What place is this?

[Ralf__]

Very good, Clipper. "Just east of Frankfurt" would be a good description for a US citizen, it is about 75km distance.

"Route 46" was built in a length of about 30km and most bridges are completed. Also the marked-out route had been nearly finished, some say, they were shortly before beginning to bring on the tarmac on the road. The idea for the "Autobahn" was born after WW one, several private companies began to plan various long distance routes through Germany. The government did not want to spend the money for such projects and nothing happened until the Nazis tooked this idea and promoted it as project for mobility, tourism and employment. They wanted to built 7.000km between 1934 and 1942. As we all know, the war stopped most of these works and until 1945 the Nazis completed about 3.900 km of "Autobahn". 3.700 km of them were built until 1940! About 2.900 km remained unfinished. While most of these routes were completed sooner or later after WW two, the "Strecke 46" remained unfinished, the new A7 was planned and built about 20km east, because of the new German-German border and the difficult routing of the 46: steep hills and narrow curves could not handle the modern traffic. The route should reach particularly beautiful places and so it is good today, that the nature was preserved.
You can do a flight on Google Earth and you can easily recognize the route in todays landscape:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51VdmmMPgzU

Site with more information in English:
http://www.strecke46.de/sprachen/english.html

Some more pictures:
http://www.thematrixer.com/urbanexpedition11.php

And a video, in German, but impressing and in good quality, "our place" is just at the end:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBrtnen3fxU

We have here, very exotic in Germany, more than 8km official gravel road.

IMG_0782 by Ralf Plinta, auf Flickr

Now i have to clean my car.

IMG_0781 by Ralf Plinta, auf Flickr

I hope, you had fun while discovering this place. Over to you again, Clipper!

[Clipper]

Thank your all the information on Strecke 46.
When I posted, I wondered how far "just East" might be. It doesn't look so far on the map.

[Seagull]

Ralf - I was far too busy/late starting puzzle-solving here, but just want to say how very enjoyable I found it, and great info, links and history at the end. (and I'm also still giggling at the car in need of cleaning 'bonus photo'!

[Clipper]

So where is this?
And how do the buildings in the foreground relate to an event in early 1953?
(The second question is actually a strong clue)

[Seagull]

The year made me immediately think of the Queen's coronation and hence a royal connection, but then that was June so more mid than early 1953.

[Clipper]

Hi Cecilia, the Coronation was indeed 1953 but there was natural disaster earlier in the year. (I wasn't born yet, honest).

[Ralf__]

It must have something to do with the North Sea Flood of 1953. The place it at the shore and behind a dike. Are we in the United Kingdom?

[Clipper]

Yes, the great North Sea flood, and this is indeed a small town behind a dijk. Whoops, maybe there's a clue in my mis-spelling.

[janihudi]

1953 , a disaster, looks Dutch.
somewhere in Zeeland , the Netherlands.

[janihudi]

youth hotel ,de stoofpolder Bruinisse

[Clipper]

Yes Thijs, you got it!

Bruinisse, Zeeland, Netherlands.

The floods of 1953 were a great human tragedy with a total of 2,551 killed (1,836 in the Netherlands, 307 in England, 28 in Belgium, 19 in Scotland, 361 at sea).

A combination of high spring tide, low atmospheric pressure and storm force winds over the North Sea caused the sea level to rise up to a huge 5.6 metres (18.4 ft) above mean sea level in some locations. The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding. Bruinisse was hit as hard as anywhere.

What is now the Stoofpolder Youth Hostel (in the foreground of the photo) was originally constructed as a camp for migrant workers (Hungarian if I recall correctly) brought into the country to help repair the sea defences. I stayed there one night in 1983 as part of a round-Netherlands cycling holiday starting and finishing at Vlissingen. At that time this Youth Hostel was VERY run down. To be honest, much of it was unfit for human habitation. Some of the buildings didn't even have roofs and in most the ceilings had fallen in due to damp. From what I see in this photo and others, a lot of money has been spent since then and everything seems to be in very good order.

Over to you Thijs

[Clipper]

I can't find anything to confirm the history of the camp or the Hungarian workers. I can't even remember where I learned these facts - maybe they came from the youth hostel staff back in 1983?

[wherrygirl]

Well, Clipper, I was born before 1953, very much before! I was working in Whitehall at the time in the Map Library - the second biggest one in the country after the War Office one, and at the top of our building the Ministry of Defence had their air photo department. I used to go up and collect the negatives as soon as they were developed, then take them down to the maps office for them to transcribe on to paper prints of the area. It was incredible to read the devastation.

[Clipper]

Wow Ivy, so you were actually involved in the events of 1953!

[janihudi]

cycling over the web i found this.

so WWW?

What is this?
Where is this?
What is it showing?

[nari]

Quirky! Someone built it with a sense of humour.....or drunk? Certainly attracts attention.

[Clipper]

Personally, I feel I need a significant clue.

[janihudi]

No sence of humor,or drunk.
But yes there is a need of attention.
It's dooing the same as a tree.

[janihudi]

Well, it's in the Netherlands.
it's something,
and it's show something

wow. 3 clues

[Clipper]

It it a play on words, somewhere named Schiphuisen maybe?

[janihudi]

No. No schiphuizen.

[janihudi]

Did you see my comment on 5798.3?
Special sentence 2.
When riding a bike, you pay attention at it. ( when you are a lazy Dutchie)
And sentence 3. What does a tree?
The whole building tells a story.

[Clipper]

When riding a bike, you pay attention to balance.
A tree grows up from the ground.

I'm not getting it, am I?

[janihudi]

No you're not Clipper.
When riding a bike, balance is there.
The balance is gone when the speed is gone.
When a lazy dutchie (aka me) goes cycling he pays attention from which side the wind blows.
So that if possable the most of the time i get the wind in my back instead of in my face.

Yes a tree grows out of the earth, but it ALSO moves in the wind.

So when a dutchie goes cycling he pays attention from which side the wind blows.
One of the tools he can use for that, is looking at the trees.

( this whole story is bullsh1t when there is no wind. )

I hope you see it now Clipper.

[wherrygirl]

Yes, I suddenly had that idea yesterday (while thinking about it offline!) and tried out a few words, but maybe I chose the wrong ones as it led me nowhere.. Will try harder!

[ombugge]

All this talk about wind must mean that this is actually a weather vane, with the wavy part turning away from the wind direction. (In which case the little boat is always experiencing head wind)
But even the Dutchies don't have them all over the place just so the lazy buggers can alway have the wind (and the sun?) on their back when they ride around in their flat land, do they??

[wherrygirl]

That's what I thought, but I've still drawn a blank on this particular one.

[janihudi]

I use the trees and flags to disside which side i wil start .i'm cycling on a kind of a triangle track.

That part is solved.it's a weather vane.
But what does it shows?
We see a " house" with a chimney.
Out of that, smokes rises out and turns into water.

[wherrygirl]

Have tried harder and looked through what seemed like millions of weather vanes - but failed dismally. Have spent ages on it when I should have been doing something else so am bowing out. All yours, Clipper.

[PoloUK]

A lucky first Google search led me to ...

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Noordoostpolder

So, we're at the Nordoostpolder Monument near Ketelbrug I think.

It is a wind vane, but it's also supposed to point out quite how far below the sea level you actually are there.