What Time Is It?

A frequent thought or question. How do you find out the time, especially in public places? I check my watch all day long, and am so used to wearing one, I feel naked without one on my wrist. 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; no digital clocks. 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

A building in Lindau with elaborate frescoes, and a clock on front...

Zoomed in view...

...and just in case you missed the front, a clock on the back (above and to the right of the arched window)

Boaters and boardwalkers can find the time on Lindau's lighthouse

Munich's City Hall Clock and 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 the tower

Hallstatt's Catholic Church also has clocks on all four sides of the tower

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. YOLO!