Of bees and flowers.

A month before closing down and reopening as public park, I visited Rathenow's State Garden Show (LAGA - Landesgartenschau).

I found 8€ to be the maximum one could charge for walking through a park, which it was, essantially. One enters near some old warehouses of the Rathenow inland port, which have been completely modernized and served as flowerhouse in which local horticultural businesses showed off some of their skills and range of products. Adjoining these two warehouses was a stage for some kind of evening program, which I didn't attend to.

Now, off to the park itself. The entrypoint was a little bit special, because one was going "over the Havel" to get to the park. They took an old barge and towed it under the bridge, so one didn't have to get wet feet.

Once in, I met one of the three mascots of the show: Havi (the girl inside could hardly see a thing, but everyone has got to earn some money, don't they).

Then I took some minutes at the White Café to relax after the 2hour drive before continuing my stroll. First and last thing you'll enconter are the graves, an element of the park, which I already knew from Rostock's IGA in 2003 and yet again find a little disturbing.

The main attraction are monochromatic rows of beds of flowers, which extend from two colored pyramids, like rays of light emerging from a prism. The other "larger" attraction is a water garden, which essentially is a pool of water crossed by wooden bridges, that imitate the form of the Weltzeituhr on Berlin's Alexanderplatz. I found myself dwelling under some large old weeping willows at the grassy shore of hat pool, my favourite place of this day.

Near the end of the round were the installations for the kids, which also - like the rest of the park - had something to do with optics. That is, because Rathenow is the center of the optical industry in the state of Brandenburg.

I wasn't blown away by the park, but it was only a LAGA and as such it was nice enough.

In descending order: IGA - BUGA - LAGA (international-, federal-, state-horticultural show)

So if you are interested in gardening and plants growing in our region or if you want to let your kids have some fun in the show's playgrounds, use the remaining warm and sunny days and visit Rathenow until Oct. 15th.

PS. It's funny, that they chose a rainbow as the show's symbol. Watch the entire photo-set on flickr.com.

A month before closing down and reopening as public park, I visited Rathenow's State Garden Show (LAGA - Landesgartenschau).

I found 8€ to be the maximum one could charge for walking through a park, which it was, essantially. One enters near some old warehouses of the Rathenow inland port, which have been completely modernized and served as flowerhouse in which local horticultural businesses showed off some of their skills and range of products. Adjoining these two warehouses was a stage for some kind of evening program, which I didn't attend to.

Now, off to the park itself. The entrypoint was a little bit special, because one was going "over the Havel" to get to the park. They took an old barge and towed it under the bridge, so one didn't have to get wet feet.

Once in, I met one of the three mascots of the show: Havi (the girl inside could hardly see a thing, but everyone has got to earn some money, don't they).

Then I took some minutes at the White Café to relax after the 2hour drive before continuing my stroll. First and last thing you'll enconter are the graves, an element of the park, which I already knew from Rostock's IGA in 2003 and yet again find a little disturbing.

The main attraction are monochromatic rows of beds of flowers, which extend from two colored pyramids, like rays of light emerging from a prism. The other "larger" attraction is a water garden, which essentially is a pool of water crossed by wooden bridges, that imitate the form of the Weltzeituhr on Berlin's Alexanderplatz. I found myself dwelling under some large old weeping willows at the grassy shore of hat pool, my favourite place of this day.

Near the end of the round were the installations for the kids, which also - like the rest of the park - had something to do with optics. That is, because Rathenow is the center of the optical industry in the state of Brandenburg.

I wasn't blown away by the park, but it was only a LAGA and as such it was nice enough.

In descending order: IGA - BUGA - LAGA (international-, federal-, state-horticultural show)

So if you are interested in gardening and plants growing in our region or if you want to let your kids have some fun in the show's playgrounds, use the remaining warm and sunny days and visit Rathenow until Oct. 15th.

PS. It's funny, that they chose a rainbow as the show's symbol. Watch the entire photo-set on flickr.com.

Of bees and flowers.