The first photo shows the cobblestone street––notice the width of the street––and a modern wall that is boundary of someone's house/yard today.
The second photo gives a better look at the outer wall. The tower has the door which is an entrance to the upper walkway of the wall. Here I can imagine the men, whose duty it was to defend the city, walking their assigned stretch and keeping a close surveillance of any activity outside the city.
Old German washstand for washing fingers,
not hands, before eating.
Shown here is one style of what we would call an old washstand. These were used in Germany in the 1600’s for washing your fingers before eating. Yes, I did say fingers instead of hands. You didn’t wash both hands, instead you washed only the first two fingers and thumb of each hand. No housewife wanted to waste water, and the first two fingers and thumb is all you use when eating. (Notice next time you eat…this is true!) And, I’m sure that if you are the one who has to go outside with a bucket, draw the water from a well, and then lug it inside to use, you don’t want to be making a lot of trips to the well.
The sole reason I toured Albrecht Dürer's house in Nürnberg, Germany, was because I had read there was a display of his paint and where it came from. Now Dürer lived 170 years before Maria Sybilla Merian did, but things were slow to change back in those days; I figured the source of paints would still be the same. I had already spent two and a half years researching the old paint recipes to find a few which would be usable in the classroom during the study of art in the Middle Ages. (I was bored with the time period and needed a way to "liven it up" 'cause it's a sure bet that if the teacher's already bored, the students will be triply bored, and the last thing we need is bored kids in the classroom.)
I was delighted to see that what I had read was confirmed here.
The blue pigment in the picture on top is azurite; the powdered form was kept on the half shell, it's source is the azurite rock behind. The red pigment was new to me–it is called Drachenblut, or Dragon's Blood. It comes from a red resin from the fruit of a palm tree found in Asia.
The center picture shows a pigment made from roots of the Rubia plant–also new to me–on the left. On the right is a dish of cochineal bugs which, when crushed, make a purply-red pigment. (And, yes, the dried bugs do stink if you get your nose too close to them!)
The bottom picture shows the beautiful bright red pigment derived from Cinnabar rocks from Spain.
One added note: most rocks lose their color when crushed and cannot be used to make paint. Those that do retain their color make very lovely paint, indeed.
Found the iron ring
Not only is this fountain beautiful, so is the wrought-iron fence around it!
To see more photos of this fountain, go to www.chasingcaterpillars.vox.com
The tall fancy spire you see above the market booths is the Schoenebrunnen, or the Beautiful Fountain, and is very aptly named! It is the most beautiul fountain I’ve ever seen. And probably the tallest. The workmanship that went into making this is absolutely incredible.
Here is a close up of this fountain. The photo was taken through the fancy wrought iron fence which encloses it.
The golden ring is supposed to bring good luck when you turn it. Yes, it does move! Of course, you have to find it first, and that is no easy task! The ornate iron work is such that the ring blends in beautifully, and even the change of color does not stand out immediately.
And, unbeknownst to a lot of tourists, there is an iron ring on the other side of the fountain. Some of the local people asked me if I knew about this one, and when I said no, they beckoned me to this side and said that turning this one ensures that you have children. Apparently especially important after the plague which wiped out so many. Can you find it?