How do you find out the time, especially in public places? I check my wristwatch all day long and am so used to wearing one, I feel naked without it. My adult sons seldom wear a watch; I don't think my youngest son even owns one. They consult their cell phones, iPad or computer for the correct time.
Trier Cathedral
I like the European approach to discovering the current time of day. We never had to wonder for long what time it was in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Everywhere you turn there's a clock - on city buildings, houses, banks, lighthouses, church towers, and hanging over streets. There are ornate clocks, plain clocks, cuckoo clocks, clocks with chimes, and clocks with bells. Some clocks have Roman numerals, others have English numerals; a few are digital. As if that wasn't enough, church bells rang every 15 minutes, so if you couldn't actually see a clock, which was rare, the bells would tell the time. Here are some of the most interesting clocks we saw.
Hanging off an Art-Deco building in Trier.
Baden Baden's famous casino.
Black Forest Cuckoo Clocks
Also from the Black Forest
LIndau's old Town Hall with elaborate frescoes and a clock on front...
...A zoomed in view...
..and just in case you missed the front, there is a clock on the back, too.
Boaters and boardwalkers can find the time on Lindau's lighthouse.
Munich's City Hall Clock and famous Glockenspiel
TWO clocks on one church steeple in Munich
Another Munich church
This clock greets shoppers on colorful Getreidegasse, Salzburg's center of trade for hundreds of years.
And if you stroll down the same Salzburg street in the opposite direction, you see this pretty one.
Hallstatt's Protestant Church, built in 1863, with clocks on all four sides of the towering steeple.
Hallstatt's Catholic Church also has clocks on all four sides of the steeple.
A church in Vienna
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna
Back in the U.S. I see outdoor clocks in only two places - on a courthouse and some city hall buildings. And I only hear the melodious ringing of church bells just before Sunday mass. I'm glad I have a watch or I'd never know what time it is. And now, it's time to go home. YOLO!!