Nature – Roving Sun

August 13, 2023

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

We were extremely surprised to find a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird today! While they’re not supposed to be uncommon, particularly if one has the appropriate feeder in their backyard, they certainly are hard to find due to their extreme speed and tiny size. Today, we saw one on a branch of a tree right in front of us while walking around the neighborhood! And even more surprisingly, we saw it fly away and return to the same branch again and again!

August 12, 2023

A Hot Summer Morning at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

It was hotter than we expected today as we arrived at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens when they opened at 10am today. We didn’t spend too much time there as it only got hotter throughout the day. It is always enjoyable to see how the flowers change over time and of course to see what is going on with the local birds.

July 24, 2023August 4, 2023

Around the Tiergarten

We spent most of the day in and around the Tiergarten, a large park on the west side of Berlin’s city center. We started out at the Brandenburger Tor, checked out the exterior of the Reichstag, and walked through part of the park. We saw various monuments and memorials and ultimately ended up at the southwest corner of the park by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

July 21, 2023September 12, 2023

Kaiserburg Nürnberg and the Dutzendteich

Yesterday, we visited part of Nürnberg’s Altstadt (Old Town). Today, we started off at Kaiserburg Nürnberg, the Imperial Castle that sits atop a hill on the northern end of the Altstadt. It is quite a large castle and attached to vast remnants of the city wall. Afterwards, we went to the Dutzendteich area where we visited the Documentation Center, a museum that focuses on what the Nazis did here and why this area was important to their rise to power in Germany. We then walked around the area which currently consists of beautiful parkland with huge dilapidated Nazi constructed structures before heading back into the Altstadt to end the day.

July 19, 2023September 13, 2023

Niederwald Above the Rhine

After arriving in Frankfurt, we took the train over to Rüdesheim, a town on the Rhine. We then took a small gondola up to the Niederwald, a forested area above the Rhine Valley. We hiked to the west, eventually descending via a small chairlift into Assmannshausen, an even smaller town. Afterwards, we returned to Frankfurt to have a very late lunch and to walk around a bit.