The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

The medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, in central Germany, was founded around 950.  Today it is one of only a few intact walled medieval cities left in Europe. (This image was borrowed from Turistmus Rothenburg.) It is also known as "the best place in the world to spend Christmas." So, we went there for Christmas.

Our train pulled into Rothenburg on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.  The Hotel Eisenhut was a fabulous Old World experience right in the center of this charming town.  We checked in at the beautiful lobby, then offloaded our baggage in our spacious room and went out to look around before it got dark . . . and the shops closed.

Our hotel was next door to the "World Famous Christmas Museum" (Kathe Wohlfahrt) which had a wonderful old bus parked outside.

It was getting to be late afternoon, making photography in the dark shadowed narrow streets very difficult.

Rothenburg is carefully and loving restored and maintained to the original medieval condition.

It was a beautiful (and mild) afternoon to walk around this historic and architectural gem.

Cobbled streets and pastel colors.

Lots and lots of cobbled streets!

Rothenburg has the fine St. James Church from 1311.

The St. James Church holds an altar carved by the great German sculptor, Tilman Riemenschneider.

All over Germany people eat sneeballen ("snow balls") during the Christmas season.  They look delicious, but are, in fact, somewhat dry . . . unless you get the amaretto and almond coated ones.

It was beautiful no matter which way you turned.

We walked around in amazement, but before too long we realized that almost all of the shops were closed!  No Shopping! Oh No, it was Christmas Eve and everybody was home with their families.

All we could do was window shop.

There were many things we wanted to purchase from the beautiful shop window displays.  Drat!

Here and there we would head up a street to find the old arched gateway of the city wall.

It felt like we had gone back in time . . . except for the occasional car.

The City Hall and City Museum were under restoration . . .

The old building exteriors were amazing, and so were the interiors!  We loved looking into each shop window and marveling at what we were seeing.  Bread!

So many beautiful shops . . . and shop window displays.

We were desperate to buy a set of these small ceramic Rothenburg town buildings to add to our collection from Prague, but the shops closed early on the 24th of December and did not open until after we left.  Oh No!

We need doyleys and lace around our new Scottish home, but, alas, it was closed too.

However, shops selling food were generally open on the 24th and 26th.

Beautiful German breads!

The sausage shop was closed.  We could have filled our suitcases with these.

Fortunately the butcher was open and had these cute pepperonis with cigar bands in a wood box.  We bought a couple of boxes . . . they are great!

A Rothenburg doll shop. I always find great collections of dolls creepy . . . its the animist in me.

We never tired of strolling arm in arm around this gem of a town.

While walking around the narrow medieval street that Rothenburg, it's easy to forget that it is a walled hill town.

Every once in a while our wanderings would spill us out at a view point over quaint river valley village scenes.

There was always something interesting to catch your eye, like this two-tailed merman.

It was cold, grey, and cloudy, but it was still like being in a post card.

We walked around Rothenburg all day, but eventually had to get back to the rococo hotel to get ready for Christmas Eve dinner.  Our hotel was filled with these wonderful old religious artifacts.

Christmas Eve dinner was a special event at the Hotel Eisenhut Hotel: a three hour, nine course meal that culminated with this delicious fruit sorbet.

After dinner we went for a stroll in the brightly lit streets.  This is our hotel on the right; the Hotel Eisenhut.

The World Famous Christmas Museum.

I woke up early and walked around the corner to fetch breakfast.  Fortunately I brought my new Fuji X-E1 camera.  What an amazing sight.

Take-away coffee, cheesecake and strudel back at the hotel room.  Delicious.

The following morning (Dec. 26) broke cold, wet, and gloomy.  We decided to walk the length of the covered ramparts of the old city wall.  There was much to see on the way, as usual.

Now THIS is what I call 'an addition' to your house!

We first walked to the edge of town past these amazing vine covered homes.  They would be just as wonderful in summer.

As is my habit, I was infatuated by old doors showing their age.  What is in there?

Yes, at some point, the neo-classical style even penetrated this old German village.

Grand, heroic, and romantic . . . and pigeonproofed.

One of the newer buildings in Rothenburg from 1681.  Only 335 years old.

An old door again; this time one of the city gates leading outside the town to a small garden and chapel.  The textures visable in this flat light were wonderful.

The small austere chapel was a little gem in the winter gloom.

The rain started to get heavier at this point, so we headed back under the gate we came from and discovered this wonderful view of medieval Rothenburg.

I couldn't resist taking more photos of this gate and wall.  I am sure you could produce a fascinating book of photographs of just this gate alone.

"If these gates could talk" . . . . .

The other tourists began to immerge from their hotels to begin their silent meander through the streets of Rothenburf ob der Tauber.

So much to see in Rothenburg.

Rothenburg was especially beautiful in the rain.

Wet cobblestones evoke a kind of melancholia . . .

We followed the wall around to find the steps up to the ramparts.  Nope, these would not take us where we wanted to go.

Our route led us to an amazing door.  I could not tell if this was contemporary or some kind of an old world attempt at 'modern' iron and rivet door-making. It looked like a lot of doors I have seen in India.

A retrofit?  There was so much to look at and contemplate in Rothenburg.

A cat in an old Rothenburg window on a cold and dank winter day.

More old weathered doors than I knew what to do with . . . but fortunately I had a lot of storage media!

We eventually found the way to the top of the city walls.

Up we went for a walk around the top of the city wall.

There was some beautiful cantilever stonework on the city wall stairs.

Walking the covered ramparts of the old city walls turned out to be the best thing to do on a rainy day.

The views from the ramparts were spectacular.  It was fun to walk along these old passageways above the town.

This foreign tourist seemed very happy to be where he was.

There were some good opportunities to photograph patterns from the top of the city walls.  We walked about 3/4 of the way around the city walls before coming down.  It was getting late.  Time to head back to the hotel.

We walked back through one of the city gates to find Rothenburg lit up like a scene on a Christmas card. 

We walked home in the gathering darkness as a few shops lit up the street. We went in this bakery and had coffee.

Hmmm . . . what do we want this time? . . . .

We changed and walked a block to this Gasthof for another wonderful meal.

There was a manger in the churchyard.  It was Christmas, after all.

We walked around a while in the dim, moody alleys.

We walked around the same streets we walked during the day, but in a very different mood.

I wanted very badly to check these doors . . . and see what was behind them.

At last we stumbled upon the main town square next to our hotel.

Some of the Christmas Market stalls opened on the night of the 26th . . . we stopped for another Gluhwein before turning in.  We were off to Stuttgart and the airport for a flight back to Geneva the next morning.

The next morning, bright and early, we were on the train.  What an enchanted couple of days we spent in Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

The charming and spare German countryside from the moving train.

We departed Germany ant the small, but very nice Stuttgart Airport.

The source of the current flooding in Bangkok is too much water flowing south in the Mae Nam (river) Chao Phra Ya.

My friend, Peter van Heren, and I got up early and went down to the Pakkret pier to see if we could rent a boat for a few hours to go out on the river and take some photographs of the flooded areas near the river.

We struck a deal with a boatman (for way too much), and we were on our way.

There were many boatmen under the Rama IV Bridge where our journey began.

 Taking a boat from the Pakkret pier was the only way to access the Western shore of the river, as the roads were all flooded on the other side.

As we headed out others were coming in to the Pakkret water front.  The water looked swift, but the surface was even.

As soon as we left the pier we began to see just how high the river had risen.

This part of the river, north of Bangkok city center by about 20 miles, has many old wooden houses on the river banks. They were all swamped.

It was difficult to determine which houses had been abandoned and which were still occupied, though swamped.

Many traditional Thai houses have the kitchen, toilet, and eating area on the ground floor and live on the upper floor, knowing that flooding is an ever-present danger.

Perhaps one should abandon one's favorite fishing dock when it is a meter and a half under water.

We saw many people in old wooden boats checking on what might have been their own flooded homes.

Mine as well leave the windows open.  Ain't nobody home.

It seemed like the oldest Thai style houses were built higher up . . . in a time when flooding was more common.

Then again, some weren't.

The spirit house is high and dry.  I have a feeling there are going to be many spirit houses thrown away soon.  It is a Thai tradition to throw away a spirit house if bad luck has come to the family.

Periodically our boatman cut the chug-chug of our motor and we enjoyed the silence and splash of wooden oars.

The extent of the flooding, over such a vast area, is incomprehensible.

OK, now that I saved the television, what should I do next?  Hey!  I'll go fishing.

We went up some small canals (klongs) and saw that there were some low lying area where the water was very deep . . . up to the eves of buildings.

Although the flooding is a huge problem for the people of Bangkok, people on the klongs are living their lives as they always have.

The island of Koh Kred, a favorite place to stroll on the week-end (there are no cars or roads there), was completely flooded. Although the Koh Kred Wat was under water, they had kept the base of the famous crooked chedi dry.

The small klongs were lush and the water was deep above the banks.

The elderly seemed to take the flooding in their stride; perhaps, eschewing modernity, they are more in tune with the cycles of nature.

The old wooden Thai houses partially submerged produced very evocative images.

Interestingly, spirit houses all seemed to be perched on the correct length of stand . . . we didn't see any under water.

A beautiful house, sadly submerged.

It's nice to have a friend with a boat to pay a visit.

I am pretty sure it was NOT her idea to stay with the house.

If you know me you know I am not a dog person.  However, the light was good, the composition fair . . .

We turned off the klong under a bridge and proceded up what was once a four lane highway, now a canal of another kind. This commercial area will be under water for at least a month.

One taking an old traditional Thai wooden boat, the other two taking a plastic version of same. These happy guys were just hanging out on the highway median divider, enjoying the estrangement, as we were.

This smart guy propped his car up on some cement blocks to keep it dry . . . but how did he know how high the water was going to get?

These guys came out to sit and watch the boats going up and down the highway.  Nothing else to do, I guess.

These boys have a look of mixed emotions: it's fun to take a boat down familiar streets that have become so strange.  It's disconcerting to see such familiar streets as so suddenly unfamiliar.

There were several gated, luxury housing developments along the highway that were fighting a losing battle with the flood waters.  This very responsible security guard at one of them was watching the pumps.  He radioed in that a boat with two western guys went by.

Use what you have handy.  This guy was novice Styrofoam blockman, er, boatman.

We returned to the Pakkret pier via some flooded country roads. Families were taking trips to the store for provisions.

It was busy out on the flooded country lanes.

A farm family setting out for the daily chores.

A motorcycle raft.

Nice hat, don't you think?

We returned o the Chao Phraya River where we saw many ferry boats tied up and out of service because the docks they use were all under water.

A timeless scene: a rice barge and fisherwoman.

We returned under the Rama IV Bridge, which was closed because the western end was submerged, nevertheless, it was covered with parked cars to keep them dry.

Back under the bridge and back to where we started; along with many others.

The wonder of a boy at the flood. I shared his view.

Since my house wasn't flooded (yet), I decided to go down to the Chao Phraya River to take a look around the town of Pakkret and take some photos.

This is the sand bag barricade that is holding the river back from flooding MY HOUSE! I, and other old fat people, wandered to the river's edge, took a look, and turned away.

What I saw was not all that bad: yes, some shop houses right on the river had become swamped, but a huge barricade of sand bags held back the mighty river.  People walked about on these makeshift gang planks.

Life goes on, as they say.  Send the motorcycle taxi out to get lunch for you . . . . as usual.

The big fresh food market was still open, but showed signs of having been under water recently.

People gotta eat: feeding the flooded.

There were some very large sand bag embankments.  You could see that the water had been much higher.

There was still a fight with the river going on.

The sand bags did not keep all the water out, so there were many pumps going to keep the market dry.

The elderly seemed to be adapting . . .

. . . the children too.

The flood did not mean the same thing to everyone.

This well protected man (see the Buddha amulets around his neck!) liked to sit in the middle of my photos. Well, why not, he was very photogenic.

Speaking of photogenic, I hope this young boatman moonlights as a model.

He's got the look!

On the other side of the sand bags was the river.  Boats came and went ferrying people to their flooded homes.

A flooded spirit house and side street.

The little back alleys of the old wooden dock district of Pakkret was also flooded. Beauty in tragedy.

A sand bag portrait, strangely photogenic.

Although the floors are flooded, all the shops are still open . . . but things are not exactly flying off the shelves . . . er, I mean the shelves are not flying off the shelves . . . er, I mean the shelves are not flying off the wall.  You know what I mean.

Old Pakkret follows the river bank in a maze of small alleyways.  Up ahead on the right, the tall sand bank embankments are holding back the water.  The river level is only a few inches below the top of these bags.

The discolored plastic sky lights let in an eerie mood as volunteers continued to shore up the defences against the rising river.

Water sat still in the old riverfront wooden shop houses.

Amazing images around every corner.  Buddhas reflected in the greenbrown waters of the flooded shop.

Different shop, different Buddha, different reflection.

The dark, flooded alleys held much beauty.  I am not sure who will be buying this hat today -- perhaps someone who lost theirs in the flood.

Bright blue nets in the flooded gloom.

Beautiful light.  You could make your own netting.

People moved around in their once familiar neighborhood silently, except for the sloshing of their feet.

It was quite difficult to navigate the maze of sand bags, planks, and barricades.

The look of concern was on the faces of may residents in the Pakkret old town.

Of course some merchants are less upset than others.  Being a paddle salesman is a good thing during a flood, although those 99 baht ones on the bottom may be hard to sell even during a flood.

Potions and elixirs seemed to be moving well enough, despite, or because of, the flood.

He may have to discount these Spirit House garlands as they did not keep the flood away.

A rack 'o paddles . . . just what you need when you are up the proverbial creek. There was no line for these.

On the river side of the sand bags there was complete submersion.

I left the flooded old area along the river to walk over toward the big Pakkret food market.

The Happy Hawker, perched upon the sand bags. The people gotta eat.

This part of the northern suburbs of Bangkok still has the feel of the old order world . . .

. . . but mechanized modernity is catching up.

The ubiquitous Thai Tuk-Tuk.  The tuk-tuk driver was very suspicious of me.  So suspicious, I thought there might be a crime in progress nearby.

Just inside the entrance to the big market sat this Buddha amulet repair and refurbishment service.  Now I know where the old man at the flood wall got all of his!

The market had food . . . if you count stuff-on-a-stick and deep fried everything. Gotta love those deep fried weenies. There was a lot of bottled water on sale for those whose homes are swamped.

The clothing and shoes sections were fully stocked, but there were very few shoppers. These are definately post-flood fashion items.

Other than the merchants' children, there weren't any customers.

Many of the small shops that line the big open market space had cemented block walls built to keep out the water . . . and sand bag steps for getting in and out.

Not a customer in sight.

The shops were well stocked.  If you wanted to buy a . . . what the Hell are they selling here?

Heavily discounted Thai sweets were available for the non-diabetic. Noticed the furniture sitting atop cement blocks, upper right.

Some shops were cleaning up after the morning fresh market had closed.

I'm not sure what this shop specializes in, but they were clean.

A perfectly androgynous market laborer posing.

Come Hell, or in this case, high water, the COOKING FAT MUST BE DELIVERED . . . and it was!

If the site of your flower stall is now occupied by sand bags, no problem, use what you have.

I guess people were not feeling lucky. I waited around, but didn't see anybody buy any of these lottery tickets.

I walked through the market toward the river and encountered the sand bag wall that was keeping the river water out. The flood in Pakkret is not too bad, but a million or more Thais have had their homes and businesses inundated by water.  The government now says that most of Bangkok will be flooded for up to six weeks.  It could get bad.