Thursday, May 30, 2013
Germany2013 - Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a medieval city that is mostly still intact including the 3km of old city walls. We arrived around 6pm and found our hotel after just a little confusion. Someone immediately came out to greet us and took us inside to get comfortable and have a "welcome drink", and in some ways it really was a welcome drink - if you know what I mean. The hotel dates from the 11th-12th centuries and is absolutely wonderful. Our room has huge exposed wooden beams and windows the look out into the cobblestone street leading to the market plaza. Our friends also have a lovely room that looks out onto the hotel's garden terrace.
We had a bite to eat at a little cafe, I ordered sauerbraten to see what it was like. The braised beef was quite good but the knodl was not really something I enjoyed. It's kind of a potato dumpling, which sounded promising but had a really weird texture. Maybe it was a bad knodl - who knows?
After dinner we caught The Night Watchman's tour. Every night at 8pm, a man dressed up as the town's night watchman (circa 1700) gives a theatrical walking tour describing the city's history. The guy is seriously hilarious. It was raining fairly steadily but the group of about 35-40 people stuck it out for the full hour because it was really fun.
Germany 2013 - the Romantic Road
Thursday, May 30, 2013
We left Munich this morning to travel the "Romantic Road". It is a route that takes you through many charming little towns.
We stopped at Harburg and toured the castle there. Not a well-known castle but one that is still family-owned after several centuries. The tour was mainly in German but we were given written explanations and the guide was so nice, she gave her talk in German at each part of the castle, then took the time to give us a summary in English. We were able to walk the castle walls and see inside the towers. There were slots in the walls for shooting arrows which we've seen in many other castles, but Harburg also has special openings for use by musketeers. A musketeer would fire his musket through a small opening in the castle wall but, the thing that makes this different from every other castle we've seen, is that they shot through a large wooden ball with a hole in the center. The ball could rotate so that the opening could be rotated toward the wall in order to close the opening and prevent a bullet from coming through from the outside and wounding the musketeer as he reloaded his gun.
We drive on to Nordlingen but nothing was open except a few cafe's as today was a holiday in this part of Germany. We had some pizza for lunch, then climbed a church tower to work off the pizza. Next we drove to Dinkelsbuhl, which looked like a nice city to stroll around and maybe do some shopping, but everything was closed there too.
Next up: Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
We left Munich this morning to travel the "Romantic Road". It is a route that takes you through many charming little towns.
We stopped at Harburg and toured the castle there. Not a well-known castle but one that is still family-owned after several centuries. The tour was mainly in German but we were given written explanations and the guide was so nice, she gave her talk in German at each part of the castle, then took the time to give us a summary in English. We were able to walk the castle walls and see inside the towers. There were slots in the walls for shooting arrows which we've seen in many other castles, but Harburg also has special openings for use by musketeers. A musketeer would fire his musket through a small opening in the castle wall but, the thing that makes this different from every other castle we've seen, is that they shot through a large wooden ball with a hole in the center. The ball could rotate so that the opening could be rotated toward the wall in order to close the opening and prevent a bullet from coming through from the outside and wounding the musketeer as he reloaded his gun.
We drive on to Nordlingen but nothing was open except a few cafe's as today was a holiday in this part of Germany. We had some pizza for lunch, then climbed a church tower to work off the pizza. Next we drove to Dinkelsbuhl, which looked like a nice city to stroll around and maybe do some shopping, but everything was closed there too.
Next up: Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Germany 2013 - Leaving Munich
Advice to anyone traveling to Munich - Do Not Try To Drive In The City!!! We have had to take the motorway through Munich for the last 2 days and traffic is a nightmare! There is a multi-year road construction project going on, and many lanes are shut down on the motorway causing a huge traffic snarl every day for several hours and several miles.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Germany 2013 KZ-Gedenkstatte Dachau
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
KZ-Gedenkstatte was a concentration camp in Dachau during World War II. We woke up to cold, rain, and wind this morning, which seemed appropriate to a visit such as this.
The camp was used mostly as a slave labor camp rather than just a massive extermination site, though thousands of people did die there. The prisoners here included Jewish people, Christian church pastors, Germans who did not support the Nazi regime, and prisoners from other countries. The prisoners were basically worked to death (those who weren't murdered or tortured by the SS), and the dead became so numerous that the crematorium could not handle the load and some were buried in mass graves. There is a room where they experimented with poison gas on some of the prisoners, but there were apparently no mass killings with gas here. When American forces liberated the camp on April 29,1945, there were over 200 dead emaciated bodies stacked up outside the crematorium waiting to be burned.
Only two of the barracks that housed prisoners remain, but the outlines of the other barracks are there. The administration building, guard towers, a building used for holding special prisoners, and the crematorium buildings remain. The exhibits are quite extensive and there were many groups of visitors there, even on such a cold day. It was a very somber place.
KZ-Gedenkstatte was a concentration camp in Dachau during World War II. We woke up to cold, rain, and wind this morning, which seemed appropriate to a visit such as this.
The camp was used mostly as a slave labor camp rather than just a massive extermination site, though thousands of people did die there. The prisoners here included Jewish people, Christian church pastors, Germans who did not support the Nazi regime, and prisoners from other countries. The prisoners were basically worked to death (those who weren't murdered or tortured by the SS), and the dead became so numerous that the crematorium could not handle the load and some were buried in mass graves. There is a room where they experimented with poison gas on some of the prisoners, but there were apparently no mass killings with gas here. When American forces liberated the camp on April 29,1945, there were over 200 dead emaciated bodies stacked up outside the crematorium waiting to be burned.
Only two of the barracks that housed prisoners remain, but the outlines of the other barracks are there. The administration building, guard towers, a building used for holding special prisoners, and the crematorium buildings remain. The exhibits are quite extensive and there were many groups of visitors there, even on such a cold day. It was a very somber place.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
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