Beauty in Peculiar Places

In Germany we seemed to find beauty and artistry in some unusual places. The first place I noticed it was in doors. As we walked about town I noticed the doors, in a drab or ordinary looking building the door would pop out, it might be ornate, funny, bejeweled, loud, or overwrought. It seemed as if the owner, maybe even the building itself, was saying, 'I may be simple but look there is a part of me that shines, there is a quirky or showy side to me and here it is.' I too late began to carry my camera around to take pictures of these doors and missed so many that made me stop and smile.

If it wasn't their door then the windows almost always had something hanging for display. I can't see many Americans doing this, but there were often hearts, streamers, stars, or lace doilies.

This brings us to balconies and patio areas. Germans love to be outside and will spend as much time as possible outside, eating, drinking, cooking, socializing, or just having a beer at the end of the day, so no matter the size of their balcony it was always decked out with grill, table, chairs, perhaps lights, always flowers, and usually some type of covering to shield their goings-on from private eyes; I often saw bamboo coverings. The amount of flowers is what first drew my eye to the every day use of apartment balconies. It seems as though Germans have mastered the art of hanging flower beds and mini-gardens, to see a balcony without flowers either draped over the outside or inside of the balcony railing was a rarity.

Nature seemed to weave atypical beauty too.

Though, the place I least expected to find artistry was in the ice cream shops, and there it ran abundant.

The most prominent type of ice cream is called spaghetti eis and it looks like this.

I wasn't sure how to describe it so I went to wikipedia and this is what it said:
In the dish, an often light or white colored ice cream is extruded through a modified Spätzle press or potato ricer, giving it the appearance of spaghetti. It is then placed over whipped cream and topped with strawberry sauce (to simulate tomato sauce) and either coconut flakes, gratedalmonds, or white chocolate shavings to represent the parmesan cheese. Although it is not well known outside Europe, it can be found at some gelaterias and specialty ice cream parlors, at special events and at some hotels and restaurants around the world.


What a great chance for me to see beauty in the most peculiar places, it was wonderful.