Burg Red (day 10 black-and-white)

Burg Red (day 10 black-and-white)

Today is then the final of the black and white challenge. If you like to see what pictures I posted on day 1 through 9, please click below this blog post under “Read more”.

I took this picture today when I walked back home after I got some groceries in Herzogenrath. I took this picture to remind me to keep looking. Because on the way out I also walked past it without seeing the burg. I come by here every week and I realized that I often don't even see this beautiful castle anymore. And it's not exactly a small building, okay it's a bit higher but definitely not hidden. On the way out, I was sunk in my mind. Actually, I didn't want to go to the DM (drugstore) today but since Germany has set 11 provinces in the Netherlands to red, it also means that those people in Germany are no longer welcome at the moment. Only people living in Limburg are allowed to cross the border without consulting a corontest. And as I walked to Herzogenrath, I wondered how long we will continue to go “reasonably” and how long it will take before the border is locked for us, too, and that I would hate it so much.

And that during the previous “lockdown” I missed Germany (and Belgium too) so much. I don't call him intelligent because if something was missing, it was intelligence. You often miss something when it's gone and that's what I thought about when I took this picture. Sometimes you don't see all the beauty anymore because you don't look closely. Take your things for granted. Or are you so busy with what is not so beautiful that this swallows you up and that you don't see what is left. And I thought that this symbolizes what is happening in the Netherlands right now with Covid-19, that it's not about whether you're right anymore, but that it's all about getting right. That people can't see what's still possible. Apparently do not have the ability to be flexible and creative and cope with adversity. That one would rather walk with blinders than with a mouthcap. And it made me a little sad. That's why I chose to use the #10dagenzwartwit with this picture.

Burg Rode is a castle in the town of Herzogenrath in the Aachen region, Germany. It is only a few hundred meters from the border with the Dutch municipality of Kerkrade. The castle is a border fortress and toll castle in one. It is due to the marriage of Mathilda of Saffenberg in 1136 as a dowry to the house of the dukes of Limburg. The Wormover is then not only the national border but also the diocese border. In 1136 the castle is located in the diocese of Liège, while the lower city lies in the Archdiocese of Cologne. Herzogenrath is located on an important medieval intersection of two trade routes. The first runs from Cologne through Herzogenrath and then continues along the old Roman road from Valkenburg, Maastricht, Tongeren to Boulogne-sur-Mer. The second leads from Trier over Aachen and Herzogenrath to Xanten. The castle has been in “Dutch” hands for a long time. It was only since the Vienna Congress decided on the border in 1815 that Burg Rode belongs to German territory. Actually, that hasn't been that long. (1)