From the same walk as the previous picture in the City Views series, but this time looking down the Schloßstrasse from a viewpoint only a few meters further up – you can actually see the same silly advertisements of the fish restaurant here. In 2004, when this photo was taken, the huge Kaufhof department store was still open and there was still business going on at this end of the pedestrian zone. Today, even Woolworth, then located at the left corner building is gone together with many other shops. Only the Hotel Noy, whose staircase railing you can see on the left, is still there. The Schloßstrasse was only made into a pedestrian zone in the mid-1970s, when the City Center (today the Forum) together with the highrises at the other end was built – before, this was a normal street with even the tramway running through it. I should be able to dig out a couple of historic photos from the street as it was in the 1960s soon, but first the walk up the Schloßstrasse continues in the next images.

Bunches of spicyness :-).

Ready for picking :-).

Another one of the surprise Mallows :-).

A late zucchini flower from the beginning of September.

Looking up Mülheim’s Schloßstrasse, the pedestrian zone running parallel to the Leineweberstrasse. This photo was taken in 2004, but I think some or even most of the shops have now closed since this part of the city is just about dead today. I haven’t been down there in ages because there is just no reason to go there anymore – all the shopping opportunities are at the top of the Schloßstrasse, where we’ll go over the course of the next few pictures.

About two weeks ago, I saw a bug on the other side of the street…:-).

Another cornflower, this time with a bit more processing to bring out the… cornflowerness :-).

Zinnias in the night :-).

In yesterday’s posting of the City Views series, I wrote that I wanted to take you up the Schloßstrasse, the pedestrian zone – but first let’s have a look at the parallel running Leineweberstrasse (literally linen or cloth weaver street – we have a lot of street names going back to the early industries of the city). This is the view east in direction of the highrises and the shopping center – the street is actually just about 600 meters long and connects the river bridge to the Berliner Platz crossing in the west and the Kaiserplatz crossing in the east, where it meets the Kaiser– and Eppinghofer Strasse and becomes the Dickswall further west. It has always been a very busy street which today has an expanded sidewalk on one side and the street itself is shared between cars, trams and buses. Despite all the traffic, it’s actually nice to walk along because of all the trees!