Taking A Stroll Down the Beautiful Streets in Germany

“Anyone who has first seen a place in a picture and then visited it knows how different reality is. You sense the atmosphere all around you and you are no longer dependent on the angle from which the picture was made. You breathe the air of the place, hear its sounds, notice how they are re-echoed by the unseen houses behind you.”

Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Experiencing Architecture

The general atmosphere behind these photos from Germany was peace and quiet. The streets were perfect for quiet reflection. But the presence of the buildings seemed to cut through the tranquil moment I was experiencing. They didn’t make any noise, but when I saw them, I felt like I was at the symphony with a wall of sound bombarding my senses. Maybe this was what Goethe was referring to when he called architecture “frozen music.” The shapes, the details, the colors, all swirling around inside my head like a kaleidoscope.

View of the waterfront along the Rhine River. The two spires of the Cologne Cathedral can be seen in the background.
A walking path near the Botanische Gärten der Universität Bonn in Bonn
View of Seminarkapelle from the walkway along the Rhine River in Bonn
Dreikönigskirche in Frankfurt
Another view of Dreikönigskirche in Frankfurt
An alleyway with cobblestones in Cologne. The Great St. Martin Church can be seen in the background.
Alte Nikolaikirche near Römerberg in Frankfurt
Stiftskirche Sankt Johannes Baptist und Petrus in Bonn

2 thoughts on “Taking A Stroll Down the Beautiful Streets in Germany

  1. These are beautiful. There is something about the absence of people in the photos that makes these places look especially tranquil. The buildings seem to be speaking with each other, the way people can at times read each other’s minds with a glance across a room without speaking aloud.

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