Riedlingen on the Danube, art, nature and beautiful storks

This is a memory of a summer evening in Riedlingen, a small town along the course of a still young Danube, with splendid half-timbered houses in a truly remarkable natural landscape. Riedlingen is located on the German Framework Road and is one of the few towns where storks have never stopped nesting since time immemorial.

In the drawing, in addition to the storks, you can also see a sandpiper, a beautiful common tern (Sterna hirundo) and rare salmon from the Danube, or Huchen. 

 

The medieval lakeside town of Rapperswil (in gray tones)

 

I have not yet managed to complete an old painting with Rapperswil and its lake fauna as I wanted, but at least ... here is a slightly modified version in the grey tones of ink and graphite. With two kingfisher in the foreground and a glimpse of light on the city in the background (glimpse of light I saw on another beautiful lake ... but that's another story, for a future painting). 

Wilhelm Tell, 1307 AD

Wilhelm Tell is the legendary hero of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century. His exploits are traced back to 1307. Here is indeed represented as a "real" crossbowman of the years before the battle of Morgarten (1315). The landscape is that of the original story: the enchanting scenery of Lake Lucerne.