Entry 25: Birkenhang Mountains
We are here:
Responses:
@justforfun Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I don't actually have a ferry schedule table yet, but this puts some interesting ideas into my head. I'll come back to that later, maybe.
@Girafarig Thank you, too. I looked up some pictures of Chiloé Island. I can't actually tell if it's looking the same, but it seems to be a lovely island, with the nature and the houses on stilts. Seriously somebody should make something like this for SC4.
@Ke|is @simster007 Thanks to all of you, too. I'm glad you liked my last entry.
@Kuba138 I don't actually know if that question is all that important, but the majority of the inhabitants of Maxiland are Catholic Christians, but other religions, including Buddhism, are occasionally present as well. For further information, I suggest reading Entry 6 of this CJ:
Excursion:
justforfun asked me in the last CJ entry if I could provide him with a ferry schedule table. While I haven't actually put much thought into this, I actually tried to develop a bus line system for Maxiland a good while ago. It may be subject to some changes, but, inspired by the public transportation system in westernmost Austria, I developed a system of regional and communal buses, with a 3-digit line number with a system including both types of buses. I know it's crazy but to me, this is fun, sometimes... This is a bus line table of the Feldviertel, not including the communal buses:
(Dashed lines: limited bus service, mostly limited to certain times of the year; grey squares: those settlements have a communal bus system)
And here is an attempt to make a communal bus system of Birkenhang:
(Dashed lines and stations in brackets: limited bus service; black-white line: railway; light grey: terminal stations; dark grey: railway stations)
Ortsbus: communal bus
BF (Bahnhof): railway station; HBF: main railway station, NBF: northern railway station
Contents:
In today's entry, we are going to explore the mountaineous surroundings of Birkenhang, mainly the fortress and the mire I mentioned in the last two entries. Since I'm coming up with no less than 28 pictures, I've put some of them into spoilers, to make it easier to read this entry.
Let's first recall this picture of this spa en route from Krabbenfels to Birkenhang:
We are going to continue the small gravel path at the top of this picture.
This path goes all the way from the spa to the fortress in the mountains. On its way, a small dead-end path branches off to a small wetlands area. First, we are passing a transitional area with a loose conifer forest with the floor covered with berries and moss:
Taking the path to the right first, we stumble into the mire. I've put it into a spoiler, to organize this entry better.
I don't know if this is realistic or nor (and mybe, I'm making some changes to this area, anyway, I'm not all that satisfied with some of the parts), but we can have a look at four parts of this mire. First, an area with small puddles and mud, covered with cattails, some shrubbery, and wool grass:
Second, an area that is not all that wet, but it has a lot of mossy rocks, dark grass, and flowers (I took some inspiration for that from a picture of an area in Ireland, I don't recall it exactly):
At the end of the boardwalk, there's an area with a lake, cattails, and small areas of high-grown grass:
And fourth, at the southwest, at an elevated location, there's an area of heather and juniper trees that formed due to mostly poor soil quality.
By the way, this is a picture of the Lüneburger Heide in Germany, in comparison, courtesy by Tineke Blij (note the purple heather at the back of the picture):
Back on the gravel path, we continue our way uphill.
We arrive on top of some cliffs above the mire. The ridge itself is actually only partly overgrown, mostly with a loose larch forest, shrubbery and stuff. This is mostly due to very low amounts of soil there; at elevated locations such as this, wind often blows away soil, leaving little places for plants to grow. Also, some local woodcutters have built some cabins there. Please make note of the street - I'll come back to it later.
And here a close-up, I already shared it in the Show us your MMP work thread:
But now for something different. We are going to have a look at the fortress, probably the craziest thing I've ever built. This fortress is dating back to the 10th century, it has been erected between the years of 922 and 946 AD. At first, it has been built to improve the defense in case the Arabian forces that have taken over the Seeviertel would be attacking. They actually never attacked, but the fortress proved to be useful later in the counterattack against the Arabian Caliphates as a training ground for the soldiers, as well as a lookout and trading post.
Even now, people live there, and it is a popular tourist attraction, along with the mire (for nature lovers) and the nearby mountain (for hikers). Among its main attractions, there is the historic path from Birkenhang to the fortress. Again, another spoiler, to keep things organized.
The path starts here, at the railway station Mariahilf:
Continuing uphill, we arrive at sort of a former cow pasture area. Many areas are just open meadows, only part of this area is being reused as farm fields. After all, the people living in the fortress also wanted something to eat. The meadows are filled with flowers, now that spring is about to come.
There's this small mill building, with a watermill, nowadays a small bar in case you are already thirsty from climbing the path or just don't care about the fortress:
I should mention by now that the fortress is sitting on top of a mesa - this makes climbing it rather tedious. There are two ways to get there, a pedestrian path over some sandstone pavement, and a street for the bus line 372 (it begins at the very bottom right of the former picture):
And we finally arrive at the fortress, sitting on top of the Prinzenberg (lit. prince's mountain). In the spoiler: Four pictures from all 4 angles (north, west, south, east).
I took inspiration for that monstrosity from the Gwalior Fort in India (picture courtesy of Anuppyr007):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwalior_Fort
And some close-ups: First, the church and the Prinzenvilla (prince's villa), second the park, complete with even an artifical lake, used as a drinking water supply, third, the outlet of the lake leads to a small pond and a dried-up creekbed that only fills in case the lake basin gate needs to be open because of too much rainwater.
We are not even done yet: At the Prinzenvilla, there's a secondary exit at the east, leading down the cliffs to the mountain Windkogel, with a former watchtower on top of it. From this watchtower, the soldiers used to look over the sea, in case the Arabian forces came attacking. There was even a system of communication via light signals from this watchtower to the fortress to another tower close to the Kommandantur. Again, another spoiler.
First, we have a look at the bottom of the Windkogel, there's a small restaurant. Two pictures from different directions.
Next, this is the Windkogel itself, partly already above forest line. I also included a close-up of the watchtower on top of it.
Also, as an extra, I made some minor changes to the Alte Kommandantur, mainly to include the third communications tower.
And that's it for today. Since I've finished the mainland parts of Birkenhang, I'd like to share two overview pictures, the first of the hillside (zoom level 2), the second of all the developed parts (zoom level 1).
And as an extra picture, a view from the side (camera pitch 10) from the Windkogel, the Prinzenberg fortress, and the hills:
I hope you liked this entry, although this was probably the longest one I ever wrote. There are five islands in Birkenhang that still need to be developed, you might expect the next entry dealing with them.
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