Mural Magic

tanjabrittonwriter 67 Comments

While I have never stayed as an overnight guest at our local 5-star Broadmoor Hotel, which celebrated its 100th birthday in 2018, I occasionally treat myself to coffee and cake in one of its cafés. This pretext enables me to walk the tastefully-landscaped grounds, to enjoy views of nearby Cheyenne Mountain, and to admire a graceful pair of Mute Swans in the property’s central lake. The establishment is known for the artwork that adorns the interior and ambling through its corridors is like walking through a museum. Paintings and statues celebrate the history of the American West and make it easy to while away hours.

Obwohl ich noch nie in unserem hiesigen Fünfsternehotel “Broadmoor”, das 2018 sein 100-jähriges Jubiläum feierte, übernachtet habe, verwöhne ich mich gelegentlich mit Kaffee und Kuchen in einem seiner Cafés. Dieser Vorwand ermöglicht es mir, durch die geschmackvoll gestaltete Gartenanlage zu spazieren, die Sicht auf den nahegelegenen Berg, Cheyenne Mountain, zu genießen, und ein graziles Schwanenpaar auf dem zentral gelegenen See zu bewundern. Das Etablissement ist für seine Kunstsammlung bekannt, und durch seine inneren Hallen zu wandeln, ähnelt einem Besuch in einer Kunstgalerie. Gemälde und Plastiken feiern die Geschichte des amerikanischen Westens, und lassen Stunden wie im Fluge vergehen.

To enlarge a photo, click on it. To read its caption, hover cursor over it.

Zum Vergrößern, das Bild bitte anklicken. Um den Titel zu lesen, mit der Maus darüber schweben.

Lake and one of many hotel wings/See mit einem der vielen Hotelflügel
Mute Swan pair/Höckerschwanenpaar
Swan statue/Schwanenstatue
One of the hallways/einer der Korridore
Ceiling detail Broadmoor East/Deckendetail

I never visit without directing my steps to a cozy corner whose walls are beautified by a delightful mural. Examples of our regional flora are exquisitely and lovingly rendered, and while I feast on the colorful blossoms, a number of winged creatures do the same in their own way.

Meine Ausflüge dorthin sind ohne das Aufsuchen einer gemütlichen, von einem wunderschönen Wandgemälde verzierten Ecke nicht komplett. Vertreter unserer hiesigen Flora werden in liebevollem Detail dargestellt, und während ich mich an den farbenprächtigen Blüten auf meine Art labe, tut es mir eine Anzahl beschwingter Kreaturen auf ihre Weise gleich.

Mural detail/Detail der Wandbemalung
Black-capped Chickadee/Schwarzkopfmeise
Pretty flowers/hübsche Blumen
Colorado Columbine/Akelei
Acrobatic chickadee/akrobatische Meise
Lily of the valley/Maiglöckchen
Insect (? mayfly)/Insekt (? Eintagsfliege)
Colorado Columbine/Akelei
Swallowtail butterfly/Schwalbenschwanz
Bluebells/Blauglöcken
Hummingbird/Kolibri

67 thoughts on “Mural Magic”

    • Das Hotel selbst ist sehr elegant, lieber Jürgen, aber am meisten begeistern mich immer die schöne Lage und die dort vorhandenen Kunstwerke. Und wenn man auf den Pfaden draußen wandelt, gibt es auch immer irgendwelche Vögel zu sehen.

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  7. The Broadmoor ought to pay you for promoting the hotel. We didn’t go inside during our 2017 visit to Colorado Springs but in around 1980 I stayed in the hotel for a photography conference that was being held there. Even so, I don’t remember the nature mural. Seems like another visit someday is in order.

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    • That’s exactly what my husband said, Steve! 🙂
      I can imagine that the interior decor has been redone several times since your visit in 1980, and unless you were inside the Broadmoor West building, where the mural is home, you would not have come across it.

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      • You prompted me to look further. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that wow started out as a mostly Scottish word, with the first attestation dating back to 1513. Do you have a sense of when German borrowed the word from English? My conjecture is that German picked it up, or at least began using it heavily, in the era of blogs.

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      • How fascinating, Steve. I had never really thought about the word, but it surprises me to learn how old it is. It sounds more modern, at least to my ears.
        As far as its use in German, I can only conjecture. I assume it was introduced during or after WWII, when American servicemen interacted with the German population, and when American music and fashion etc. became part of German culture. Does that sound reasonable to you?

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  16. What a splendid place! The hotel’s name made me laugh though: ‘Broadmoor’ is also the name of an English ‘hospital’ for the criminally insane which has housed many notorious serial killers – and still does. It’s nice to find the name associated with somewhere lovely instead.

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  18. It is sad that we are mostly Motel 6 kind of people; nothing worth blogging about in those buildings LOL. That ceiling!! I could sleep on the floor and stare at that all night, and of course the murals elicit own oo’s and ah’s as well. Your damselfly might actually be a mayfly, though I’m not certain of the species of CO.

    Murals are worth the time and money to keep fresh through the years. I’m glad the Broodmoor has put in the effort for as long as they have.

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