Hannover Engesohde Revisit

Very few text this time because i really don't bother to explain when and why i revisited. I also don't bother to tell you that the weather was dreadful and that -thanks for that- there is a weatherproof colonade with some remarkble beautiful sculptures there.

Here we go:

An experiment of mine: Am i the new Ed Wood or is it not that bad?

Since this is supposed to be a blog about Photos you will be in for a surprise this time:

I made a Video! With Sound!

But when you look at it you'll realize that it is nothing more but  a slideshow with some decent and (in my opinion at least) fitting soundtrack.

See for yourself:

Leaden Times in Milano

Some images fitting the time of the year: Winter's nearly gone but no sign of spring. A bit hopeless and very cold...

All pictures were taken  at the cimitero monumentale, Milano

Northern Cemetery Minden, Germany

My apologies. I admit i was lazy the last weeks and that was mainly because i didn't visit any cemtery for a long while.

Happily however my other Hobby (Geocaching) led me to a cemetery i've visited before (spring 2010 to be more precise): The Nordfriedhof in Minden.

It is quite near to my hometown and it is one of the better ones here around. Which isn't saying a lot.

However, there are some quite beautiful and/or interesting graves i'd like to show you:

This first one is a grave of  a teacher for fighter pilots; he obviously died during WW I.

Just look at that plane! Gosh, they were brave!

Here's the second one. A slightly aggressive looking Eagle that nicked a propellerblade.....

I wonder what profession this bloke had...

He wasn't an ornithologist, was he?

The third one is a bit odd: This female head just sticked out of the ground. I wonder if the rest of that sculpture is buried there, but i didn't look closer or even beginn to unearth her there. That's definetly a no-go on a cemtery, right? And i left my spade at home. It would look rather odd to walk around with a spade and a camera on a cemetery. Even on broad daylight..

But she is rather nice, isn't she?

The last mounument i'd like to show you is near the entrance. It is an astonishing piece of cemetery art for this part of the world and definetly not of the usual boring kind you usually find here.

Inscription says in Latin and German: "I was what you are, you will be what i am"

Detail of the skull:

And the last of that monument:

Here's an example why i'm such a big fan of italian Cemteries. You probably wonder what's that to do with this post about a cemetery in northern Germany, but bear with me:

Here's a sculpture of a lying woman on that very cemetery:

Nordfriedhof Minden

And here's a selection of lying women that i've found on italian Cemeteries:

Cimitero Monumentale, Milano

Staglieno, Genoa

Staglieno, Genoa

I know that's a bit unfair, but do you see my point?

Cimitero La Spezia

It's been a while since i've posted something and i even have no idea why that is the case. I'm blaming a lack of motivation and the general dark mood that comes at this time of the year.

So to cheer myself (and maybe you) a bit up i'll post some gems from the Cimitero La Spezia. I visited that beautiful cemetery last October and here are still plenty of pictures that need to be shown to you.

This selection is focused on grieving beauties.

Portugal 2011: Another Bones Chapel

Here we go again: I've made a post about this topic some time ago, but this year it was a different chapel.

It is the bones chapel in Alcantarilha .

Again, the walls of the chapel are covered in human bones and skulls. This time they didn't do it with victims of the plague but with "normal" dead. And the story goes like this:

About 300 years ago the local cemtery was simply full, so it was decided to dig up the dead and take them to Faro, the next big city in this area. However, the residents were against that and they protested and wanted their dead nearby. So they collected the bones and glued them to the chapel wall.

Info at the entrance

Detail

Heavy-Metal-Cover-Designer's wet dream...

Even beaches can be cemeteries....

Since the weather was stormy and windy we decided to pay the southwest coast of Portugal a visit. The promise of dramatic landscape and really big waves crashing on the shore was more inviting than hanging around and being gloom about the weater. Some geocaching was thrown in as well...

At this beach i found something odd though: Lying in the sand there was a strange heart-shaped object which i've never seen before. I was, to be brutally honest, a bit baffled by this. Because this wasn't a lifebelt (or at least not a normal one for a normal passenger...)

Why heartshaped? Why all these strange spikes and fittings around it?

My stepmother provided the anwer: This is a funeral wreath from a sea burial. The spikes are remains of the flowers, the iron fittings held them together.

Detail

I guess the urn itself was ripped off by the sea  (was it attached to the rope?).