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Bavaria and Middle Rhine

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Half-Timbered Houses and Signs

    8 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    Weißgerbergasse is a picturesque street in Nuremberg, famous for it's half-timbered houses. I liked the painted houses of southern Bavaria, but these half timbered houses, to my uncouth and uneducated American mind, really scream "Germany" to me. Too many fairy tales and cartoons, I imagine. I'm sure this is true for other tourists, as Germany has capitalized on our embrace of stereotypes by creating a great marketing strategy, promoting various "roads": the Romantic Road, the Fairytale Road, and indeed, the Half Timbered Road (die Fackwerkstraße) which is actually a 3000 kilometer (that's close to 1900 miles) route through eight federal states including four in the former DDR.

    In addition to these very aesthetically pleasing buildings, many Nuremberg businesses have amazing signs, some of which I'll put in here, some which will appear later. There is a great deal of beauty in the Altstadt: the buildings in general, the details on the buildings, the signage, gardens, statues. It's no wonder I drained all the batteries in the camera.

    (Okay, I threw the '80s one in because I can't resist the '80s).     Czytaj więcej

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    The Streets of Nuremberg I

    8 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    As I've said, Nuremberg's Altstadt is extremely beautiful. Included here are random shots of statues, buildings, fountains and our late afternoon snack.

    About that snack. We wanted to try Lebkuchen, Nuremberg's famous and officially protected designation of origin baked good. It's a cookie, but soft. It has a long and storied history, traced back to Franconian monks (those monks did everything: saved the classics, cared for the poor, advanced science and medicine, invented lebkuchen, maultaschen dumplings, made beer--we should be grateful to them) in the 1200s. They were formed on unconsecrated communion wafers, or so the story says, to stop them from sticking to the pan. Today-- they still are, at least in Nuremberg. Some are dipped in chocolate (obviously not back in the Middle Ages, as there was no chocolate in Europe), some glazed, and some just have nuts on top. They're similar to gingerbread, and I had looked at recipes. Too much work, including making your own candied fruit, and containing a slew of spices that back in those days, would have literally paid a king's ransom: all spice, cardamom, coriander, cloves, aniseed, and ginger. They use nut flour in the dough, the type and percent varies by the region and the bakery. In Nuremberg, some of the higher end bakeries use up to 40% nut flour. They're similar to Speculoos cookies, which I have made, but much softer.

    So we went to the Wicklein bakery, mainly because it was right across from the Frauenkirche. You can take classes here, participate in Lebkuchen making and dip your creations, etc. We opted just to get two coffees, and out of the array of choices, went for a traditional lebkuchen, no chocolate, no glaze, just three almonds on top. With our coffee, we got cute little lebkuchen glazed stars. We liked it. It was nothing like the stuff you get in packages in the US. We bought a few prepackaged selections to take home, but they might not make it. We have a long trip ahead of us.

    That's a long "about" on the snack, but I really like food, and have long had an interest in the history of food. As a young student of history, I waondered about what people ate, the socio-cultural and economic issues surrounding food and all that sort of thing. This was strengthened and given some legitimacy in my first semester as a grad student in Early Modern History, when one of my professors assigned Fernand Braudel's "Civilization and Capitalism", all three volumes in one semester. I thought-- ha-- see, this is a serious thing, studying the nitty gritty of consumption.

    As they say, sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A little more, and you bore people to tears.

    pictures in order: der schöner Brunnen, detail from sB, Saint George, some bird, detail from bird, from the Toy Museum, not sure, lebkuchen, Melanchthon Denkmal (statue of Lutheran reformer Melanchton), Kaiser Wilhelm I.     Czytaj więcej

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    Streets of Nuremberg 2

    8 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    More pictures, crossing some of the bridges on the Pegnitz River. We went into the courtyard of the Helig Geist Spital-- the Holy Spirit Hospital, which was established for the care of the elderly and needy in the 1330s by Konrad Gross, a wealthy private citizen. Today, there's a restaurant in there, and a nursing home.

    I really did wish I had had the real camera, because most of the pictures weren't all that great.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Bamberg

    9 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    Bamberg, a city north of Nuremberg, came highly recommended by strangers and randos on the internet. I gave credence to the suggestions from the folks at both the trip advisor Germany forum and the Rick Steves Germany forum because the Altstadt was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993. Not to mention, the trip advisor regulars seemed to know what they were talking about.

    Bamberg was founded in the Ninth Century. It became an important link between Franconia and the Holy Roman Empire and Slavic people to the east, specifically in Poland and Pomerania. In the reign of Emperor/Saint Heinrich II (973-1024), it became the center of the Holy Roman Empire's Germanic lands. Afterward, in the Thirteenth Century, it's ruling bishop became a Prince Bishop. Bamberg lost its independence in the secularization by the French in 1803, and became part of Bavaria. After World War II, the US Army had several units stationed in and around Bamberg.

    Today in terms of tourism, the city is famous for its half-timbered houses and narrow Medieval street, both things we like very much. On blogs and vlogs, they always like to show the Altes Rathaus, the old town hall, a structure that sticks out into the Regnitz River. The story the tourist board tells goes thusly: once upon a time, the people wanted to build a town hall. The bishop wouldn't give them land. Undaunted, they stuck stilts into the river and built it out over the water. In addition to its unique location, the building is also covered with frescoes, so this is a must see.

    As the seat of a Prince Bishop, you can imagine Bamberg has some significant religious structures. One is the Cathedral of Saints Peter and George, but that gets posts of its own. The other is the Michaelsberg Abbey, founded by the first bishop of Bamberg, Edelhard. It's a huge complex above the city, but unfortunately it's been undergoing extensive renovation and has been closed for years. It was one of the things I wanted to see, and not having access to it cut the visit short.

    Bamberg is also famous for beer. People come from all over Europe to visit the various breweries. These breweries also lend to the fond memories of former American military personnel, several of whom I came across online while doing research, who had a lot of good things to say about the town and especially the beer. We had one brewery in mind that we wanted to visit, the Schlenkerla Brewery, famous for smoked beer.

    So we commence at last, with pictures from the UNESCO World Heritage city of Bamberg.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Little Venice and Schlenkerla Brewery

    9 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    Like other places in Europe, Bamberg has a watery section of the town people thought it was a good idea to compare to Venice. It's mentioned on all the blogs, in the books, and on you tube, so we went over there to have a look. It was pretty, I'll say that for it.

    After that, we had to hurry back to the Schlenkerla Brewery, because we wanted to try (again) Bavarian breakfast, weißwurst, pretzel, sweet mustard, and beer. They stopped serving that before lunch and we made it just in time.

    This was our first real German biergarten experience. We walked through the restaurant into the back to an open area complete with the little pebbles on the ground and spreading trees. There was a group of older men there, drinking beer and eating food they had brought, which is an accepted thing in an authentic biergarten. We ordered one traditional breakfast and one local wurst plate with bread. In addition, we both went with whatever dark smoked beer they had.

    This beer-- wow. We both liked it a lot. They smoke the barley with beechwood after germination, and that's what gives it the particular taste. If you're interested in beer and the entire process, they explain it on their website. It was, in my opinion, the most unique and probably the best beer we had on the trip. Then again, I like that girly mixed with lemon-lime soda Radler, so what do I know?

    The link to the Schlenkerla page where they explain their process:

    https://www.schlenkerla.de/rauchbier/prozess/pr…     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Cathedral of Saints Peter and George

    9 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    Besides the beer and the monastery, the cathedral was something I wanted to see. Not the cathedral per se, though it was very impressive, but the graves of Heinrich II and Kunigunde, emperor, empress, and both saints. If you remember, we saw Kunigunde's crown back in the Munich Residenz treasury. Heinrich's crown, well we talked about that, and why it's in Vienna...

    The cathedral was begun in 1002. The first version of it, much smaller than those that followed burned down. It was rebuilt, burned again, and finally a larger, Romanesque structure was constructed. In the Seventeenth Century, the entire interior was remodeled in Baroque style, which included removing all the medieval stained glass, painting over the frescoes, and removing the tomb of Heinrich and Kunigunde to the basement crypt. King Ludwig I of Bavaria (not Ludwig who built Neuschwannstein), had it restored closer to what was believed the original Medieval form had been. This is the cathedral we have today.

    A second significant tomb in the cathedral, that of Pope Clement II. Pope Clement's papacy lasted less than a year (1046-1047), but in that time, he established a penchant for reform, and strong support of the German Holy Roman Emperor's territorial claims in Italy. He was buried in Bamberg at his own request, as he had been the bishop there.

    The other tourist drawing item in the cathedral is the Bamberger Reiter, a statue of a young knight on a horse. There's a great deal of debate over who the statue actually is, with no consensus reached. The Knight has been used as a symbol for different movements and ideologies since at least the days of the Romantics.

    We took a lot of pictures here, and still missed significant things, unfortunately.     Czytaj więcej

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    Palace Rose Garden, Saint Elizabeth etc

    9 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    A few more pictures of the Bamberg Residenz rose garden, and the modern stained glass windows in the parish church of Saint Elizabeth. I have to admit, we got off on a bad foot with the city-- some really aggressive panhandlers that even with our experience in Philly put us off, and a great deal of excessively political graffiti (not far Right, btw). It really impacted our visit, and not in a good way. I think without that, we would have stayed longer, visited the cathedral treasury and maybe the palace, but we were both ready to go after the cathedral.

    Maybe someday we'll get back, because there are still things that would be good to see.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    An Odyssey Through Audi-land

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    Another day, another day trip. We originally planned to go to Regensburg, about an hour by train. The city has a lot to recommend it, again, according to people online. However, since I can't leave well enough alone, I did more research. I found this place called Weltenburg Abbey, the oldest monastery brewery in Europe. They also had a beer garden, and a chapel you could visit. To make this destination even more enticing, you could take a boat through the Danube Gorge, a narrow passage of the Danube River also called the Weltenburg Narrows.

    This was too good to pass up. Now the experts online don't recommend to do this by public transit, but I didn't listen. I found a way. Two trains, one bus. We could do it. Herr Hai was all for it. With his recently discovered love of German beer and overdone Baroque churches, how could we go wrong? Plus, we could stop for a couple hours in Regensburg on the way back, because that's where we had to switch trains.

    So this was our plan. We left Nuremberg kind of early. It was drizzling, but we'd hope for the best. Our train to Regensburg left a little late. Then, it stopped on the tracks. We waited. And waited. We were terribly late getting into Regensburg and had missed our connection. This is the Deutsche Bahn Germans complain about online.

    Not only had we missed the connection, but the little train (and it was physically a tiny little train) ran very infrequently. So we waited. Got on when it came, and as we headed out to the little town of Saal an der Donau, we saw big, long freight trains of Audis. Not surprising, as this is the land of Audi, with headquarters in Ingolstadt and plants scattered around the countryside.

    We got to the little town. The station was empty. Looked closed down. The bus stop was around the front, but we had missed the bus and had a while to wait for the next one. The streets were deserted. Like post apocalyptic movie deserted. Everything closed. We walked around, Herr Hai's idea, and as he's the expert on those sorts of movies, along with zombie stuff, I assumed he decided it was better we move around so we weren't eaten.

    It looked like a nice enough place. We took some pictures, went back to the bus stop. It would have been nice if something was open so we could have gotten something to eat. As it was, we had some smooshed granola bars we brought all the way from home, and were stuck with them.

    We got on the bus. The ride was through "real Germany" as opposed to the more "tourist Germany" we had seen. Just people's houses, businesses, schools. When we talked to each other, the few people on the bus looked at us like we were either crazy or lost. Both, we were both.

    We got off in a parking lot in the town of Kelheim. It was by a river though, so we figured it was the right place. The boat didn't leave for a while, but there was no boat in evidence. As the time got closer, people showed up. We bought our tickets, and about ten minutes before time, a boat came up (or down, not sure which way we were going) the Danube.

    It wasn't long until we were aboard and on our way.

    Sometimes, the journey is the adventure. This one, definitely. It would have been better with more snacks.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    The Danube Gorge

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    Finally, we were on our way to the Danube Gorge, also known as the Weltenburger Enge. The rain was back, but it wasn't bad. We decided to brave the deck so we'd have a good view of things, even thought they were serving food and drinks in the lounge below. The sun started peeking out now and again, and more people came out, so we made the right choice.

    This area has been settled since the Celts. Apparently, if you hike around here, especially back by the monastery, you can find signs of both the Celtic and Roman settlements that were in the area. All up the Danube, then the Altmühl, then the Main to along the Rhine was the frontier of the Roman Empire. It would be a great trip to travel it-- another UNESCO designated thing. There were some interesting pre-historic finds as well. I wish I had known all this when I was planning the trip, but that would have meant cutting something else out. Too much to see, too little time and money to see it.

    The boat ride was nice. Calm. Pretty. The rain held off as we sailed through the gorge, which is a protected area with a limited number of boats allowed through it. We saw a few people hiking along the banks, a few buildings. Somewhere, there's supposed to be a pirate's cave.

    We came around the bend, and there was the abbey. If you hike it from town, you're on the side opposite, and have to pay the guys with the little boats to take you across. I didn't see anyone doing this, no boats, so it was a good thing we didn't attempt the hike.

    Here are some pictures. It's not narrowest gorge we've been in. It's not the deepest gorge. But it's the Danube's gorge, so that was perfect for us.

    Oh, and to all the Strauss fans out there, the Danube isn't blue. To quote the old Spike Jones and the City Slickers song, "Oh, the Danube isn't blue, it's green."     Czytaj więcej

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    Weltenburg Abbey: Chapel of St George

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    Weltenburg Abbey was found in the early Seventh Century by Scottish monks, who were missionaries to region. It adopted the Benedictine Rule sometimes during the Eighth Century, and was overseen by the Benedictine Orders until secularization in 1803, when it was closed shortly after being stripped of its treasures. King Ludwig I re-founded it in 1842.

    For our purposes, two other dates are important. In 1050, they founded a brewery, which makes the Weltenburger Kloisterbrauerei the oldest monastic brewery in Europe, though this is subject to debate by the monks down in Freising at the Weihenstephan Abbey. I don't get into fights between monks, so no comment.

    The other date is 1716, when the Asam brothers were given a commission to decorate the new church, dedicated to Saint George. This was one of the motivating factors in making this long trip, to see another of the Asam projects. Two sets of pictures of the church follow.     Czytaj więcej

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    Weltenburg Saint George Two

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    More pictures from Saint George, including the statue of the patron saint and some details. Again, this place is stunning. Like the Asam Church in Munich, pictures really don't do it justice.

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    Special beer in special glass

    Finally, Lunch and the Trip Back

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    We didn't see much more of the grounds, nor did we hike up behind the abbey, though it looked interesting back that way. We were on a tight schedule, and wanted to get back to Regensburg before the cathedral closed, so we could see that at least.

    But we had to eat. There was no point in making this trip on two trains, a bus, and a boat, if we were going to pass up having a beer and some food at the oldest monastery brewery in Europe (again, I'm not getting into the thing between these monks and the monks in Freising).

    So keeping an eye on the time, the bus schedule, and the boat schedule, we went to the biergarten. Two "authentic" beer gardens in two days. We were doing really well here. We ordered two different beers.

    Herr Hai ordered the extra alcohol-extra dark one, and Herr Kellner-- the young and professional waiter asked in English, "Are you sure? High alcohol content." To which Herr Hai replied, "I'm not driving, unless they let me drive the boat." The poor guy had no idea what to do with that comment, but he brought the beer which came in a really nifty looking ceramic thing. If my father of blessed memory had been with us, he would have told me to "put that in your purse".

    Foodwise: leberkäse with eggs for me again, and Herr Hai got the Hausgemacht Wurst-- house made sausage. Good taste, but weird texture for us process food brainwashed Americans. It was chopped rather than ground and took us both aback.

    We walked on the beach a bit, took some pictures of ducks, and went back to the boat as it was boarding. As we drew closer to the town of Kelheim, we had a good view of Liberation Hall, which was commissioned by King Ludwig I (this family really liked to build), to commemorate the victory of Napoleon in the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815). If we ever get back here, we'll take a walk up and see it.

    Also included in the pictures: the high water marks on the side of the abbey. Sobering, to see how high the water has gotten, compared to where it was as we stood on the beach.     Czytaj więcej

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    Kelheim

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    We had some time before the bus, so made a quick round of the area by the docks. Not enough time to really walk into town, or the trail, or up to Liberation Hall, but just to get a little more sightseeing in. There was a war memorial, something we're finding in a lot of towns. We passed the entrance lock of the Ludwig Donau Main Kanal, a canal which once connected Kelheim (and through that Regensburg) to Bamberg via Nuremberg. It was mostly obsolete by World War II, and today, only two portions are navigable. In fact, the portion between Nuremberg and Bamberg were paved over to make a highway.

    It's a very pretty area, and we wish we had more time here. In the future, we could easily explore for a few days, up the Altmühl and Danube, and back into the hills.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Saint Peter's Cathedral, Regensburg

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    We just made it. This was the one thing I wanted to see in Regensburg. I can't pass up a Medieval cathedral. There are actually two other churches I would have liked to see: Saint Emmeram's Abbey and Saint Wolfgang's to see the relics of said saint. No time though, so we'll definitely need to make another trip to Germany for this.

    I have to admit, I thought the relics of Saint Wolfgang were here in the cathedral. I didn't even know where they were (duh, Saint Wolfgang), until I looked up it when we got back to the apartment.

    But we saw Saint Peter's, and that was a good start. It was raining again, dark and foreboding. We were both tired by this time, wet, and disoriented. We managed to find the cathedral, but didn't have long inside. The original structure was built in the 700s, it burned down and was rebuilt in the 1280s, and finally finished in the 1500s. It's the seat of the Bishop of Regensburg.

    There are relics on display, and we found them. Not Saint Wolfgang, but Saint Berthold of Regensburg (gestorben/died 1272)

    We definitely gave this church short shrift. The main attraction of our short visit was the stained glass. This was the best glass we've seen so far, and most of the pictures are the windows. Many, many pictures of beautiful stained glass windows. One thing I miss in Orthodox churches is stained glass. You find them in some, but by and large, stained glass is an art form of the Western Church.     Czytaj więcej

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    Saint Peters part 2

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    More stained glass from the cathedral. This has also been the darkest, in terms of lighting (or lack thereof) church that we've been in. It made it very atmospheric.

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    Streets of Regensburg

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    Regensburg is another UNESCO city, or at least, the Altstadt is. By this point, we were so out of it, we missed a lot of the highlights. It was raining on and off, at times the sun was out. There was a festival going on, and the streets were packed. We stopped to watch some fire jugglers, then moved on.

    Things we didn't see that I wanted to: the Roman gate, the oldest wurst house in Germany, and the Steinerne Brücke, the oldest standing stone bridge in Germany (12th Century). We did stand on the bridge and took pictures from it, we just didn't go down to the water and take pictures of it. We skipped the wurst house because we were kind of ready for a break from German food, but in hindsight, I regret that.

    So a couple posts of pictures from around Regensburg. The city is very well preserved, because somehow it completely escaped bombing and artillery in World War II. We're back to the pale colored buildings of southern Bavaria. There was no half-timber to be seen anywhere.

    Starting with some shots of the outside of the cathedral, which was covered in a lot of scaffolding, we moved out towards the Danube, then back. Oh, and in the picture we have, the Danube is definitely looking kind of blue. Included is the famous Goliath Haus, and those fire jugglers.     Czytaj więcej

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    Roman ruins (?)

    Regensburg: We Give Up!

    10 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    It wasn't late, but we were really tired. We're getting old, I guess. After a bit more wandering around, just missing the Roman gate by a few blocks, we decided to give up and eat, then head back.

    We had pizza in a restaurant that was half pizza place- half Mexican. We ordered one pizza and split it, then realized everyone else was ordering one for themselves. It was thin crust, but pretty big, so I don't know how they did it. We also saw someone eating hard shelled tacos with a knife and fork, but this is Europe, so-- I felt bad about being skimpy with the food so we split some sort of chocolate cake/ ice cream dessert. Then I remembered you didn't really tip here, so I didn't feel as bad. It wasn't like our cheap dinner was ripping of our server's take home pay. No pictures, because we all know what pizza and ice cream look like.

    I really wanted to see some Roman ruins. I had been in Rome before, so I have no idea why I was so insistent on it. So we looked on the way to the train. By the time we found them, it was really dark. The pictures were less than good, but I threw one it at the end.

    We found the train station, and waited for our train. The station, which was attached to a mall, was packed. The train was running late. We watched the teenagers walking back and forth to the mall. We watched people showing up in traditional trachten for the festival-- mostly young people, as we saw the previous weekend, all dressed up and looked sharp. Then, we saw the people returning home from soccer matches, including a father and his little girl all decked out in Bayern Munich gear. I promise, I DID NOT SAY ANYTHING. I put my hand over my mouth and engaged in no hooliganism whatsoever. At least they weren't Barcelona fans. I'd be in jail.

    Finally, our train was announced. The platform was packed. The train was packed. We were lucky to get seats. There were some people mouthing off back and forth, and when we all got off in Nuremberg, they were squaring off to fight, but we kept on walking.

    It was a relief to get back to the apartment. All in all, a good day. I only regret giving both places we visiting not enough time.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Nuremberg, Last Day

    11 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    We're tired. No idea why, but we are. We were thinking maybe we'd take the train to Wurzburg today to see the palace there and et cetera, but we're kind of Baroque-d out.

    We decided we'd just walk around, take some more pictures. We did want to see the Wöhrdehr See, a lake south of where we were staying, and just outside the Altstadt. We also wanted to walk through the park areas near there, and then down to this place I saw on the map, the Zeltnerschloss. No idea what it is, except that a schloss is palace, sometimes also used for castle, so why not?

    This all turned out to be less thrilling than I'd hoped. It was drizzling. The paths through the park were fine. We should have walked around the lake some more, but didn't. It was very much an urban spot, and would have been much nicer in better weather with things opened. (Ooops, Sunday)

    We found the schloss. It was an interesting walled structure in the middle of a swampy area. Later, when I looked up what it was back in the apartment, I learned currently it's a cultural center that holds various events. Before, it had been a private residence, typical, it was said "suburban fortified manor house".

    After that, we walked back towards the Altstadt. We passed some interesting buildings, then ran into some major construction that took some time to get around. Finally, we made it back, coming up alongside the main train station.

    We walked along the walls, along the river, looked at the various towers and bridges. Neither of us felt much like going to a museum, and the art bunker wasn't open, so that was our day. We were so lackadaisical, we had hamburgers for lunch. They were good, so were the fries.

    For dinner though-- Mexican food. Not bad, but lacking in cumin.

    We cleaned up the apartment and packed up. We planned on a quick breakfast, then one last run through of doing breakfast dishes, etc. We had to take the tram out to the west side of the city to pick up our rental car. It's supposed to be an automatic, and I really hope it is.     Czytaj więcej

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    Fahrvergnugen

    12 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    Older Americans reading this, do you remember those Volkswagen commercials? Where they sang, drawing it out weirdly, "Faaahr vergggnuuuugen...." Driving enjoyment... That's going to be us, in our very bright red, automatic VW T-Roc as we cruise the back roads of Franconia today.

    Where are we ultimately headed? A small town/village called Colmberg, to stay in a castle for a couple nights. It's the big splurge on our vacation, which we booked long before we added the Rhine, and then Berchtesgaden.

    We had a couple stops we wanted to make. There were two castle ruins along the route. Short hikes to each, and since we won't be getting in a lot of walking today, why not? There was also the wine town of Iphofen. I wanted to hit up a couple, but it didn't work out that way.

    Part one of the drive, we picked up the car in Nuremberg, got out of the city no problem. It had its on navigation system which we didn't pay for, but it seemed to work. We also had google maps thanks to our trusty Russian burner phone and Austrian sim card.

    It was a pretty drive. The sun was coming out, but it was a little misty in places. There was a lot of rolling farmland. We passed by villages. There was even a castle by the side of the road, or a castle-like building. I know some people are strict with the definition of what is, and is not an actual castle. Me, being an uncouth American, I see rounded towers and battlements/ crenellation and I think castle. Technically, there are no battlements, but it had that castle look to it.

    We found the first castle ruin. Not much going on, but it was a nice walk, nice views from the top of the hill. The other one sounded like it would be better. We turn off the main road, just a road, not the Autobahn or anything. Okay, fine, a little narrow, a little twisty. We turn off again. Again. Hmm, this is dirt and gravel. In a rental car, without specific "dirt and gravel" or "off road" protection.

    Then we realize (when we see the farm), we're on private land. The ruins are on the other side of the woods, which seemingly are on private land, with no other way to get there. So okay, the Germans have this thing, it's all right to pass through private land as long as you don't mess with anything. Not so much with a car, as there were big signs a little further down even Herr Hai could read-- VERBOTEN-- that was the word he recognized. Thank you Hogan's Heroes, for giving us rudimentary Germany lessons. I got the gist of the rest-- you better not drive down my road.

    So that was off. We turned around, and headed off to our next stop. It was getting on to lunch time anyway. So Iphofen, here we come.

    Note the picture of the weird tear drop thing in the traffic circle. And not a clue what the Confederate battle flag was about as there were no other flags or signs, but found it photo-worthy.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Iphofen

    12 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

    Iphofen is a Franconian wine town. I wanted to visit one of these small towns/village, partially because why not, we're in the wine region, partially due to another writing project I had been working on. So on the advice again, of the people on the Germany forums at TA, we went with Iphofen. It was suggested because it was "authentic", a real working wine town, with its Medieval walls still intact. It's an old town, mentioned as part of the property of the Diocese of Wurzburg in 741. It became recognized as a town in 1293, and over time Wurzburg, run by a bishop, bought out the rights of the nobles both in and around the town. It was incorporated into Bavaria, like most of Franconia, in the early 1800s.

    We decided we'd walk around, have some lunch (wine), maybe buy a few bottles. We parked, for free, outside the town. I was liking this place already. We started walking around, and while we saw some cars, we didn't see any people. At one point, a couple other tourists. There might have been some people back in the recessed courtyards we saw, but most of the businesses were closed.

    Finally, we found a cafe and had some lunch. Since Herr Hai was driving, and the Germans are really strict about blood alcohol content, he skipped the wine and had some sort of citrus drink. I had a local white, as that's what they mainly produce here. It was nice. Not too sweet, not too dry, but I'm not a wine connoisseur so I have no idea whether the quality was good or not. I liked it, but I also like cheap vodka.

    The town was very pretty. There were a few hotels, a museum featuring a Marilyn Monroe exhibit, a fair sized church and an ossuary. This really caught our interest, and of course we were thinking of something like the Capuchin ossuary in Rome with the all the bones used to decorate the walls, but this was just the actual building where bones were stored, and you couldn't go in.

    So some pictures of the town, and then the church.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Saint Vitus Church

    12 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    Saint Vitus was a very interesting church, in terms of the color scheme. I didn't know what to make of it. Black and sort of yellowish-orange. The colors definitely didn't come through in the pictures.

    That aside, the first Christian structure on the spot was built in 1293. The current church came later, 1349, and was enlarged in 1457. The church has a statue of Saint John carved by Tilman Riemenschneider, one of the most influential wood sculptors of the German school. He dominated the transition period between the Hight Gothic and the Northern Renaissance, and his work if found in several important churches in Central Germany.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Colmberg Castle

    12 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    This is our home for the next few days. It has a history dating back through the 700s, with many changes of ownership. The Hohenstaufens (who ruled as Kings of the Germans, and some as Holy Roman Emperors:Frederick I Barbarosa and Henry IV the most famous) had a connection to the place. Not that either of them were ever here, unfortunately.

    After the end of the Hohenstaufen line, the lands reverted back to the local rulers, who got themselves into tremendous debt. The castle, left to various baliffs, became a home for brigands, earning it the distinction of being a robber baron castle, such as were prominent in lawless Medieval times, with the lower nobility turning to highway robbery, illegal collection of fees, and what not.

    At some point in the early 1400s, Frederick IV of the house of Hohenzollern (European history buffs will know that name) bought the castle. He was made Margrave of Brandenburg in 1415, and that began the family's steady climb onward and upward. Spoiler: this is the family that eventually ruled Prussia, and then the united Germany crafted by Bismarck. By that time, however, they had nothing to do with the castle, so don't get too excited.

    It was under Prussian administration for a time in the late 1700s, but when the various Franconian holdings were incorporated into Bavaria, so too did the castle come under Bavarian control. After 1880, it passed through the hands of several individual owners, until being bought by the current family in 1964, who worked to turn it into an hotel.

    More than you wanted to know, but wait... There's more!

    Today they have a private deer park, a restaurant that suspiciously serves a lot of venison, and a renovated "new building" with an elevator. We opted for the old building, because we wanted a more "authentic" stay, and honestly, that's where the cheapest rooms were. And we got the cheapest room in the place. It's nice, but not as fancy as the suites with the real art and the four poster beds and big soaking tubs.

    They also have a ghost. The White Lady, who shows up in the middle of the night, usually between two and three. She wanders the halls, floats around outside windows, and all sorts of ghostly things, or so I've read online. People have actually claimed to see her in the old wing in their reviews of the place, so we shall see, won't we?

    Lots of pictures incoming, and more on the Wolpertinger Wanderings facebook. It's a very interesting place. A lot of public rooms filled with furniture, various decorations, and hunting trophies. The trophies make sense, as the castle has a history as a hunting lodge.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Rothenburg ob der Tauber

    13 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    After a big breakfast in the castle, we were off. Even though it was a little rainy, very overcast, we decided we'd go to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenburg is a very beautiful town. It's often described as "fairy tale like" and so on. It gets a lot of tourist traffic, a lot of vloggers, a lot of influencers on the Instagram. It's a favorite of famed tour guide book writer Rick Steves.

    It also gets a lot of hate. It's inauthentic. It's not a "real Medieval town" as a lot of the Altstadt was flattened in World War II. Not to mention other times. It's too "touristy", just busloads of them. FAH! You should go to the real medieval towns: Iphofen, Nordlingen, Dinkelsbuhl...

    But it's GORGEOUS. This has been the best looking town we've been to. Yes, it got pretty crowded with tourists as the day went on. But then again, we too, are tourists. There's a reason it's so popular with the Instagram and vlogging crowd, the tour operators, even as I said, Rick Steves who built his brand on going to non-tourist industry "backdoors". We liked it, a lot, so prepare for a lot of pictures.

    Rothenburg originally was a castle site above the Tauber River. The first castle was built by the counts of Comburg-Rothenburg beginning in the late 900s. After the line died out, who should take it over in 1116 but the Hohenstauffens-- yes, them again. At least it wasn't the Hapsburg...

    The town itself was founded in 1170, a market square and the church of Saint James (in German: Sankt Jakob). In 1274 the town was given the rights of a Free Imperial City, meaning it had no obligations to local nobility, by King of the Germans Rudolf of Hapsburg. HONESTLY-- I can't get away from them. They instituted three large trade fairs, and the money rolled in.

    Everything was going along, until the Thirty Years War. Catholic forces surrounded the Lutheran town, and the inhabitants were ready to resist. What happened, or so the story goes, the town council tried to bribe the leader of the attacked force, the Count of Tilly, with a huge drink of more than three liters of wine. Tilly said that if anyone could drink it in one go, he'd leave the town in peace. So the mayor did it, and the town was saved. HURRAH!

    Not true. They quartered in the town, and by the time they left, it was much worse for the wear. It's a good story though, and is remembered every day at noon on the glockenspiel at the Rathaus. See shortened and badly shot video below.

    As with all of these Free Imperial Towns in the region, it was given to Bavaria in Napoleonic times, there to remain until this day.

    So some pictures around the town, from our arrival in the morning. The first one is a very famous Instagram spot, you also see it in the you tube travel videos: the Plonlein. We came passed it on the way in and I took a picture, but had no idea that's what it was until we went looking for it later. D'oh!     Czytaj więcej

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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsPodróżnikBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Christmas in September

    13 września 2022, Niemcy ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    When I did my research for our Christmas market trip, Rothenburg was high on the list, for all the reasons we came here in September. They don't have a huge or particularly spectacular Christmas market, but the setting, apparently makes it. Not to mention, this is where the flagship Käthe Wohlfahrt store is. I don't know how big the brand is in the US, but if you live near a city with a decent sized Christmas market, they have stand/tent in it. In Philadelphia, the line to get into the KW tent is often out the door and wrapped around into the main part of the market.

    People flock from all over to come to this store here in Rothenburg, which is like Christmas all year round. They also have a Christmas museum, but we weren't paying five euros plus a person to see some old decorations. Yeah, we're weirdly cheap sometimes. I just wanted to see the store, take some pictures, and we did.

    I've read it gets wicked crowded, but it was practically empty when we arrived. Probably because it was early, and tour busses don't start rolling in until closer to lunch. They had a lot of nice things here, including giant Erzgebirge pyramids for hundreds of Euros. There was a cute display of the town, with little stuffed animals all moving around and being super cute. I was like an anime girl with big heart eyes looking at that thing. (See shortened video below-- SUPER CUTE!)

    We didn't buy anything, though I looked for a small wooden pyramid. Maybe someday we'll come back for Christmas markets and go to the Erzgebirge in southern Saxony and buy direct from the carvers. Who knows?     Czytaj więcej

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