A Day in Durlach

On Sunday, we took the tram out to Durlach, which is a suburb of Karlsruhe. Durlach is the forerunner of Karlsruhe, and became a city in 1196. Here, the Margrave of Durlach decided he did not want to live with his wife on a daily basis, so he built himself a new residence in Karlsruhe. What is left in Durlach is the remains of the Margrave's original residence, which was essentially abandoned after his wife died. We spent a lovely spring afternoon exploring Durlach, as you will see in the photos here.

We got to the top of the Durlach mountain via this cool funicular railway, which is the oldest railway of its kind still in operation in Germany.

When we reached to top of the mountain, we climbed up this tower, which is all that is left of the medieval castle that used to occupy this site.

The view from the tower was spectacular. Here you can see Durlach below us, and off in the distance is Karlsruhe.

Next to the tower is a lovely restaurant, where we enjoyed the view, lunch, and a few glasses of the local wine, which is grown on the hillsides below us. 

Here is what is left of the original castle of the Margrave. It now houses a museum and relics dating back 700 years. 

Spring has arrived in the castle gardens, one of the oldest in Germany.

This is the Marktplatz, and these building have been converted into apartments. Lots of folks were playing bocci ball in the platz. 

On our way home from Durlach, we strolled in the area around where we live and found the Hoepfner Burghof, one of Karlsruhe's most important breweries.  It was built in 1896 and has a beer garden on the grounds that seats over 1000 people. We can't wait until the garden opens!! However, we should tell you that we have had a few Hoepfers Pils beers in the local bars, which are really good (and not warm, either!) 

The brewery also has an associated hotel, so you don't have have far to walk in case you drink too many Hoepfners. 

Happiness in Heidelberg

Early Saturday morning we hopped on the train and headed north to Heidelberg, a 35" ride on the high-speed ICE train. We were met at the station by Sebastian, a good friend of William Sundquist, who is the son of our good friends, John and Alice Sundquist. Sebastian met Will at flight school in Statesboro, GA, and now lives in Frankfurt, where he works as a flight attendant for Lufthansa. We spent the day with Sebastian, touring Heidelberg and the Neckar Valley in his convertible BMW. The weather was glorious, the scenery spectacular, our guide delightful...we are having the time of our lives!

After stopping to get coffee and cake at a small town just north of Heidelberg, we had breakfast here on the banks of the Neckar River. 

Here is a view of the suburbs of Heidelberg. 

This is one of the oldest backerei (bakeries) in Heidelberg, where we stopped for another snack. 

View from the pedestrian bridge, which crosses the Neckar. In the background, you can see the Heidelberg castle. Heidelberg was not bombed during WW2, so lots of buildings dating back to the Middle Ages and early Renaissance still remain intact. The town has lots of lovely squares (platz), narrow streets, and outdoor cafes.

Here is the palace of Friedrich IV, which was built in 1601. 

The castle is quite large and built on many levels, with lots of beautiful terraced gardens. This is one of the oldest structures on the castle property, built in 1549.

The gun tower.

This part of the castle, which contained the gunpowder, was blown up by the French in the late 17th century. Note the exterior wall on the left hand side of the picture, which was detached from the castle by exploding gunpowder.

Here is the entrance to the castle, which is reached by crossing a bridge over a moat. This part of the castle was built by Friedrich V in 1615. 

Another view of the castle grounds. This castle was the first stop on Cindy and Sam's tour of Europe when they were in high school. Look familiar, girls?

This is the great cask, built in 1751, which held 55,000 gallons of wine. Party time! 

View of Heidelberg and the Neckar Valley from the castle. You can see the pedestrian bridge in the background, which was built in 1800's.

This is one of the fraternity houses we spotted on our way down from the castle. Heidelberg has been a university town since 1386 and is home to the oldest university in Germany.

Sebastian and Art having lunch at one of the many outdoor cafes.

A typical street in the old part of town.

The Marktplatz and the Heiliggeistkirche (church), built in the 1400s.

A nice view of the castle from town. 

After a wonderful day, Sebastian dropped us off at the train station; here is the parking lot outside Heidelberg Hauptbanhof.

Many thanks to John, Alice, and Will for enabling us to meet Sebastian. And, many thanks to Sebastian for being such a hospitable tour guide. We hope to reciprocate the next time he visits GA.

Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart

On Saturday, March 17, we took the train to Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes Benz museum. The train only took 34" to travel the 50 miles from the train station at Karlsruhe to Stuttgart, so Art calculated our average speed at 132 mph; we were zipping along and the train was very quiet! The German transit system is spectacular. However, it was not so easy to figure out how to buy a tram ticket out to the Museum, but we managed. I think we are starting to get the hang of this mass transit system here. :) Stuttgart was very heavily damaged during WW2, partly because the Daimler Benz factory was devoted to manufacturing bombs and munitions. So, Stuttgart itself is not particularly attractive as it was quickly rebuilt after to war with lots of boxy buildings. However, the museum itself is spectacular, as you can see from the pictures here. Warning: if you are not a car fan, this will probably be boring. (note: we made this trip prior to celebrating St. Paddy's Day at the pub, which is the other entry this week.)

Here is the museum, which consists of eight floors.

Art, with a sculpture outside the museum.

The first car built by Benz; steering was still an issue, so this model had only three wheels.

Next model; steering apparently figured out. :)

Great touring coupe.

Here is a view from the museum. There were lots of soccer fields around us, as well as the Mercedes Benz stadium.

This is the precursor to my beloved SL 500, which is the S500 coupe. 

More Mercedes models. The Mercedes name came from the daughter of one of the major customers of Daimler Benz, who ordered lots of sports cars and named the first model he bought and raced--Mercedes.

I was fascinated by the layout and design of all these displays. You start the tour on the 8th floor, with the first models, and walk around the exterior, where the walls have wonderful displays and interactive terminals with all kinds of historical events, not just car related. The museum display designers have done a wonderful job of putting the evolution of the cars in historical context. From a technical communication perspective, this museum is a wonderful example of communication.

This is the train we took between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart.

Comfortable seats on the high speed train, which also has a club car that serves beer, wine, and food.

St. Paddy's Day Celebration

We celebrated St. Paddy's Day at the Bray Head Pub with some new friends that we met this week. The Bray Head, which is a 15" walk from our apartment, is owned by Dennis. Dennis is from Ireland, and this pub is well known for its authentic Irish food and beer, which is brewed about 100 yards from the pub.

Dennis and I celebrating St. Paddy's Day in his bar. 

Here is the bar, which was long and narrow; it got much more crowded and very hot before the night was over!

We met these guys on Tuesday night at Wolf's Wirsthaus. Matt (from Texas; not pictured) organizes a "Meetup" of expats living in Karlsruhe. On the left is Mike, from England, then ALG, David, from Ireland, and Jan, David's friend from Germany. Mike is a manager at Ungerboeck Software (convention logistics management), David is a sales rep for Adobe, and Jan is a physics PhD student at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Also in the picture...lots of great, locally brewed Pilsner beer and stout ale. 

More friends. We met Robin (far left) at the Bray Head on Thursday night. He's from Saratoga Springs, NY, retired Army ranger, who now maintains the boats and waterways at the Karlsruhe zoo.  Elise, far right, is from Missouri; we also met her on Tuesday night at the "Meetup." She also works for Ungerboeck Software and her husband is a grad from Rose Hulman, in Terre Haute, IN. None of these folks have any desire to leave Germany and return to the U.S. to live...I'm beginning to understand why!

A quick tour of Baden Baden

On Saturday (March 10), we took the train to Baden Baden, which is well known resort town in the Black Forest. Baden means 'baths' in German, and has been visited by many spa enthusiasts since the Romans first found out how soothing hot spas could be (I totally vote for that!).  Although we did not see them, the ruins of these first Roman baths are still evident under the streets of Baden Baden. 

Since we did not bring bathing suits (duh!), we did not visit any of the spas (and neither did we feel like spending ~$100 for the pleasure of bathing in a hot tub). However, we did spend a wonderful afternoon strolling through the streets and here are some of the sights we saw. 

This is the center of the Marktplatz. We thought we might be able to walk here from the train station; wrong; it was a 25" bus ride.

The Marktplatz is a pedestrian area of town with some VERY expensive shops (hello tourists!)

We could not figure out what this building was, but we loved the architecture. We think it has something to do with city governance. 

We walked out of the Marktplatz and up this lovely path onto the gardens of one of the old castles. Here is a typical view of the houses in the area.

This is in front of the Neue (new)  Castle (~1490). It was bought by the Saudis and is being converted into a luxury hotel. 

A view from the Neue Castle, overlooking Baden Baden.

The next two pictures were taken as we descended from the hill where the Neue Castle is located. We just loved the narrow stone passageways, which have obviously been here for centuries.

More stairs as we descend from the Neue Castle. We were happy to be headed down, not up, these stairs. 

PQ/Ruthie and Steve/Judy: this is the German version of a motor home. It is designed so you can sleep in it, but not much more. I have a feeling that you would not want to trade your homes for this one, although I expect this version gets better gas mileage!

We finally make it down all the stone steps and shot this picture looking back at the Neue Castle. 

After all our strenuous activities, we decided to have lunch at this wonderful outdoor cafe, complete with German waiters in lederhosen. Prost!

Here is a typical German lunch, lots of different kinds of meats, cheeses, pickles, bread, and of course, beer!  Notice the big smile....what is not to love about this cuisine!

John Greco: this picture is for you. It was taken on our way home  and is typical of the wine selection in a normal grocery here. I just wish we could ship some of this fabulous wine home. Guess we will just have to drink it while we are here!