Germany Universitätsviertel

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  • Day 8–9

    Von Donauwörth nach Mering

    September 7, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Als wir in die Pedale treten denken wir: Der Herbst ist da! Es ist nebelig und feucht. Der Nebel lässt die Landschaft der ersten Kilometer mystisch erscheinen. Wir überqueren die Donau samt zugehörigem Radweg ein letztes mal und wenden uns nach Süden.

    Schon bald vertreibt die Sonne den Nebel und wir treffen auf den vom Arlberg kommenden Lech, der irgendwo nach Donauwörth in die Donau mündet.

    Bei Augsburg verlassen wir den wunderschönen Flussradweg um die Altstadt zu erkunden. Da uns die Stadt sehr enttäuscht, sie ist laut und der Verkehr extrem, kehren wir ihr recht rasch den Rücken zu und radeln zurück zum Fluss, wo wir es bei einem Essststand den vielen Wochenendausflüglern gleich tun und uns einen Wurstsalat und ein Getränk gönnen.

    In einem der zahlreichen Au-Seen nehme ich ein erfrischendes Bad.

    Bald darauf ein wenig Abseits kehren wir in Mering beim Hotel Schlosserwirt ein, wo wir die heutige Nacht verbringen.
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  • Day 1

    Etappe 1: FFB - Bad Aussee

    July 4, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Nach einer schönen Zeit mit Familie und Freunden, bin ich zu meiner Tour aufgebrochen.
    Gemütlich ging es durch das Oberland, den Chiemgau, Berchtesgaden zum westlichen Dachstein und ins Salzkammergut. Eine schöne und entspannte Tour mit 375 kmRead more

  • Day 42

    Tag 42: Ingolstadt - Augsburg

    June 26, 2023 in Germany ⋅ 🌩️ 26 °C

    Anstatt wie geplant weiter der Donau zu folgen, bin ich an der Lechmündung abgebogen und den Fluss aufwärts nach Augsburg gefahren .

    Unterwegs habe ich meinen 3‘000. Kilometer passiert. Eigentlich wollte ich zu diesem Anlass dort ein Foto schiessen. Aber kurz vorher hat mich ein älterer Herr auf seinem E-Bike angesprochen. Er wollte einkaufen und eine kurze Spritztour machen, ist dann aber mit mir ca. eine Stunde lang mitgefahren. Ein spannender Mensch, welcher viel erlebt und viel von der Welt (teiweise auch mit dem Fahrrad) bereist hat.

    Nachdem wir uns verabschiedet hatten, hatte ich für einen kurzen Moment Mühe wieder auf meine Route zurück zu finden und musste teilweise auf ganz engen Waldwegen fahren.

    Nach dem „obligatorischen“ einkehren im Biergarten, schlenderte ich noch etwas durch die Altstadt von Augsburg und besuchte das Rathaus mit seinem goldenen Saal.

    Auf dem Rad: 93 km / 280 Höhenmeter / 4h 53min.
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  • Day 24

    Fuggerei

    May 4 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    Storied public housing complex in operation since the 16th century

    ETERNITY

    Fuggerel Code

    This place is a curated living space for eternity. For a minimal spiritual and monetary consideration, the foundation empowers those in need in the region to lead a self-determined life in dignity. The Fuggerel concept has set standards since 1521.

    What does eternity mean for the Fuggerei?

    In his foundation charter of 1521, Jakob Fugger ensured the continued existence of his foundations far beyond his death. The phrase "in ewig Zeit" appears several times. He thereby obligated his successors to maintain the Fuggerei forever. He also gave them the task of "meren" (expanding and improving) the foundations if possible.

    The wording in the Fuggerei Code therefore contains a commitment for the future. In concrete terms, it means that the continued existence of a Fuggerei must be sustainably guaranteed through forward-looking management and sufficient financial resources

    For 500 years, despite many crises in its history, the Fuggerei has succeeded in fulfilling its mission. The Fuggerei was also expanded, even on this very site. The section of land northwest of Ochsengasse up to and including Markusplatz was purchased and developed in 1879 using funds from a foundation belonging to Prince Leopold Fugger-Babenhausen.

    Eternity is hard work. It is achieved through change and renewal
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  • Augsburg

    July 20, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Den Bergen entflohen, machen wir uns auf nach Augsburg, wo Lea und Simon zur Geburtstagsfeier in ihren Kleingarten eingeladen haben. Wir bewundern den schönen Garten mit all den alten Obstbäumen und stürzen uns auf das von den Gästen mitgebracht Essen. Besonderen Fokus legen wir natürlich darauf, dass wir auch wirklich alle unterschiedlichen Kuchen und Süßkram in uns reinstopfen.

    Am Folgetag der Feierei, begeben wir uns vormittags in die Innenstadt, um zu Frühstücken. Die Temperaturen sind aber viel zu heiß und so fliehen wir an die Wertach, wo wir den Fluss entlangwaten, um so eine einsame Schotterbank zu finden. Nach der Abkühlung folgt am Abreisetag ein bewölkter Tag mit einzelnen Regenschauern. Perfekt also für einen kleinen Stadtbummel!

    Geschlafen haben wir in Augsburg übrigens in unserem Wohnwagen, gleich beim Rosenaustadion, also mittig im Wohngebiet. Zugegeben, schon ein bisschen ein schräges Gefühl so aus dem Wohnwagen zu steigen und direkt die "Nachbarn" grüßen zu können.

    So ganz ohne Berge halten wir es aber nicht lange aus und so geht's nach zweieinhalb Tagen Augsburg zurück in die Welt der Gipfel.
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  • Day 2

    Landesgartenschau Allgäu

    May 29, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Heute morgen bei gutem Wetter gehen wir uns die Austellung ansehen… ist cool gemacht weil sie eingentlich in einem alten Industriegebiet gemacht wurde.. das Highlight ist der Aussichtturm welcher ohne Tragkonstruktion nur mit verleimter Brettkonstruktion erstellt wurde .. die Holzbauingenieure kammen aus Stuttgart und ZürichRead more

  • Day 27

    26 May: What a day!

    May 26, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    A Wow of a day!

    First up: Lutheran Mass at Sankt Michaelis, Hamburg’s most famous church and city landmark. This baroque masterpiece from 1750, affectionately nick-named “Der Michel” (“Our Mickey”) has survived war, Napoleonic invasion, a disastrous fire in 1906 and damage from Allied bombing in 1944.

    Today’s service was special as it incorporated a baptismal ceremony. To celebrate, there was a Haydn Mass (Missa Brevis of St John of God, always a delight) performed by professional singers and musicians. To top it off, the nimble organist played at three of the church’s four organs, including the Grand Organ of 1962, which at the time was the biggest church organ in the world.

    A moving experience, plus an auditory delight, hearing beautiful music in 3-D sound in a superb church.

    Next we drove 64K to the medieval town of Lübeck , “The Queen of the Baltic”. Lübeck was the leader of the Hansa League, a medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns. For 400 years Hansa shaped the trade and politics of Northern Europe.

    Its memory still survives in the German airline Lufthansa-“ the Hanseatic League of the Air.”

    Marie-Thérèse’s friend Petra, who lives in the centre of the Old Town (originally a fortified island in the Trave River), acted as our guide.
    On our walk we found two sets of “Stumbling Stones”. These are small bronze plaques set into the footpath commemorating Jewish families living at this address who were taken by the Nazis.

    First stop was lunch at Schiffergeschellschaft (Ship’s Company) restaurant, founded in 1535!
    This is decorated with all sorts of nautical memorabilia. The seats (like pews) have different carved emblems. This was to ensure that crews from different ships and nationalities sat separately and didn’t get into a fight!

    After our delicious meal, Petra started showing us around the picturesque streets. Abruptly the clouds that had been gathering turned into a thunderstorm. Luckily for us , Petra knew the lady on the admission desk at the famous Marienkirche (Church of Our Lady), so we made a run for it over the cobbles and dashed through the door just as rhe storm burst.

    This remarkable church, built from 1265 by the citizens and governing council of this wealthy city, is 102m long, has towers 125m high, has the tallest brick vault in the world at 38.5 m (126 ft) , and covers 4,400 sq metres (47,361 sq ft).

    What makes it more remarkable is that this was the first ever Gothic church built in brick. It was enormously influential, “the mother church of brick Gothic”, and set the standard for 70 other churches in the Baltic region.

    Sadly, Bomber Harris of the RAF was looking for revenge targets in Germany after the Luftwaffe raid on Coventry, and on the night of Palm Sunday 1942, the church was almost completely destroyed by fire, along with most of the city centre.

    The Old Town was built largely of wood and burned well.

    After huge efforts, much of this superb building has been reconstructed, and in 1987 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

    After a pleasant break at Petra’s charming apartment nearby, we walked over the cobbles to Lübeck’s Opera House for a performance of Puccini’s La Bohème.

    We enjoyed this excellent production, first class voices, good orchestra, deep feeling. It’s an affecting story that had us reaching for our hsnkerchiefs.

    The population of Lübeck is 318,000. Imagine a NZ city not much larger than Wellington staging 21 first-class performances of drama, opera and modern shows a year.

    After this wonderful day I could only finish with “ They drove home tired but happy.”
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  • Day 32

    Garmitch

    August 23, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    After we left the fairy tale town of Rothenburg we got back on the road to the mountain countryside where we were going to do a fair bit of hiking. But before we got there we wanted to go to an old nazi concentration camp at Dachau which was very confronting because we learnt all about what they did to them and where they stayed and the terrible conditions they went through. We kept driving and we got to the mountains kinda like Mont Blanc but these where smaller( not by much ) our little house was next to a little river and a few of the mountains. We met a really nice lady who owned the Airbnb and we just chilled out for the rest of the day.

    Our next day we woke up semi early to catch a gondola up a 2628 metre mountain and then walk down. It was very steep and Rocky but the views were amazing . As we were going we saw cows with bells attached to their front and they didn’t have any gates either, people paragliding off the mountain and mountain bike riders which confused me because the hills were extremely steep! Even at the top there was this hangover part that hung over the big drop 1km. It didn’t help that it felt like it was wobbling. After our walk down the mountain we all kinda hated each other after a 5hr hike, but Dad planned to go on this swim in a lake, which I didn’t really want to do, but we did it. And I’m so glad I did, the second I got in I wasn’t hot anymore,it wasn’t salty and it just dropped off into the deep. The sand at the bottom was so soft because the lake was so still that when you touched it your hand went straight through it like air. It was so deep that you past this invincible line in the water that when you dived down and passed it it was freezing cold. We even had a big view of the Mountains behind us and a few fish and ducks.

    The next day we woke up extremely sore. But in spite of that we wanted to go to Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castle. We had a tour around hohenschwangau which was a big yellow castle and was said to be their summer retreat. It was much more colourful than any of the castles in France and all the furniture in it was original,only because German medieval history seemed more peaceful (sort of)We then walked up to Neuschwanstein Castle of which the Disney Castle was based on and one of the most famous castles in Europe. We walked around the White turrety tower and went on the bridge above it ( which didn’t feel very stable at all). But all and all was a really good sight seeing day.

    Our next day I believe was one of my highlights. Dad had planned this gauge thing which was near our first mountain hike. It was around a 3 hour hike through a gorge. Minus 20 minutes to walk to it, but it was no boring 20 minutes. We walked passed a few horse and carriages, some really cool little huts, a busker at a cafe playing a piano accordion ( which was very different from the kind of music we hear at our dining places ) we even saw a grass cutting competition of people cutting grass in traditional German cloths and cutting grass with the weapon like the grim reaper uses. Thankfully these guys did not look like no grim reaper. Once we got to the gorge we immediately had to pull our rain jackets on due to all the water flying about. It was so loud in their because of the water rapids that run through there. The walk pathway was cut into the wall of the gorge so in some parts we were walking through stone tunnels. On the other side we ate lunch next to the calmer water and had a competition of who could keep their legs in the ice cold melted ice mountain water. I got 3 minutes 10 and won, but at the cost of not feeling my legs for a while after.

    Our next and last day we had a bit of a rest day ready for our journey to Austria tomorrow
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  • Day 3

    Augusta

    March 17 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Terza città più grande della Baviera (dopo Monaco e Norimberga), Augusta Vindelicorum è stata fondata nel 15 a.C. dall'imperatore Augusto lungo la Via Claudia ed è divenuta ben presto un importante centro commerciale. Nel 1316 diventa Città Libera dell'Impero e conosce un ulteriore sviluppo economico, accresciuto anche dall'arrivo (1367) di un tessitore di lino, Jakob Fugger, che ad Augsburg pose le basi del suo impero finanziario. La gloria massima fu nel '400 e nel '500 quando i Fugger, soprannominati i Rothschild della Baviera, concedevano prestiti alle famiglie regnanti di mezza Europa ottenendo in cambio facilitazioni per i propri commerci. Nel '500 fu centro nevralgico della riforma protestante: qui Filippo Melantone espose la "Confessio Augustana" di Martin Lutero e nel 1555, con la "Pace di Augusta", si stabilì che i vari territori tedeschi potevano seguire la confessione religiosa dei regnanti che li governavano.
    Dalla nostra area sosta, con una breve passeggiata, abbiamo raggiunto la Rathausplatz (piazza del Municipio) che ospita la chiesa di St. Peter (ora non visitabile all’interno perchè in restauro). Le campane del suo campanile, alle 11 e alle 17, suonano varie melodie tra le quali brani di Mozart. Continuando a camminare nel centro storico, ci siamo imbattuti nella chiesa di St. Anna, uno dei centri della riforma protestante di Martin Lutero. La chiesa risale al '400 ma l'interno è stato completamente barocchizzato a metà del '700. Percorrendo la Maximilianstraße, siamo passati di fronte al palazzo dove Martin Lutero nel 1521 pronunciò il rifiuto a ritrattare le sue tesi (che gli procurò poi la scomunica papale e il bando dall’impero come nemico e fuorilegge); oggi l’edificio è una banca ma all’esterno vi è una targa che ricorda l’avvenimento. Intrufolandoci nel mercato cittadino, fra banchi di frutta e verdura e negozi di fiori, ci ha colpito un venditore di casette per uccellini, veramente singolari, preziose e costosissime!
    Piccola curiosità: qui ad Augusta si trova la casa dove, nel 1719, nacque Leopold Mozart.
    Un quartiere particolare: il Fuggerei. Voluto da Jakob Fugger nel 1514, che mise a disposizione per le spese di costruzione 10.000 fiorini del suo immenso patrimonio, è un quartiere nato per ospitare gli abitanti cattolici poveri o indigenti e, organizzandogli il lavoro, evitargli di continuare a vivere di elemosina. Si tratta del più antico esempio di edilizia sociale del mondo ed era anche una abilissima mossa di "immagine" e di "public relations" del '500.
    L’affitto simbolico era di 1 fiorino più un obbligo spirituale: recitare ogni giorno una preghiera per i membri della famiglia Fugger e vivere da bravi credenti.
    Oggi le case ospitano principalmente coppie di anziani che vivono con la pensione minima. Al n° 14 della Mittlere Gasse è stata allestita una casa-museo per illustrare il modo di vivere degli abitanti della Fuggerei nel ‘500
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  • Day 42

    Day 42: Tour around Augsburg

    January 16, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C

    Augsburg is famous for its water system, so famous that it has become a UNESCO World Heritage. Its technology of pumping water to the water towers to provide drinkable water to the city is quite impressive. With abundant water supply, Augsburg itself is very self-sufficient.

    There is a UNESCO information center in the city centre, which definitely worth a visit. It explained how and why the water system in Augsburg has been one of the heritages.

    Augsburg doesn’t have the commercial vibes. There were not many tourists there when we visited. The architecture is similar to Italy, so we had a feeling of visiting Venice but without the tourists. One good thing to visit Augsburg, you can get free water easily, just bring your own bottle.
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