Part II

July 22, 2003

My camera is off with my friend so I thought I’d share some of my favorite door shots.

There are so many cool doors here in Germany.

Dinkelsbuhl	Heidelburg Castle
Rothenburg	Rothenburg

Door in Rothenburg

July 21, 2003

After a long day of work my colleague Rob, my friend Kristi, and I drove to the Rheingau (Region on the Rhein River where they grow wine) to the Johannisberg Schloss (Castle) to have dinner at their restaurant. The view was spectacular, and the wine they serve is not only famous worldwide (Johannisberg Rieslings), but is some of the best wine I’ve had here in Germany.

Johannisburg Schloss

View of Rhein Valley

The dinner we had was a nice one. Kristi had a very tasty cream of tomato soup with crème fraise and a chanterelle mushroom salad, while I tried the cream of chanterelles soup (which is in season right now) and the tagliatelli (thick noodles) with shrimp, and Rob had the lamb in a chanterelle cream sauce. Kristi, who befriended our waiter Raimer, was treated to a fireworks display at our table after dinner. Once that happened, all the tables around us requested the same for birthdays and such, and we had quite a show.

For more information on the Johannisberg Schloss, go to: www.schloss-johannisberg.com

July 20, 2003

After spending the morning in Dinkelsbühl, saying goodbye to our new friends, we headed back towards Frankfurt and stopped in the town of Heidelberg to visit the Heidelberg Schloss and do the tour.

The Heidelberg Castle, which is also known as the Red Walled Castle, is built on a 640 feet high hill called Jettenbühl which overlooks the eastern side of the city
As you can see from this photo, it has a beautiful view down into the Altstadt (old part of town or downtown) and along the Neckar River.

View of Heidelburg and Neckar River

Although now mostly in ruins, it is still possible to see the grandeur of the original buildings. The castle was built between the 14th and 17th centuries, each Elector adding buildings and fortifications so there is no common building style.

Heidelburg Castle Ruins
(click here to download a larger image size - suitable for desktop wallpaper)

In 1689 the castle was captured and plundered by the French and in 1693 it was almost totally destroyed by them. Elector Karl Theodor built the Old Bridge and Karl’s Gate and his initials (CT) are inscribed on a giant vat called the Heidelberg Tun which can still be seen in the cellars. The wine barrel, which holds 58,124 gallons (220,017 litres), was made in 1751 from 130 oak tree trunks and is 8.5m across and 7m high with a dance floor on top. This picture below is of a much smaller wine vat. My picture of the Heidelberg Tun was too dark to show.

July 19, 2003 – Part 2, Dinkelsbühl

We headed out of Rothenberg towards Dinkelsbühl, three towns over, and about half an hour drive through the German agricultural country side. Dinkelsbühl is the original fortified settlement of a Frankish King starting in the 1200’s. The walled town has more than 8 defensive towers and is one of the prettiest towns I’ve seen during my travels here in Germany.

We knew that as soon as we arrived in Dinkelsbühl we needed to first find rooms for the night, and then we could relax and enjoy ourselves. As it turns out, when we arrived just outside the town gates and parked there was a festival taking place. We arrived at the closed massive entrance doors in time to see the ancient Swedish Army attack the town of Dinkelsbühl, complete with marching band, horses, spears, and armor. Of course, this was all a re-enactment for the annual Kinderzeche (Children’s Festival). Legend has it that when Swedish hordes laid siege to the town in 1632 the gate keeper’s daughter, Lore, together with the children of the town, pleaded for mercy and saved the town from pillage and destruction. Further information on the Kinder Fest is available at: www.kinderzeche.de.

So, we watched the re-enactment, settled into the local biergarten for a Mas, or large local beer, to wait for our opportunity to go room hunting. One Mas and one hour later, the festivities cleared out and we were able to hunt down some quaint rooms inside two of the town’s quaint hotels, Kristi and I at the Hotel Blauer Hecht, and Rob, Kim and Martin at the Hotel Garni-Palmengarten.

Rob in Dinkelsbuhl

Dinkelsbuhl Restaurant

Dinkelsbuhl Hotel

Dinkelsbuhl Buildings

Once that was taken care of we wandered the now empty streets of Dinkelsbühl, looking for a place to have drinks and dinner. We were drawn to the noisy, crowded street bier garten in the town’s center or Markplotz that was filled with folks dressed up in ancient garb. After we sat down at our table, and Kristi took a picture of one of the fellows, Lupi, well the integrations of the Americans into the Dinkelsbühl way of life began. We basically spent the evening eating, drinking, and being merry with our new German friends. Many of them spoke English quite well, and after a series of shots, songs, and conversation, we finally ended the evening at 2 am.

Lupi of Dinkelsbuhl

There is so much more to tell of this story, but I decided to keep it brief. If you want to learn more about this quaint town you can go to: www.Dinkelsbuehl.de

July 19, 2003 – Part 1, Rothenburg

We headed out around 10:30 am for Würzburg, which is the first city on the Romantic Road, known not only as the biggest tourist trap in Germany, but 350 kilometers of old castles, quaint villages, and beautiful countryside. It’s also the route of former Free Imperial Cities that are well preserved, from Rothenburg ob der Tauber (pronounced Rote-en-berg on the Tauber [River]) to the Southern part of Bavaria where you can see the Alps and the Schloss Neuschwanstein (new-schwan-stine) (otherwise known as the Disney Castle).

After almost 2 hours on the road, one gas stop, one pit stop for ice cream and water, we decided to skip Würzburg and stop in Rothenburg for the afternoon. Rothenburg is one of the most famous stops on the Romantic Road, a former medieval Franconian town complete with encircling wall and defensive towers. Guide books say give yourself days to explore this town, I personally found 3 hours to be sufficient, but I’m not really the touristy type. I did, however, take some beautiful shots of this town as I wandered around. It really was quaint and beautiful, although a bit crowded.

After a brief stop at the Visitor Information Center to check out hours for museums, shops, and restaurants, we all headed off in our own direction after deciding that we needed a little break from each other. Kristi, Rob, and I headed to the Kriminal Museum, known for its torture instruments and devices, and as the most important legal museum in Germany because it offers insight into the legal happenings, laws and punishments over the past 1,000 years. I lost Kristi and Rob on this tour, not wanting to linger too long, and headed out into the streets of Rothenberg for some shopping and more picture taking.

House in Rotenburg

Streets of Rothenburg

Church in Rotheburg

I wandered into the Käthe Wohlfahrt store, where it truly was Christmas in July. Käthe Wohlfahrt is famous worldwide for her handcrafted Christmas ornaments, decorations, music boxes, and nutcrackers. I spent an hour wandering the various levels and sections of this winter wonderland, elbowing my way through tourists from Japan, America, Germany, France, and who knows where else. It was pretty cool, albeit quite expensive. Needless to say, my need for bargains didn’t allow much purchasing power, but they did accept my American Express, not surprising for a tourist town, but unheard of in general in Germany and Europe.

I did stop and buy a Schneeballen, as they were selling them in all the pastry shops in town, and I didn’t want to miss out on this Bavarian treat. A schneeballen or snowball, is basically a sugary pastry ball. I picked a plain powder sugar covered one, but they had chocolate and sprinkles and all sorts of toppings to choose from.

I finally met my group again at 3:30, when we decided to head to the next town, Dinkelsbühl, for more sites and our final destination for the day. I am, however, going to have that be a second part to this because of all the activities involved in that adventure. But, I will leave you with this humorous sign Kristi discovered when we first entered Rothenburg. I don’t believe any translation is necessary.

July 18, 2003

Spent the day working, excited about picking my friend Kristi up from the airport at 5:35. She’s coming out to visit, travel on her own while I work, and then we’re going to Amsterdam at the end of the trip. So my colleague Kim and I headed to the airport and picked Kristi up around 6 pm. She was just exiting customs as we arrived. We got in the car and Kristi announced that she wanted a cigarette and a beer, so we took her on a drive through Frankfurt, and then the back way to Oberursel to the Zum Hirsch, where Kristi enjoyed her first German Pils (I’m quite sure it wasn’t the first Germany beer Kristi has had in her life being the beer connoisseur that she is, but it was certainly the first beer on Germany soil she’s ever had).

Kristi's first beer in Germany

We headed back to the gasthaus to freshen up, and then took the S5 train from Stierstat into Frankfurt. We changed trains and took the U4 to Beergerstraussa, an area of Frankfurt with a lot of biergarten, Weingarten, pubs, restaurants, and cafes. We ended up running into some British friend’s of Kim and Martin’s, Graham and Dev, and headed to the Zur Sonne (The Sun) with a large Weingarten. We found a table in the back, and ordered a bembel (pronounced Bimble) of apple wine for the guys, a Russian (Heffeweizen and sprite) for Kim, and Dunkel (Dark Heffeweizen) for Kristi and I. We also ate dinner there, where I introduced Kristi to the Grune Sossa (Green Sauce), the herbed yogurt and sour cream with hard boiled eggs and potatoes.

July 17, 2003

Today was a much cooler day than yesterday. It was heavenly. Even wore pants and a long sleeve shirt to work, which was nice. Didn’t get much accomplished though. Woke up late, putzed, got to work late. Did some emails and cleanup from the day before and working 16 hours straight. Went back to the gasthaus to take a nap.

Went to meet one of my colleagues for dinner downstairs at the biergarten at the gasthaus. I hadn’t made any attempts to eat there yet, although the owner Jutta (pronounced Yutta) and her husband are very nice. So I decided to order a local favorite here, a Hefeweizen with Sprite, its called a Russisch (or Russian). Well I ordered a Rippchen (rip-shin), because I don’t know German and I’m blonde. Turns out I ordered dinner, NOT a beverage, and felt obligated to eat the salted boiled pork (large pork chop really) with sour kraut and brown bread with mustard. I did finally get my beverage, and while Rippchen is a very traditional German dish, it was boring to say the least. Well, at least it wasn’t the blood wurst or something else equally as disgusting. Lesson learned: do NOT order in German when the owner speaks English unless you really know what you’re saying. LOL!

July 16, 2003

Wednesday was an interesting day. It started off as very hot and humid. Shorts and a t-shirt were too many clothes. There were some network problems in the afternoon so Kim and I took off for 2 hours and went into Frankfurt to go shopping. Kim had to go get some specialty paper anyway, so we took the train, about a 20 minute ride, and got off Hauptwache, which is in the central part of Frankfurt, and the middle of the big pedestrian mall. We did some shopping, wandered around some stores, made fun of the fashions, picked up the paper. While Kim was looking for shoes I got some photos to show you that they really have some strange ideas of what’s in style. There were prominently displayed items.

Afterwards we came back to the office, worked until late, and then it started thundering. Had an hour long very torrential downpour, then it just rained for awhile. It was a lovely cooling off after a very hot sticky day.

July 15, 2003

Well, it’s already Tuesday and I’ve been doing nothing but work. I did walk a different way to work today, and caught sight of this beautiful tree. Not sure what it is, some sort of pine. Other than that, a long day in the office, dinner at an Italian restaurant, some cocktails afterwards with my colleague Kim and her friend Martin.

July 14, 2003

Well, we’re back to Monday. Another long busy day, no photo ops today either. Too much work. However, I have made some further observations since I’ve been here that I’d like to share. I am learning so much about the Germans, their culture, and what it means to be a socialist. Not good or bad. I’m just surprised, that’s all. So, here goes:

1. The Germans are big space conservationists. No one is allowed too much space. I guess because they don’t have so much of it. Or most of it is being used for agriculture. Remember, Germany is about the size of Montana, so with 82.5 million people, there’s not a lot of space to go around. With that in mind, the apartments are very small, and on many of the houses they have rooftop gardens. The cars are all actually very small too. You see very few minivans and SUVs. Mostly you see BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Mercedes sedans, sports cars, and minis. Oh, and the Smartcar I took a picture of on my 2nd or 3rd day (scroll down to revisit). There are a few American brand names here, Ford is a big one, but the models are not the ones you’d find in the US. Can only imagine what the Germans think of our bigger is better capitalistic mentality. We do everything on a grand scale, they are the opposite – possibly frugal is the best word to use.

2. The Germans do not like waste. I got in trouble at one restaurant for not finishing both my brats (what do they care, I paid for the darn thing). Any time I don’t clean my plate someone comments on my level of hunger and my wastefulness. My colleague is constantly telling people (and I love her translation), “While my colleague thoroughly enjoyed her meal, she is not with a lot of hunger today.” How much hunger is one supposed to have when the food on your plate is enough to feed four people?

3. Fashion. Well, I use that word lightly here. The level of fashion, at least in the more rural parts of Germany, is like in any small town in America. They don’t have it. People pair together some strange combinations. Not that teenagers in the US don’t also do this, or old people. But, they have a very different style here, and the Foreigners do stick out like sore thumbs. Frankfurt is a bit more cosmopolitan, and you see a lot more peoplein suits and business attire. But out here in Oberursel, well, it’s different. I wish I could really explain how some of the shoes look here, not to mention how expensive they are. There is no real coordination of colors, styles, or patterns. I’m not saying all Germans have no fashion sense. I’ve seen some stylish people here, and stylish outfits. I’ll take some photos, discretely if I can, to demonstrate.

Okay, I’ll stop now. I do not mean to bash the Germans. While they are a little uptight, don’t like anything that is out of the ordinary, very regimented folks, some of the people I have met and have had conversations with are very nice, and great fun. Especially the guys here in the office, Stefan, Nikol, and Konstantin.

So, once again I share my capitalistic American view, which is not better by all means, just different. I’m learning a lot. I’m enjoying it too.

July 13, 2003

Its Sunday already. Two weeks ago I boarded a flight to Germany from Denver. Now here I am working all kinds of crazy hours. I must remind myself that that is why I am here. To work. So that is what I did from 9 am until 9 pm. I worked. No photo opportunities, no eating out, no drinking afterwards. Hopefully more to report tomorrow.

July 12, 2003

Several people have pointed out to me that there are no pictures of me in my travels here in Germany. Since I’m in control of what goes in my journal, I’ve decided that there probably won’t be, unless a really good one even happens. I love the digital camera, but I’m always the one behind the lens so I’m never in the pictures. Not a bad thing. ?

Another uneventful day here in Germany. Worked 13 hours. Hoping to play later this week. Probably won’t do any logs or photos for a few days, unless something extremely humorous happens. Well, humorous things happen every day, they just aren’t all captured in my travel journal, or in my photos. Took a walk with my colleagues Ann and Kim to stretch our legs and then sit in the shade for a little while because it was such a hot day.

Been learning all kinds of German words, I’m not good, but it has been a good experience. They taught me a trick to remember how to say goodbye. You can say Aufwiedersehen (Ow, ve-der-zane) and then the other person responds Tscheuss (Choos) [which is like Chao, Ciao, or bye]. My colleague told me to say, really fast, Ourfeetarethesame. And then respond with “Shoes”. I didn’t explain that well, but its funny none-the-less.

Went and had dinner at the Sonnen, a restaurant up at the top of the hill in Stierstat with a wonderful view of downtown Frankfurt’s skyline. Watched the full moon rise up over the city in full orange glory, it was beautiful. Couldn’t capture any good pictures with my camera though, which was a bummer. It was one of the most beautiful sites with the blue-black dusk sky, the Frankfurt skyline in the background (the tallest building in Europe is in downtown Frankfurt – it’s the Commerzbank Headquarters in the Kaiserplatz – see address below to view) and this large pinky-orangey globe slowing rising up behind the city.

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