Monumental Sidd - Sidd and the Several Dwarfs

Sidd is currently off on a Mediterranean Cruise with our friend Josée and our colleague Jean-Louis - being a security conscious type - thought he'd best be equipped just in case:

Given what has been happening on cruise ships lately Jean-Louis felt that Sidd
should be pre-equiped just in case they don't have one his size on board.

Meanwhile as Sidd heads out on his cruise I started going through more pictures of our friend on his jaunt with us to Munich, Salzburg, Füssen and Frankfurt.   One of the common features - well other than food, Sidd seems inordinately fond of food - was the number of monuments that our Sidd wanted to be posed beside.  So starting with a special garden in Salzburg we give you:  Monumental Sidd.

Salzburg - May 22, 2013

My friend David suggested that since Sidd was going to Salzburg for the music festival we should arrange a special performance of Zemlinksy's Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) for his delectation.  We suggested it to him but he rather huffily reminded us that he was a gnome not a dwarf.  After the distinction had been so clearly, and emphatically,  made I was a bit reticent to suggest a visit to the Zwergerlgarten (Dwarf Garden) at Scholss Mirabell.  However Sidd was agreeable and was even willing to have his photo taken with a few of the strange creatures that inhabit the tower-like patch of grass that has been their home since 1928.

On our visit in 2008 I posted photos of all the dwarfs that live in the Zwergerlgarten and a bit of their history.  You might want to take a look and in the meantime here are Sidd and Several Dwarfs.

Though her expression is no perhaps the most welcoming Sidd remembered
that the pomegranates she was offering were a sign of hospitality.

This poor Turkish Lad may have lost his arm in the Siege of Vienna
- or perhaps it was just the elements or a drunken loat after a night
of beer and sausage.

Many of the dwarfs in the garden are wearing clothes that suggest the commedia dell'arte
- perhaps they were members of the Archbishop's theatre company?

This lady - one of only two in the garden - was offering a jug of water (or
maybe wine) and some fruit to go with it.  As we all know Sidd loves his
wine and food so it was a given that he'd hop up to see what she had to offer.

This little woodcutter has always struck me as the saddest in the group.
  The difficulty of his existence is etched in the stone - despite assurances
Sidd was afraid to go near him.

In the early 1800s Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, in a fit of superstitious concern for his wife and unborn child, had the little creatures (there were 28 of them)  “with their goiters and hunchbacks" removed from the Garden.  They were to be destroyed but were only auctioned off - nine remained in the city's possession.   At the moment 15 of them are back in their rightful place - perhaps one day the remaining 13 will be reunited with their fellows.

02 June - 1896: Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his newest invention, the radio.