We are here:   Replies: I can't believe that it has already been so long ago that I posted the last entry. Yet unfortunately I had a lot to do, and later I couldn't find an idea of how to proceed with this CJ. Fortunately, it seems that if I just sit down and do something, it usually turns out to help me much more than I'm imagining. Again, I'm grateful to @RobertLM78, @Bobelboy, @MissVanleider, and @ulisse for having posted nice comments on my last entry, and I hope you will further like this CJ.   Contents: Before starting with the picture part, allow me to share some background information on which religions are mostly present in Maxiland. As you may have guessed, the majority of the people of Maxiland are Catholics. But various other religions are present, either because they have been there and have resisted Christianity, or due to immigration. Interestingly, some of the more considerable minorities focus specifically on one of the realms of Maxiland: Orthodox Christianity has been present in Maxiland for several centuries, along with Catholic Christianity. It is mostly present in the Bergviertel (the northeast of Maxiland) Islam has spread in the southeast of Maxiland (Seeviertel) during its conquest of these areas, and has receded after Maxiland took over these areas again. More recently, its amount of members is increasing again, due to high numbers of Muslimic immigrants. Interestingly, Buddhism and Shinto are starting to gain interest amoung the people of Maxiland. Various small communities are spread all over Maxiland, but the most followers of Buddha's teachings or Shinto are living in the northwest of Maxiland, in the Waldviertel. Last but not least, several Pagan rites and codices have survived "Christianization" in the southeastern part of Maxiland (Feldviertel), and several Pagan Deities are still being worshipped today. This is a table showing the distribution of religions (atheism not counted): I will occasionally share a picture of religious sites whenever I'm getting a good idea. But enough about that for now. In today's entry, we are continuing the work on the city tile Storchenfeld, with the main focus on developing the market community of Storchenfeld itself and its surrounding farmland. Storchenfeld lies at the intersection of two main federal routes, route B1, running through large parts of Maxiland, and route B4, starting at the western border of Maxiland, continuing through Biberstein, and ending in Sebastianskirch. This location allowed Storchenfeld, despite being just a market community, to slowly grow over time and have a certain importance. Most settlements smaller than cities mainly consist of low-density residential zoning, but due to space constraints, Storchenfeld contains a considerable amount of apartment blocks because the city council buys whichever land is available and not under protection and erects apartments there. Here are two pictures, first the nothern part, then the southern part (north is in all pictures at the right). We also see that there are already some shopping centres along the main routes, and there's still a considerable amount of suburban zones.   In the southern part of Storchenfeld, we already see that a small Korean community has requested permission (and has been granted so) to build a temple in Storchenfeld. Furthermore, I should note that Storchenfeld has already existed for centuries, and there is a small old village part along the river.   Further to the south, there's a small lake in a transitional area between village and farming land. It is very popular among hikers. Also, some small cottages have been erected at the brook to the west, sort of so-called "Schrebergärten", where people spend some time during summer, growing small amounts of plants there or just relaxing, being a bit closer to nature. Two pictures.     To the north, there's farmland, but due to very little space, it's not all that interesting to show off. However, since the level of soil humidity is rather high in these areas, there are some reservoir ponds at some places in the Feldviertel that collect surplus water which has been drained from the fields, and either return it in case of hot and dry summers, or transfer it to the nearby river via the spillway.   You might have noticed that on the last picture there have been two rivers parallel to each other. Actually, this is the same river, it just has two arms, an old one (the dark blue water) and a new one (the light blue water). This is the result of an important project related to flood protection: In 1899, a huge flood of the river Lobnau destroyed several square kilometres of valuable farm land, thus, some measures had to be taken to prevent further floods. In the beginning, the government was working on moving the entire riverbed further to the east. At a certain point of development in 1900, the new riverbed was already dug up, but the old one was just barely blocked by a dike. Unfortunately, as bad luck wanted it, another flood occurred, breaking through the dike and flooding the old riverbed. Faced with this setback, the government simply decided to keep it that way, at least partly. Since then, the river Lobnau has two arms there, separated by the Lobnauinsel (Lobnau island), and a spillway (not in Storchenfeld, in the city tile further to the north) controls how much water is flowing into the old river arm - during dry summers, it is being closed, and the old river arm is partly a stagnant body of water (being only fed by some small brooks), and during wet summers, the spillway is opened, giving high amounts of water some room to spread. This decision turned out to be pretty good: Large parts of the Lobnauinsel are now either used for recreational purposes (for bike paths) or under nature protection. In fact, in Storchenfeld, the new island was this popular that it now contains a park with a lot of grass where people can spread their towels to rest there, a few restaurants, an amphitheatre where theatre pieces can be performed during summer, and, of course, the main attraction: the annual Inselfest (island festival), with music, festival, and dance.   Another project that came along with the idea of environment protection: About 60-70 years ago, the old and traditional routes had to be upgraded in order to cope with the increasing traffic. We've already seen remnants of the old routes in the shape of cobblestone streets. After the route upgrade, the southern part of Storchenfeld, close to Michaelshaven, looked like this (remnants of the old route are still there, the Tarsealed street):   Of course, over time, it turned out to be a bad idea that the road and the railway tracks weren't grade-separated. Also, the environmentalists protested against the road because it endangeded the nearby stork population. After all, what would be Storchenfeld (lit. stork field) without its namesake animals? Therefore, the road has instead been moved further to the west, not crossing the railway in Storchenfeld, but in Michaelshaven:   And here two pictures of Michaelshaven, where some routes have also been upgraded and replaced. Before:   After:   Let's conclude this entry with two overviews, one from zoom level 2 and one from zoom level 1. Hope you liked this entry. Next up - who knows. I'm already having plans about how to develop the nearby farm land in Erlengrund, Lobnautal, and Ulmengrund, and I've already started to develop Zirbenhang (east of Michaelshaven).