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Bavaria and Middle Rhine

agosto - setembro 2022
Uma 22aventura de um dia na Wolpertinger Wanderings Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Iphofen

    12 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Saint Vitus Church

    12 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 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.    Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Colmberg Castle

    12 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 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.    Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Rothenburg ob der Tauber

    13 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 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!    Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Christmas in September

    13 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 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?    Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Church of Saint James

    13 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    OH NO! Another church? Is she ever going to get tired of going into them and babbling on about them? Well, no, no I am not. Beautiful churches are among the highest things on my list for why I traveled to Europe. It wasn't just for the food and the Alps. So get ready.

    Our first attempt to go into Sankt Jakob didn't work out. They were having a concert for local school kids. In fact, we walked in through the gates with them just after we arrived. But second time was a charm.

    This church is known for a few things. One, it's an official stop on the pilgrimage route to Compestela, another part of the Saint James Way. Two, it has a beautiful Tilman Reimenscheider carved altar piece. Three, said altar piece holds a relic of the Holy Blood. Even though Sankt Jakob has been a Lutheran church for a very long time, these things are still there, though the altar piece and relic are up in the western gallery.

    Built between 1311-1484, it's a lot less Gothic-y than it could be. I blame the Lutherans for that. While they weren't, in general, deranged image destroyers, they did skimp on the decor in a lot of churches. I mean, Rothenburg obviously wasn't Nuremberg, where the burgers who paid for the church interiors wouldn't allow changes. It was a nice church. The altarpiece is beautiful, and there was nice stained glass. The relic of the True Blood, well you can't see much of it, but it was interesting none-the-less. We Orthodox sometimes mock the Catholics for being "too filioque", too concerned with things of the body, mortification of the flesh, relics, and the like. But COME ON, let's be honest. They stole most of the relics when they sacked Constantinople so we really like them too. We're just salty because they have them now, and we don't.

    Without further ado...    Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    The City Walls

    13 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    One of the things Rothenburg is famous for, is its completely intact city walls, dating back to the Middle Ages. So old Count of Tilly didn't destroy them, nor did the Americans during World War II. Two other Bavarian towns share this distinction, the above mentioned Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen. These are, according to all the tourism propaganda, the only three cities/towns to have this distinction of complete walls.

    After seeing the church, Christmas store, the wine swilling mayoral glockenspiel, and eating lunch, and forgoing the other big attraction of the town, the Medieval Torture Museum, we walked the walls. We skipped the museum, by the way, because I read so much about Medieval and Early Modern torture (thank you Professor Edward Peters) while doing my senior thesis and then my potential proposal as a grad student on the witch hunts in Germany and France, that I honestly had no interest in that sort of thing.

    Most of the pictures are views from on the walls, and there are two special ones: actual rare photos of yours truly and Herr Haifisch looking out of one of the many towers.

    It was a long walk, but we had had a big lunch and were planning on some cake later, so, los geht's.    Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    War Memorial Chapel and Gardens

    13 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    On our walk around the walls, we found this nice garden. There was a chapel in it, and inside that, another war memorial. After we came out, a German guy engaged us in conversation. He wanted to talk politics and would NOT GIVE UP, even though we were trying to keep things light. As we were trying to figure out how to extract ourselves politely, an older American guy and his German wife rescued us.

    Turns out, our rescuer was former US army, stationed for years there in Germany. He basically engaged us in conversation and led us away, said something to the other guy, and I'm thinking it was along the lines of, 'Shut it, they're being polite, don't bother them'.

    There was no way I was getting into any sort of political conversation from any side, with any side. I do want to come back here, some day.    Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Signs and Statues

    13 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    The title is self-explanatory, but I'll explain further...

    There were a lot of great signs, as in Nuremberg, and statues on the corners and sides of buildings. We definitely need more of this in the United States, and not just the giant clothes pins and game pieces we have in Philly.Leia mais

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  • ViajanteBavaria and Middle Rhine

    Beyond the Walls on the Tauber

    13 de setembro de 2022, Alemanha ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    I wanted to see the Tauber River, and the old double bridge over it, so off we went. We passed Saint Wolfgang's (I really regret not naming one of my kids that, it's a great name), and went out through another gate, then along the walls and down.

    It was a lot of down, very hilly. Of course, that was going to mean a lot of up to get back to the town and the car. I didn't take that into consideration until we were at the bottom though, and I was really tired and cranky.

    Too late. It was a nice walk. We found a church down by the water, but it was locked up. Found the bridge, then came back up the hill. I shouldn't complain about the hills, because they provide the proper elevation, soil, etc, the proper terroir, to grow the grapes that make that nice Franconian wine.    Leia mais

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