The thing… and this is a thing about a Glockenspiel, so how cool is that?… about the Glockenspiel… (see, I told you)… is that it is really just a big, fancy clock.

But the thing… and this is a thing about architecture, so who knows how excited you are getting about that… about architecture… (I did warn you after all, and we have learned this very same ‘thing’ about architecture all over Europe as we all traveled together on this adventure)… but the thing about architecture is that often a building can be overwhelmingly beautiful when taken as a whole, and seems to be more than the sum of its parts, but we must be careful to establish beyond a doubt that this is actually true, or we run the risk of overlooking those very parts that add up to the whole… if you see what I mean…

What sets the Glockenspiel apart from other, lesser clocks, is not only its size… the world is full of big clock towers… but the little show it puts on every hour way up in the tower above you. Jugglers come out and whirl to the chiming bells… towns-people and musicians dance past, flags are waved and drinks are drunk…

And if you look closely at the upper portion of the spectacle, there are two knights in armor… on horse in armor… done almost life-sized… that come out a have a joust, with one rider unseating the other. Wait… why does the bottom part look the same in both pictures? Was it broken? Did it never move? Obviously, I was looking at the sum and ignoring the parts… see how dangerous that can be?

But look at the carvings… that guy slaying a little dragon lizard, the weird saints and strange, random ornamentation. (Somebody should really Google it and see if this is a reiteration of the original Glockenspiel built after the original was bombed to smithereens during the war, or if in fact it is an actual old building… that seems like it would be good to know)…

One thing about the Glockenspiel that I love best is the statues on the fountain in front of it. I guess the fountain doesn’t get to be included in my ‘sum and parts’ analogy for the Glockenspiel… but it will serve as an entirely separate example. There are four little cherub/knights, one in each corner, and each battling a distinct kind of dragon creature…

All under the eye of this watchful figure… who could be giving the fat little warriors a hand, for crying out loud…

But just look at the detailing… that beast is like half dragon, half chicken… in case you were wondering where I came up with that for the title…

And that one is like a lion/lizard…

That one… I don’t know what that one is… like a flying dragon/dog… I guess these are all kinds of evil that good must make war against.

The main thing is that good is kicking… winning…

The building that houses the Glockenspiel… seriously, can somebody Google it?… it might be the town hall… also has lots of little architectural touches…

These are the ‘parts’ that add up to the ‘sum’…

All I am saying is that when you are looking at the parts, remember the sum…

And when you are looking at the sum, don’t forget to check out the parts…

Because, and I think it was Confucius… or maybe Plato… that said this first: “There are two kinds of dirt in the world, light dirt that sticks to dark things, and dark dirt that sticks to light things”… and it pays to bear that in mind when you travel… (oh man… I crack me up)…