visited, Shiroyama Park was at the end of quite a long day's walk!

Grand Geroldseck castle - only a cat of different coat

Close to impressive Haut-Barr castle, a one-hour hike from Saverne, sit two more ruins. All of these castles were built around the same time, late 10th to early 11th century, but despite being so close, they weren't owned by the same people.

While Haut-Barr was under the control of the Bishop of Strasbourg, the two Geroldseck castles, the Petit and the Grand, were built by the Geroldseck family, in charge of protecting the lands of the Abbey of Marmoutier. At the time, Alsace was part of the Holy Roman Empire and divided into many largely independent pieces, so these castles facing each other were on a border of sorts. However, the male Geroldseck line went extinct at the end of the 12th century, and the land was co-owned by so many people that no-one was maintaining the castle. The last stand came in 1471, when a group of disgruntled knights used it as their base. The Imperial bailiff laid siege, won and the castle was left as a ruin after that.

While Haut-Barr castle gets a lot of visitors, owing to the possibility of driving there, the Grand Geroldseck is worth the extra walk and brief climb from its neighbour. As well as the dungeon, lots of walls and rooms are still present, making it an interesting place to explore. The remaining walls continue to receive restoration work - there seem to be a few differences between my first visit with @teamroquette and my second this summer, for example, I don't remember seeing the little garden a few years ago.

All that's left to say is: "OI YOU!... YES, YOU! Have a good time."

The Tower of the Sun

With another World Expo underway at Osaka this year, a massive park to the North of the city (actually in the neighbouring city of Suita) sits on the site of the first Japanese World Expo in 1970. There's usually some form of centrepiece: in 1889 it was the Eiffel Tower, and at Osaka Expo '70, it was the Tower of the Sun.

It is a massive sculpture by Taro Okamoto, which it was possible to climb into to view another work called the Tree of Life. As it was going to have people inside, it needed a lightning rod - that's what the top face (officially a mask, but I tend to call it the "bird face" - whose eyes light up at night apparently) is sporting. The three faces on the back, front and top represent humanity's past, present and future respectively, though some art critics and historians have a more bleak interpretation due to Okamoto's larger body of work and stance against technological progress, something the Expo would put emphasis on.

Similarly to the Eiffel Tower, the Tower of the Sun was supposed to be a relatively ephemeral structure, and nearly all the Expo pavilions around it have been demolished. Like the Eiffel Tower, it was avant-garde and no doubt not everyone liked it. But this building is one of the few to be preserved, and requires regular attention - again, like the Eiffel Tower which needs periodic repainting. In any case, the Tower of the Sun is one of Osaka's most iconic landmarks.

Koishikawa Kôrakuen in the summer

This is my favourite park in the city and I've now seen it in three of four seasons, including exactly one year ago. As August in Tokyo goes, it was very muggy and overcast, and as soon as I touched the ticket, it started raining. As I hadn't entered, the person at the ticket office offered a refund, but this was my last day in Japan so if it was going to be a wet visit, so be it.

I did shelter for a bit as the rain was rather heavy, and it proved to be a shower, so it was mostly dry during the walk through the park. Well, I say "dry", but the air was horrifically humid, I was getting just as wet when it was raining than when it wasn't! And when the Sun peeked out, wow did it burn!

Through all of this, this one heron seemed to be chilling in the middle of the main pond. Heron? Hero, more like!

After the tour, I went to the Kantoku-tei tea house for some respite, a katsu meal, some tea... and a change of shirt!

When I have the inspiration, I stage an Easter Bunny Massacre. Also it's April Fools' Day, so I wanted to post something funny. Lacking inspiration at the moment, I looked back at a previous Easter weekend.

Sounds like a train, but isn't: the Saig to Titisee Rodelbahn

In fact, it's just a footpath. OpenStreetMap puts it at 1.2 km in length, and it's all downhill from Saig. A 165 m drop to be precise, which means an average gradient of nearly 14% - that is steeeep with four Es. In the winter, it should be covered in snow, and, with its four turns, you'd figure it would be a really cool route for tobogganing...

Well, that's what a Rodelbahn is, it's a sled/luge/toboggan track! If you look up the term, you'll come across summer Rodelbahns which are rides on rails (little roller coasters, I've seen one next to the Arzviller boat lift that I'll probably talk about one day, and the Bobbahn is a cracking bobsleigh-style ride at Europa-Park), but this is a natural Rodelbahn. Which runs on a hiking trail, so a few rules need to be laid out, such as pedestrians should hug the inside of the corners.

Most of the trail is in the forest, but once (if!) you reach the final stretch, the ride into Titisee with this view of the lake must feel incredible.

Notice on the left that the base of a pole has got some padding around it... That's not (just) for visibility in the snow! If you can zoom in that far, you might notice that the walls of the bridge at the bottom are padded too.

You'll probably be thinking "again!" once you've reached Titisee, but, as we joked with my sister, that "again!" won't come soon - you've got a long, steep climb back up to Saig first! Those numbers, 1.2 km and 14% gradient, aren't so amusing when starting from the bottom... And the train from Titisee to Schluchsee mentioned yesterday doesn't stop at Saig! XD

200 km/h push-pull trains

While Germany has recent double-deck train carriages, the Dostos shown previously being built in the 2000s, and updated versions still being produced, France made its last carriages in the 1980s, including Corail cars for inter-city services. But their use was curtailed by the development of the high-speed network.

Some sets were given push-pull ability, with a driving cab at one end that can control the locomotive at the other - the lead car above being a renovated B5uxh: second-class seating, 5 compartments, air-conditioned, driving cab, disabled access. These have found a new lease of life in regional transport, especially in the East, as the straight and flat Alsace line from Strasbourg to Basel allows these 200 km/h-capable carriages to stretch their legs. The "TER 200" puts Strasbourg only 80 minutes from Switzerland (wink-wink-nudge-nudge for a future trip).

The usual motors for these sets are BB 26000 "Sybic" locomotives built in the 1990s, powerful enough to get them to their top speed. While not at top speed in this setting, probably running at 100 km/h on the slower line to the Lorraine region, they still feel like very big trains when they go by.

Other push-pull trains exist in Alsace, with smaller locos and carriages rejoining the fleet for the planned Réseau Express Métropolitain Européen. However, most passengers trains everywhere in France now are covered by multiple units, especially since bi-mode units like the Régiolis shown below, have appeared. These are capable of running on electric power or with a Diesel engine, making them as flexible as can be.