Road trip, Day 2, Rothenberg, Dinkelsbuhl, and Nordlingen

For our second day on the Romantic Road, we spent the morning exploring Rothenburg, then drove ~45 km due south to Dinkelsbuhl (what a great name for a town...you can imagine what Art calls it), then on to Nordlingen (another 35 km due south). We decided to skip Augsberg, the third largest city in Germany, and drove ~190 km on to Fussen late on Tuesday afternoon.

We spent Monday night in this fabulous boutique hotel, the  Mittermeier, in Rothenburg. It is located just outside the town walls, and it was from here that we literally stumbled onto the Festspeil. To the right, you can see the garden terrace where we had dinner on Monday night, as well as breakfast on Tuesday morning. The cuisine here is rated as one of the best along the Romantic Road, and we agree. We had a fabulous meal; I had grilled baby calamari, while Art had pike perch. (Price of meal was fabulous as well.)

Here is the lobby of the Hotel Mittermeier. The rooms were just as exquisitely furnished as the lobby. 

Breakfast buffet, which included salmon, various meats, cheeses, and breads, along with yogurt and fruit. Yummy!!!!

We walked off our breakfast by climbing this tower and strolling along the ramparts that completely surround the city of Rothenburg. The ramparts were built in the 16th century and include many towers such as this, which are strategically placed around the circumference. 

The most photographed house in Rothenburg! In retrospect, this was the loveliest of the medieval cities we visited today. Around every corner, we saw sights like this. 

A local delicacy, Schneeballen,which are are fried balls of sweet dough  dipped in sugar or chocolate. Of course, we had to try several. Verdict: OK, but not worth the calories. 

The Rathaus, or town hall, was built in the 14th century. The Festspiel was concluded in the square here last night. 

Typical half-timbered houses in the town, circa 14th-15th century. 

Another example of one of the gates protecting the city. 

Every town has a church, and this is the Gothic church of St. Jacob, which was built in 1336. 

So, now we have moved on to Dinkelsbuhl, which is also surrounded by medieval walls and towers. The town is much smaller than Rothenburg, was even better preserved, and had many fewer tourists (namely, fewer Japanese tourists on their tour buses). 

To me, this is the quintessential German marktplatz. Hard to believe that these buildings have survived for 400-500 years. 

We have been in some spectacular churches, but this one was special. Built between 1448-1499, the Munster St. Georg had a magnificent interior and the overhead vaulting was breathtaking. 

We spent an hour or so strolling along the  fortified wall surrounding Dinkelsbuhl. Here is another of the 16 towers along the wall. 

A final look at Dinkelsbuhl and the fortified walls. 

Our third, and last, medieval city surrounded by walls was  Nordlingen. This town sits in a gigantic crater called the Ries, which was created when a large meteorite stuck this area over 15 million years ago (how the heck do people figure this out; it was not obvious from driving through this area! But, apparently the original NASA astronauts used this crater to practice landing on the moon...small world). 

St. Georgkirsch dates from the 15th century. Here is the tower,  called the Daniel, which is over 300 ft. high. I climbed the 350 steps to the top (parts of which were really creepy), to take the pictures an video seen below. The original walls from the 14th century should be clearly visible in the video and pictures. 

A view from the top of the Daniel.

What was so interesting about this wall were the houses that were built onto it. Here you can see examples of homes that were built using the 14th century fortifications as the rear wall of their houses. 

More Day 1,Historisches Festspeil in Rothenburg

In 1631, the Thirty Years' War, pitching Catholics against Protestants, reached the gates of Rothenburg.  Over 60,000 Catholic troops besieged the city, and the Protestants were overwhelmed and had to surrender. This festival is a re-enactment of the siege and the story of the town's survival, which had is based on the legend that the town's mayor accepted the challenge of drinking an enormous flask of wine in order to save its citizens (sounds good to me). The pictures here are from the final parade of the three-day festival comemorating the siege. We stumbled onto this parade outside the door of our hotel in Rothenburg. What a hoot. Most of the parade members were enjoying the tradition of drinking the wine. 

Parade assembly, outside the gate to the city. 

More members of the parade. 

The guy in the middle is a cop, encircled by members of the re-enactment. He was getting quite a kick out of the attention, not to mention all the traffic stopped in the street because of this dance.

Here is a video clip of the parade. I have no idea if it will work, as I have never uploaded clips to my blog before.

Art and one of the locals. :)

Ditto. :)

The parade had many hundred participants; here are a few.

And a few more... 

The parade ended at the Marktplatz, with lots of speeches, singing, and dancing. All in all,  I think a good time was had by both the participants and the spectators. 

Road trip, Day 1, Wurzburg

We arrived back in Germany on Saturday morning, May 26. After resting for the weekend, we have now set off on a seven day road trip, since it is summer break at my university and I have NO classes for a week. Woo hoo! Today we made it to Wurzburg (Monday, May 28), about 200 km northeast of Karlsruhe. Wurzburg is the beginning of the Romantic Road, which links some of the most picturesque towns and villages in Bavaria.  Our plan is to travel from Wurzburg in the north of Bavaria to Fussen, near the Austrian border, then drive through Austria and Switzerland around the southern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee), and end up in the Black Forest by next weekend. That's the plan, anyway. Stay tuned. I will blog as often as I can, depending on Internet access.

Art with our rental car, a 5-speed manual Ford Focus, outside the  Residenz Palace in Wurzburg.

The Residenz was the home to Wurzburg bishops.  

The interior of the Residenz. This is the mirror room. Cameras were not allowed, but I snuck this picture anyway. I have not seen such an elaborate interior since Versailles. These rooms were opulent.

We ate lunch at this great little restaurant in the Marktplatz in Wurzburg. Here is Art enjoying the scenery. Today is a holiday in Germany, so the streets are full of families enjoying the wonderful weather and scenery.

The Marienberg Fortress, on the hill overlooking Wurzburg, has been rebuilt and expanded on for the last 600 years. We walked across the bridge over the Main River, and up a lot of steps to the fortress. The hill on which the fortress stands was first settled in the Bronze Age.

Here is the bridge over the Main River. Below the bridge, we watched a barge enter the lock with less than one foot clearance on either side. Art was fascinated...me too, but more with the people than with the boat traffic. :)

On our way to the fortress. Following a storming of the castle in 1631 by the Swedes, Prince -Bishop von Schonburg built massive bastions to protect the Marienburg. 

We climbed lots of stairs to the fortress, through walls that were at least 5 feet thick.

Walking along the bastions along the fortress. 

The final resting place of lots of the bishops, dating back at least 500 years. 

From the top of Marienburg, looking back towards the town of Wurzburg; a glorious vista.

We left Wurzburg and drove south to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where we witnessed the final celebration of the Historisches Festspeil. More on this in the next entry to my blog, but OMG, what hoot it it was!!

Home Sweet Home!

No blogs for a while as I will be in the USA from May 17-24. I head to Atlanta on May 17 and am really looking forward to seeing my husband, my daughters, and my friends for a week. Art has been gone since May 1 and it has been very lonely here without him. And, I miss Cindy and Sam so much.

Can't wait to sleep in my own bed, drive a car, sit on our dock and watch the sun set, maybe throw a few shrimp shells into the lake, take a cocktail cruise, and just relax for a few days. Then, on Tuesday, Art and I head to Chicago to attend the awards banquet of the Society for Technical Communication where I am being inducted as a Fellow in the Society. Wednesday we return to Macon, and then head back to Germany on Friday afternoon.

The following week is Spring Break for the University where I am teaching, so Art and I are renting a car and headed towards the Romantic Road and the Swiss Alps. Stay tuned...lots more adventures and tales on the way.

I also hope to soon upload a blog about my experiences as a visiting professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Karlsruhe. I am about halfway through my tenure here, so have lots of pictures and stories to share with you.

A lovely weekend in London

I was lucky enough to spend a lovely weekend in London with my friends Jeremy and Karen Goddard. My mother and Jeremy's mother were good friends and worked together at the Dutch embassy in London during the WWII. They continued to stay in touch and traveled together once every few years to such places as Hong Kong and Istanbul. I have very fond memories of sailing with Jeremy and his family when we were teen agers and he and I have also stayed in touch over the years and have exchanged visits for the past 40 years. 

I left Karlsruhe on Thursday afternoon (May 10), took the train to Frankfurt, then the 90" flight to Heathrow. Heathrow security is beefing up in preparation for the Olympics, so it took some time to get through Immigration. However, Immigration in Frankfurt on the return trip on Sunday took just as long! Can't wait to see what the line will be like when I get to Atlanta next week. 

Friday morning we took a walk along the Thames to the Petersham Garden Center. This landscape (pictured here) has remained unchanged for several hundred years and has been painted by many famous landscape artists. The rich and famous (e.g., Mick Jagger) own houses up on the hill overlooking this pastoral scene. The Petersham Garden Center was established so that the view would be preserved and tacky houses or apartments would not be built that would ruin this view.

Petersham Garden Center was a wonderful (but very overpriced) collection of plants, planters, furniture, and garden ornaments. 

Karen in one of the greenhouses. 

As we continued our walk along the Thames, we found the Royal Barge, which will transport the Queen in the 1000 boat parade; this is but one of the celebrations to honor her 60 years on the throne. All the shops are full of 60th Diamond Jubilee memorabilia, as well as Olympic souvenirs.

We continued our journey through Richmond Park to the Isabella Gardens, which were full of magnificent azaleas and rhododendrons. Richmond Park is the largest of the Royal Parks in London, and has some 650 deer roaming its 2500 acres. The Park also has a public golf course (*sigh*...looked like a really nice course).

As usual, the picture does not capture the glorious color of these rhododendrons. 

Here is the Silent Pond, aptly named (silence only interrupted by all the clicking cameras). 

Dick and Kath Blackshaw, friends of Karen and Jeremy since their university days together, also spent the weekend. Dick was on his way to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he is helping with the insurance dilemmas caused by the recent earthquake there. 

I love this picture of Karen and me. 

I love this car!

Alfie and Joey, the King Charles spaniels, surveying their domain from the kitchen door. 

Karen and Jeremy have lived in this wonderful home in Surbiton for almost 25 years. As with any older home (~160 years), it requires constant attention and maintenance, hence the scaffolding as work was being done to the roof. 

On the back deck outside the kitchen; in the summer, this area has beautiful flowers in all the planters, along with herbs, tomatoes, and other veggies. 

Jeremy in his study; I interrupted his guitar practice to take the picture early Saturday morning.

On Saturday, we took another stroll along the Thames to Kingston. 

The older market area of Kingston.

Walking along the Thames is hard work, so we stopped to have a local pint (I much prefer the English beer to the German beer). We also visited my favorite local Indian restaurant for a curry one night. I believe Cindy and Sam have good memories of visiting this same restaurant the year we came to spend New Year's with Karen and Jem.

I must confess that is was really nice to be in a country where I actually understood 90% of the conversation going on around me. And, Karen and Jeremy were such gracious hosts. Jem is a wonderful cook, and I did not each any schnitzel all weekend, just fabulous pork belly and chicken with lots of great veggies. Heaven. Thank you, my dear friends. I look forward to seeing you next year and hope we get to go to the Masters!