Auf Wiedersehen, Germany

		Munich, Nuremberg, and Dachau VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”

Gustave Flaubert

Germany’s weather in May was rainy with temperatures more winter than spring. However, June could not have been lovelier. Germany is a wealthy country and its people are generally considered to be hard-working, determined, and efficient. Since WWII and in contrast to this stereotype, it has developed into a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural melting pot. Countless towns were destroyed by WWII bombing but many have been meticulously rebuilt to the original plans. East Germany has had many updates since being returned to Germany from the former Soviet Union. Germany’s romantic images are dense forests, ancient fairytale castles, timber-framed architecture, lakes, mountains, cliffs, ruins, and elaborate gardens. Popular foods include bratwurst, sauerbraten, and knodel. They have over 1200 breweries and excellent wines in the Rhine Valley. We tried to sample as many as we could. We found each one good tasting and enjoyable.

We found that German drivers were courteous, not distracted while driving, and very skilled drivers. We were leery driving on the Autobahn before we got there. Driving on the Autobahn is much like driving on US interstates used to be. Slow drivers do no plant themselves in the left lanes. No one passes on the right, including at exits. Exiting is done from the nearest lane and not several lanes to the left at the last second. Weaving in and out of lanes to pass is not done. There are a few really fast cars that pass by quickly in the farthest left lane when no speed limits are posted, but most of us stayed in the right lane driving at a speed with the flow of traffic. BMW, Audi, Mercedes, VW, & Porsche cars were everywhere.

Everyone we asked for directions was very helpful, even if they didn’t speak English. They are more formal in their dress and even wore dress pants to sweep their steps. We observed that they clean their shops and homes in the morning, and the debris from Friday night partying on the street was removed and the street was restored to immaculate condition by 5AM on Sat morning. Young people were courteous too, instead of bumping into us as we find in US, they moved out of the way. It was so refreshing. Ice cream is consumed by locals like we couldn’t believe. It is the snack of choice – and the serving size is smaller than the US. Water in restaurants is always purchased bottled water - bubbly or still. In every town or village, the church bell towers rang every ¼ hour or for special occasions. So quaint and we miss hearing them!

Their TV had so many fewer commercials - unsurprisingly. Almost all channels were in German with no subtitles. English channels were only CNN or BBC. CNN had interesting political and eventful stories of around the world – not just fear and gore and mayhem. Even the weather was all over the globe, not just Europe. Fascinating! Who knew it was monsoon season in India?

The Black Forest area is renowned for its spas, cuckoo clocks, dolls, Nutcrackers, and of course, beer. “Munich nestles between art and beer like a village between hills” wrote Heinrich Heine some 150 years ago. It marries old Bavarian tradition with a vibrant modern life. Munich was almost completely destroyed in two world wars yet it has managed to recreate much of its folkloric Bavarian past. Bavaria is the top tourist area due to its mix of urban & rural landscapes. This is where the famous Oktoberfest is held. Oktoberfest attracts 6 million visitors every year for a 2-week period ending the first Sunday in October. Most vibrant were the beer gardens. Hofbrauhaus beer hall is the most traditional, established in 1589, where our German friends took us. They showed us all the sights of Munich, such as the famous Glockenspiel, English garten, the BMW Headquarters and World Park, the 1972 Olympiapark (where 11 of the Israeli athletes were taken hostage and eventually killed), the amazing architecture and churches, and the Hirschgarten - the largest outdoor biergarten in Munich which seats up to 10,000 people.

We had never been to a concentration camp memorial, so we went to Dachau near Munich. It had a museum, the roll-call yard area; the watchguard towers & barbed wire fencing; a model of a barracks building; the “bunker” which is where the worst torture, starvation, & solitary isolation took place; the crematorium which disposed of bodies; an example of the rooms of disrobement, “showers”, then a room where they piled up the bodies [even though this type of “extermination” did not take place at this camp Dachau was a work camp.] This c.c. was opened 2 months after Hitler took power and was the first c.c., becoming the model for the others. It was open for 12 years, from 1933-1945 when it was liberated. It was also an SS training center. “Arbeit Macht Frei” on the gate means Freedom Through Work. Munich was the birthplace of the Third Reich as Hitler moved from Vienna to Munich since it was the capital of Bavaria. NAZI came from NSDAP, or National Socialistic Democratic Workers Party, NAZIE. The c.c. was not limited to Jews, but also for dissidents, antisocials, misfits, gypsies, outspoken clergymen, Jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals, and Polish. Citizens of over 30 nations were held here. Germany is one of the few countries of the world where Holocaust denial has been declared as a federal crime. Any public official found to associate with neo-nazism is immediately impeached.

Nuremberg is a medieval walled city, home to the Nuremberg Nazi Rallies and the Nuremberg Trials. Nuremberg was 90% destroyed in WWII. We walked up to the Imperial Castle, a gem of the Holy Roman Empire in 1219. There are many Turkish immigrants here, as we saw in Munich. Nuremberg is known for gingerbread (lebkuchen), Pffefrerneusse cookies, and small “Nuremberg” sausages. Local folklore is that the sausages were “cocktail wiener” size so they could be slipped through the keyholes of the prison doors.

We have wanted to visit Germany for years and our timing was fortuitous such that we had Munich locals as tourguides and travel advisors. Our thanks go out to Lothar & Edith for everything they did for us. You helped make our trip even more memorable and exceptional.

We continue to be so impressed at the historical dates (4^th century, 12-17the century) compared to the US. We have created so many wonderful memories of this entire European trip and can’t wait to return. You all may want to know that this concludes our blogs from this trip.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Castles, Alpine lakes, long winding roads, & villages high in the mountains

		Alps VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After completing the Rhine River Valley we headed for the Alps. The Alps are in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. While the Alps are not as high as the Rockies, they have a higher elevation gain. Some of the Alps are glacial, isolating some districts and supporting Alpine lakes. Crossing the Alps by road is not always possible and many towns are accessible only by long, steep, winding, narrow roads. Their culture does not necessarily reflect what current country they are in, but rather their isolation, their long history, and the proximity to the people that settled the area. For example, we found one town in Switzerland that was more aligned with Italy in language, culture, and cuisine. Most of the Alps did not speak English. Switzerland has four official languages: German, Italian, French, & Romanian (a version of ancient Roman mixed in with other dialects). The Alps are beautiful and one cannot travel through the Alps without thinking about names as Matterhorn and Eiger.

With all these countries being members of the European Union, border crossings were as easy as passing from state to state in USA. At the border of Austria we had to buy a vignette, an upfront toll for all roads. Switzerland has not accepted the euro currency yet, so we did have to get Swiss Francs, but not French Francs, Italian Lira, and German Marks.

Our route through the Alps took us through parts of France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Austria. This task was difficult to down-select our photographs and cover all the areas of interest and to reflect the unparalleled beauty and spectacular scenery.

Lake Lucerne Switzerland is in the heart of old Switzerland and is widely regarded as the most beautiful lake in Switzerland due to its Alpine setting and the reflection of the mountains in the water. Its landmark is the Chapel Bridge, constructed in the first half of the 14^th century as part of the city’s fortifications. It is now a pedestrian bridge and is loaded with flowers. The water tower in the middle of it is octagonal and built c.1300 as part of the city wall. It has been used as a prison and torture chamber among other things.

The old wall fortifications of the city were built in 1386 and are still mostly intact, along with its towers. One tower (Zyt) has the oldest city clock built in 1535 and is privileged to chime one minute before the hour, setting the time for all the other town clocks.

The Lion Monument “The dying Lion of Lucerne” is in memory of the death of the Swiss mercenaries at the Tuileries in 1792. Mark Twin said it was “the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world.” We thought so too.

The Pilatus Mountain nearby is named after Pontius Pilate, who, local folklore says, was buried in the bottom of a lake up there.

We enjoyed firsthand the Swiss Chocolate, Swiss watches, Swiss knives, Swiss fondue, and even an Alpenhorn performance in the park. The Swiss are renowned for their precision and good quality (made to last) as with Swiss watches. [We could not help but wonder, in this digital world, who is the market for these thousands of analog, gear and wind-up driven watches.] Switzerland has 70% of its territory covered by mountains with no raw materials except water, which it uses for hydro-electric power.

We drove on to Cannobio Italy. The views were incredible with snow peaks all around. We found our hotel with the help of non-English speaking locals, and were delighted with the view from our balcony. Lago Maggiore brags of the “best climate in Switzerland”. This is the southernmost point of our trip and it was hot there. There is a promenade along the lake that is one outdoor restaurant after another. We were told that very few English speaking people come here. It is mostly local tourists like Germans and Austrians.

Italy stretches from the high, glacier-topped Alps to half-way across the Mediterranean Sea. 75% of the country is mountainous. Italian food varies greatly from region to region. In the north, flat ribbon-shaped pastas with cream sauces are most popular, while in the south the favorite pasta is macaroni served with tomato-base sauces. The most popular meats are veal and pork.

Next we traveled back to Switzerland to Soglio: We continued up the Alps which was astounding, amazing, spectacular, marvelous, fantastic, and wonderful. The village sits at 3500’ and the peaks visible across the way are up to 10,000’. The views of the snow peaks and glaciers are just so beautiful. Soglio is just SW of the famous ski resort St. Moritz and is right near the Italy-Swiss border just past the tip of Lake Como. The village is a contrast between Mediterranean vegetation and Alpine views of the Bernina peaks.

Europe is definitely not handicapped-accessible! Inside the hotel, we were up on the 4^th (top, so 5^th in the US) floor, or 48 stairs up. Quite a job! The building this hotel is in was built in 1630 by Knight Baptista de Salis and has now been a hotel since 1876. The brochures for Soglio call it the “threshold of paradise.” Since this is so close to the Italy border, the food is mainly Italian and Italian is spoken here more than German.

We drove through the Swiss Alps, past St. Moritz (which didn’t look as posh as Aspen or Vail), through the Austrian Alps and on into Germany. The Engadin Valley was so gorgeous especially in Switzerland. It looked so “Sound of Music”-ish. We saw goat herds. There were raging waterfalls and rivers and green hills throughout. What gorgeous scenery! And the cattle in Switzerland really did have cowbells around their necks!

Next we drove to Pfronten Germany to our hotel high on the top of a mountain with a 3-mile one-lane windy road through the forest. There were 43 stairs this time up to our top floor room, ours with the turret on the outside. It has views of an abandoned castle Ludwig II started building next door, the Falkenstein Castle. This was originally built in 1270 by Count Meinhard II, stepfather to King Konrad V, who was beheaded in 1268. It became dilapidated and the brickwork seen today was from an attempt at restoration in 1565. 200 years later in 1883 is when Ludwig started planning to restore the ruined castle. Ludwig bought the land in 1884 in order for him to have more isolation. With the sudden death of Ludwig in 1886, all plans were immediately stopped and the ruins are still there today.

Not far away is the town of Hohenschwangau, Germany and its famous Neuschewanstein Castle built by eccentric King Ludwig II. This was supposed to illustrate his vision as “Castle of the Holy Grail.” The Neuschwanstein design was inspired by stage decorations used for two of Richard Wagner operas (and became the inspiration for Walt Disney’s castle.) Since Ludwig was spending so much money on castles, preferred to be alone, and did not care about the people’s welfare he was known as “Ludwig the Mad.” He was “officially” declared insane before the castle’s completion in 1886. Because Ludwig was deposed on grounds of mental incapacity without any medical examination, questions about the medical "diagnosis" remain controversial. Adding to the controversy are the mysterious circumstances under which he died. King Ludwig and the doctor assigned to him in captivity at Berg Castle on Lake Starnberg (Southern Bavaria) were both found drowned in the lake in waist-high water - the doctor with unexplained injuries to the head and shoulders and Ludwig later found with no water in his lungs. Because of his death, no one has ever lived in the castle. The 2^nd castle in this town was Hohenschwangan erected by King Maximillian II (Ludwig’s father) in the 12^th century.

King Ludwig II is generally well-liked and even revered by many Bavarians today, many of whom note the irony of his supposed madness and the fact that he left such a rich legacy of architecture and art. Ludwig was heavily into debt with building his castles and Bavaria had financial fallout as a result. It is ironic that the tourist income generated today helps to make Bavaria the richest state in Germany.

Last on our mountain trek was Salzburg Austria. This city is most well known as Mozart’s birth place. Like many towns of Europe, it is watched over by a castle and was built along a river. The churches, church bell towers, pedestrian cobblestone streets, street performers, outdoor cafés, and gorgeous mountain setting made it a perfect finale to our trip through the Alps.

Rhine River Valley

		Germany VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

While the Rhine River starts in Switzerland, flows into France and Germany, and empties into the Netherlands, the Rhine River epitomizes tourist Germany. Here are a few of our thoughts as we traveled through the German Rhine River. We divided the Rhine River blog postings into Germany and then France so we could post more photos of this beautiful region.

We arrived in Germany in Frankfurt am Main. The Main is a river that flows into the Rhine and so our journey along the Rhine begins. We picked up our Seat Leone (6 speed manual transmission) at Avis and headed for the Autobahn. Our first stop was Mainz which is a medieval town dating from antiquity, and which is situated on the Rhine River. It was one of the capitals of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1^st century BC. The city is famous as the home of the invention of the movable-type printing press, as the first books printed using movable type were manufactured in Mainz by Gutenberg in the early 1450s.

We followed the Rhine which is stunning - filled with hills and vineyards and obviously the river. Medieval castles and church spires and villages were all along the way on both sides of the river, hugging the hillside precariously as the riverbank makes a quick ascent. We learned that each town and castle used to charge a toll for the water trade traffic by pulling ropes across the river to prevent passage until the toll was paid. Driving through one quaint village, we were detoured up and over the hills. Later we learned it was due to high waters from rain flooding out the roads. We finally arrived at the town of Oberwesel, the last town accessible. [The next town of St Goar was stilled flooded.] We stayed in a medieval castle of 22 upscale rooms. This castle has been around since before the year ~1000. During the 12^th century the Dukes of Schoneburg ruled this area from this castle. It burned down in 1689 and lay in ruins for over 200 years until it was bought and restored by an American named Mr. Rhinelander in the early 1900s. Today the modern luxury hotel is owned once again by the town of Oberwesel. Our room was on the “3^rd” floor (top) but in Europe the ground floor is 0 so it was the 4^th floor to us. It was 65 steep steps up, on top of a steep hill from the parking lot so it was a workout just to get to our room. The castle sits on top of the hill overlooking the “middle” Rhine River. The town of Oberwesel once had a medieval wall surrounding it, and now has some of the wall preserved as well as 16 of its wall towers preserved. We walked down the hill to town to explore, and found no credit cards accepted there and English spoken very little.

Next was the town of Worms. The highlight there was the Catholic Dom St Peter church built in 1171-1230, representing church and state of the High Middle Ages. This is where Martin Luther attended the “Diet of Worms” to explain his beliefs in 1521. Contrary to popular belief, he posted his thesis to the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg in 1517, not this church in Worms. Then he was called to Worms to explain why he shouldn’t be excommunicated. Worms is one of the oldest towns in Germany. We walked the Old Town and found the remains of the 4^th century Roman wall around the town. We were stunned by the age and visualizing Roman soldiers walking that wall.

Heidelberg is on the River Neckar which also flows into the Rhine. We stayed at another fabulous hotel in “German Mannerist” style. It is on Haupstrasse, the pedestrian street, and in the dynamic heart of the city. The hotel was built in 1592 and the gold sign over the door is from that date. It now has 37 guest rooms, has gables of brown stone, fluted columns and ornately carved window blocks. Our room faces the main street and the Market Place (Marketplaz) Square so we were able to watch three directions from our window of pedestrians amid the shops, bars & cafes. There were group drinking songs and cheering most of the evening – these Germans know how to party. Unsurprisingly, beer was the most common drink of choice. The church right outside our window chimed at each quarter hour. Surprisingly, it didn’t disturb our sleep, unlike the drinking songs. Heidelberg is one of Germany’s most picturesque towns, with a mix of medieval and Baroque architecture. It was hit hard during the 17^th century wars and rebuilt in the 18^th century with baroque buildings. It is one of the few German cities that wasn’t destroyed in WWII. Like all of these towns, it has narrow cobblestone streets in their “Old Town.” The Heidelberg Castle (ruins) on the hill overlooks the city and has great views. The oldest part was built in 1400 and much was built during the Renaissance period around 1750.

The Rhine Valley is storybook, fairy-tale world for legends and medieval castles. It is filled with the beauty of vineyards, forests, castles, & small villages. We hope the photographs convey part of its charm.

Rhine River Valley

		France VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We continued to follow the Rhine River Valley leaving Germany and into France. Since they are both EU countries, there is no longer any border checkpoint between Germany and France (crossing the Rhine was the border) and it is just like driving between states in the US.

We drove first into Strasbourg France. Strasbourg is on UNESCO’s world’s heritage list. Overpowering the town is the Notre Dame Cathedral with its amazing architecture. It is made of pink sandstone in Gothic style, and the spire rises to 142 meters (465 feet.) Construction was from 1015 to 1439. Strasbourg was reminiscent of Paris with the river that goes through it, with many bridges and all the outdoor cafes. There was a cooling breeze and we enjoyed the ducks, flowers, pedestrian streets, numerous churches, architecture, and people-watching. Oh yeah, and the wine.

The town of Riquewihr, France is in the heart of the Alsace region. This is a quaint tiny medieval walled village that oozes charm with all its brightly painted doll-house type of buildings. Our hotel had only 9 rooms and was built right into the ancient medieval wall. Riquewihr is a wine-producing picturesque village, between the Vosges mountains and the Plain of Alsace. The medieval fortifications are twin walls, with the first built in 1291 and the second wall was built in the 1500s. It was mostly German land until 1789 when France finally took it over. Vineyards are on every surrounding hillside and it was absolutely gorgeous and extremely peaceful there.

English is again not that common among the locals here and, as always, we relied on our minimal foreign language skills and the kindest of patience of the locals to help. We explored the valley further then proceeded to the Alps. Stay tuned!