{"id":54975,"date":"2026-01-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54975"},"modified":"2026-01-16T20:18:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:18:49","slug":"the-coldest-winters-calm-the-longest-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54975","title":{"rendered":"The Coldest Winters Calm the Longest Rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/a>
The frozen River Elster, Leipzig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I move through paintings sometimes. I like the way it feels to be amongst the oils. I love Turner\u2019s light and Rembrandt\u2019s shadows. I once got lost in Nash\u2019s The Menin Road. The Lady of Shalott<\/i>(*) took me to places sorrowful. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So many other journeys. I often get stuck on gallery floors, rooted in a stream of glimpsers, gazing. The Mathematician too. We\u2019ve had curators come to us and talk about the works. They\u2019ve shown us things I know we would have missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I move as if through paintings sometimes. When the light outside is too beautiful to believe, the leaves too real, the colours too bold. When life\u2019s sublime (as the Romantics used the term). All for no cost save the effort to go out. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We go out, The Mathematician and I, along a favourite route. It\u2019s colder than the week before and thick with snow. There\u2019s not a cloud in the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe river must still be frozen, right?\u201d I say, as we crunch along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor sure. It was -12 last night, and hasn\u2019t gone above zero for weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It absolutely is, and thickly so. It\u2019s amazing to see \u2014 solid ice from bank to bank. It\u2019s alive with buzz and bustle. Many folk are out on it. There are families with small children, whose colourful coats are a flurry as they run and slide and laugh. Some people have brought ice skates and are weaving up and down the river, unrestrained by any barriers. Three young women in white figure skates perform more elegant moves. Farther north, by the canoe wharf, several guys have made a makeshift ice hockey rink. The satisfying clack of the puck blends with a chorus of enjoyment. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more enterprising kids have taken their sledges north of the Saxony Bridge where the banks are steeper. They launch themselves down to the cheers of their parents and race out across the ice, some nearly reaching the bank on the other side. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We join the merry folk. How often can you say you\u2019ve walked<\/i> up a river? Surprisingly, it\u2019s less slippery than the snowy path. (The path immediately beside the river, at the bottom of the bank, is regularly traversed by cross-country skiers.) We pass a few boys with sticks hammering the ice. We\u2019d seen this a week before, on the nearby lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to question their self-preservation instinct,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey do know what\u2019ll happen if they break the ice right beneath their feet<\/i>, I assume.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We err on the side of idiocy, and give them a wide berth. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow many people do you think can walk here before it begins to crack?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, a lot, I think. The water\u2019s frozen pretty thick. I mean, it couldn\u2019t take the city<\/i>, but a few hundred? No problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m surprised how many came out. It\u2019s such a festive atmosphere! They just need a Gl\u00fchwein stand nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We both struggle to leave the place, despite a growing hunger. It\u2019s just so perfect<\/i>. Warm sun on the face, cold ice underfoot. We even spot a buzzard circling overhead, great wings tipped with gold. Pure art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image<\/a>
Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap <\/em>by Pieter Bruegel the Elder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday it really looks like a Bruegel painting,\u201d says The Mathematician. \u201cLike the Winter Landscape<\/i> picture.<\/i> There are even people curling!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We both laugh for the joy of it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking back through Clara Zetkin park is like crossing a giant cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e: a layer of ice has formed over the snow that makes a satisfying crunch as we step on it and sink beneath. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back on the streets, the going\u2019s slow, despite the gritted pavements. But we don\u2019t care. This is a landscape we\u2019re in no hurry to leave. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(*) By John William Waterhouse <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Frost nips at your toes, then goes and takes a bath in the nearby river. It freezes. Time to dust off the ice skates!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[314,313,214,209,311,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-54975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cf","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-bruegel","10":"tag-city-fables","11":"tag-leipzig","12":"tag-river-elster","13":"tag-winter"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54978,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54975\/revisions\/54978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}