We're Having a Party

Our first big mistake - we only booked one day in Rothenberg.   We boarded the train and headed to Augsburg.  Augsburg is about one half to three quarters of an hour from Munich.  It's Oktoberfest in Munich and whatever hotel rooms were available were horrendously expensive.  Dumping our stuff in our hotel in Augsburg, Argie came up with the brilliant idea to head to Oktoberfest today. Finding Oktoberfest was simple - all we had to do was follow the dirndls and lederhosen and if you weren't bright enough to figure that out they painted arrows on the sidewalk. 

I was lukewarm on attending Oktoberfest. You know I don't like crowds and fat drunks in short leather pants and oom pah pah music are not high on my like list.  Oktoberfest began early in the 19th century as a celebration for the wedding of Ludwig I.  It has flourished and grown ever since. Today it is the largest festival in the world attracting seven million visitors in its 16 day run.  These visitors consume over seven million litres of beer.  The site is huge.  There are 14 large tents, each representing a major brewery as well as twenty smaller tents.

 We opted for the most famous Hofbrauhaus tent, medium-sized for the larger tents. It holds 7,000 people and an additional 3,000 in its beer garden.

 Entering the tent you are immediately swept up in the party atmosphere. Everyone is in a joyous mood and very friendly. We immediately found seats at a long wooden table and joined the party.

Seventy-five percent of the people at Oktoberfest are appropriately dressed in either dirndls or lederhosen.  I actually enjoyed the oom pah pah band and I hadn't even had a beer yet.  Kelly and I ordered a maß of beer (1 litre), Judy and Argie ordered Radlers (Shandies).

 Everyone was super friendly.  Kelly hadn't even made it into the ten when a grey haired man in lederhosen wanted his picture taken with her.  Every five minutes someone at our table would yell, "prost" and everyone would join in.   Occasionally someone would climb up on a table and attempt to chug a maß of beer to the encouragement of 6,999 of their closest friends.

We met people from all over the world.

Time absolutely flew by.  Argie heard rumours of a dessert tent so off we went in search of the elusive dessert tent.  Finding said tent we settled in for strudel and cake and enjoyed the serenading by a pop rock band.

Before we realized it, it was getting late so we ambled back through the expanding crown and tight security to the train station and home. 

Grimm Little Town

First an apology.  The Internet service has been crappy at best for the last few days so we will do some catching up for the next few posts.  

We left the surprisingly charming town of Heidelberg and the care of super waiter Dominic.

  We faced a complex day of travel with three changes of trains.  We made one with only seconds to spare.  We finally arrived in the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Our expectations were very high as this town is highly hyped as one of the most adorable towns in Europe.  Our expectations were shattered.  The place is straight out of a story book, so much so that the movie, "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" was filmed here.  

We checked into the B&B Klosterstüble, which was was equally charming, complete with a four poster curtained bed.   We quickly dumped our stuff and went exploring. We had been warned that the town was crowded with tourists and tourist busses until 4 p.m. But it wasn't too bad.   After wandering around for over an hour with our jaws open we decided to stop and try the local delicacy, the Schneeball (snowball).  

I half expected these softball pastries to be soft and donut-like but they were as hard as a rock.  But good!   Feeling a little stuffed Jude and I decided to walk the wall of the town while the girls headed off to the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum.

 Erica, our hostess, had recommended a quaint little restaurant, which we tried.  It was delicious.  We wandered back to our inn and tucked ourselves in for the night. 

A Day Without Trains

Today we decided to stay at home and explore the medieval university town of Heidelberg.  First stop the Alte Brücke.  Built in the 1700's, this bridge was the entry point to medieval Heidelberg. 

The bridge is famous for three statues - one of the Prince Elector Karl, one of the Godess Athena and one of a monkey.  

We then headed down the longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe, Hauptstrasse, approximately 1 1/2 miles long.  About half way down we detoured to the university and checked out the Bibliotech.

Heidelberg has been long famous for its prestigious university which has stood here since the 16th century.  One of its more famous deans was Robert Bunsen of burner fame.  Meanwhile, back on the Hauptstrasse we noticed the further we went the cutsie little boutique shops were being replaced by larger international chains.  We headed back to our hotel for an afternoon of relaxing and people watching.  

For dinner we went to a Brauhaus which was extremely popular.  The interior was decorated with real birch trees.  It was like having dinner in a Bev Doolittle painting. 

 

A Trip to the Black Forest

In a light drizzle we set off to the Black Forest town of Freiburg, which is notable for its medieval cathedral, mini canals and all around quaintness.  A short walk from the train station brought us to the Old Town.  We stopped in at the TI next to a very beautiful Rathause (city hall).  

As we set off on our self guided tour all the bells in the world started pealing, as if to remind us it was Sunday.  Being Sunday most of the stores were closed which saved us a lot of money as Judy fell in love with a beautiful tailored woollen coat in a shop window.  Bächle are a series of small canals woven through the town.   When they were conceived in the Middle Ages the idea was to assist in fire fighting and as a source of water.  Today people can sail toy boats and rubber duckies in them.  

Legend goes that if you fall in a bächle you will marry a Freiburger.   Rounding a corner we came upon the main square dominated by the aforementioned red stone cathedral.  This red stone is so soft that it crumbles easily and the cathedral is perpetually draped in scaffolding.  The softness of the red stone has one benefit - when the rest of the town was destroyed by allied bombing this soft stone absorbed the concussion of nearby bombs and the cathedral remained standing.  

As this was Sunday and a mass was in session we wandered on and came upon the quaintest shopping street ever.  We wandered down the wisteria draped street looking in the windows of all the clothes shops.   

We started to feel hungry and began looking for a place to eat lunch.   Quickly rejecting a snooty looking restaurant we tripped over the welcoming Brauhaus.  We luckily grabbed an open table and settled in for a great beer and a very good meal served by the charming Amelie.  

Feeling much better we headed out to finish our tour.  The inside of the cathedral was nothing to write home about with the exception of the beautiful stained glass windows.

 

 Stopping in to buy some postcards and fridge magnets we headed slowly back to the train station. 

I would list Freiburg as a must-see on anyone's German trip.  Arriving back in Heidelberg we had a quick dinner at the Italian restaurant next door to our hotel, then found a courtyard table and waited  for the arrival of Kelly's friend Argie. 

Castles in the Air

Taking advantage of no trains to catch, we slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast, then stepped out to enjoy Heidelberg.  First stop - Schloss Heidelberg.  The ruins of the castle are located half way up the mountain just behind our hotel.  To reach them you can drive a twisty road, hike or take a funicular.   We obviously took the funicular.  There are actually two funiculars on the mountain - a modern one which takes you to the Schloss and an ancient one that takes you to the top.  The castle was begun in the 1200's and was continually added to and expanded over the years.  The French destroyed it and anyone who says lightening doesn't strike twice hasn't been to Schloss Heidelberg.  It was struck and heavily damaged twice by lightening.  It lay in ruins for several hundred years and its rocks were scavenged and used for buildings in Heidelberg.  It has been under reconstruction for the last 50 years and there is still a long way to go.

Once you arrive at the Schloss you are allowed to wander freely everywhere.  There are some amazing vistas and it is interesting to see the different styles of architecture used over the castle's lifetime.   The Schloss is a prize site for weddings and we witnessed a number of brides while we were there.  Their fashions ranged from very casual through Muslim and Medieval.  The castle contains the largest wine barrel in the world.  It holds over 150k litres of wine and has a dance floor on top.  

A humorous story about the castle fool, a little person named Perkeo was famous for his ability to consume wine, but died when he mistakenly drank a glass of water.  We spent hours walking the grounds, then decided to take the ancient funicular up the mountain. This is the oldest funicular in Europe and dates from 1890ish.  It is wooden and creaky and utterly charming.  This funicular is somewhat unique as it is quite long and even has a curve in it.  

After wandering around we headed back to town for dinner.  Instead of dessert Kelly and Judy ran amok in the Lindt outlet store.  

Auf Wiedersehn Cochem

After four hectic days we leave the charming little town of Cochem and head to Heidelberg.  We chose Heidelberg for its geographic location, more than any other reason.  Rick Steves says to give it a miss and didn't have anything to say about it, so our expectations were low.  We met a very friendly cabbie at the train station and drove through a fairly modern, non charming town.  As we approached our hotel for the next four days the buildings began getting nicer and having more character.   We pulled into the Market Square and were blown away.  Our hotel, the Goldener Falke, is located right on the corner of the square directly behind the Cathedral.

Our hotel was constructed in the sixteenth century of stones salvaged from the castle ruins. It has a wonderful restaurant and service to tables in the square.  We took advantage of the slow travel day and camped at a table in the square.  We dined in the hotel restaurant where we enjoyed a wonderful meal served by the charming Dominique.  As dusk was settling we strolled around a bit and took some photos.

Ramblings.  Cochem is lovely and is Germany's answer to Victoria.  The average age of the tourist is 80, if you use the serving staff to help lower the average.   Like Victoria the streets are rolled out between 9:30 and 10:30 in time to greet the first of the grey wave.  The streets are then rolled up again at about 6:30 p.m. as the tour buses head out of town.  But just like Victoria, Cochem has charm to spare.  

Rhine cruise vs Mosel cruise.  I found the differences in the two cruises very interesting.  The Mosel cruise is like driving a pleasant country back road.  The Rhine cruise is like driving the highway with barges acting as semis and river cruises as buses.  The Mosel is more structured for the native German tourists, i.e. little or no English.  The Rhine is more international in flavour and is narrated in six different languages.  The Mosel, being a smaller river, has steeper banks which makes for more interesting vineyards.  The Rhine, being larger, has generally gentler slopes but has more castles. On the Mosel almost any usable land is utilized for vineyards.  Some of these vineyards are so steep you can't imagine how they tend or harvest the grapes, you would either have to repel down from the top or have trained mountain goats pick the grapes.  However they do it, they make great wine. 

Rollin' Down the River

We boarded an early morning train to Bacharach to catch our KD Line Rhein (Rhine) River cruise.    Bacharach would appear to be a very pretty town, maybe for another time.  We board the boat and proceed to the upper deck and wrangle 3 chairs on a crowded deck.  As we joined this cruise in progress most of the good spots were taken.  We immediately checked one of our to-do boxes by having over priced beer while cruising down the Rhein. It doesn't take long to see the appeal of a Rhein River cruise as the castles pop up around almost every corner.  At every stop along the way the crowd thins out.  

The Rhein has always been an important highway of commerce.  We learnt an interesting fact - the barge people have their own subculture.  The owner/operator captain and his family live on the stern of the barge, complete with their car while the workers are housed up forward.  The barges travel from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to Switzerland and all points in between.  More on the cruise later.   We arrived at Koblenz and hiked 2k in the blistering heat.  Hopped the train for Köln (Cologne), a must-see on Judy's wish list for Germany.  Even all of Judy's stories about the first impression when you get your first glimpse of the Kölner Dom didn't prepare us for just how big this damn thing is.

This was the tallest structure in the world for a number of years and even today it's a struggle for your mind to grasp the scale of the building.  We could give you all the measurements of size and you still could not possibly comprehend the enormity.  It's a definite "see to believe".  Construction began in 1248 and continued through to the 16th century.  Then the money dried up.  In the mid nineteenth century after German unification and an out flowing of German national pride money and resources were thrown at the project and it was completed in 38 years.  Most of the early financing for the Dom was provided by pilgrims.  There were two important pilgrimage sights in the Dom - one being the Madonna of Milan sculpture which is associated with miracles and, if you can believe it, the bones of the three kings of "We Three Kings" fame.   

The reliquary containing the bones of the three kings.  

The Dom contains enough stained glass to cover 3 football fields.

The other important pilgrimage to Köln was our search for Kölsch beer which is native to Köln and apparently its best purveyor is Peter's Brauhaus.   Located a short distance from the Dom, we settled in for a few samples and dinner.  A fabulous, authentic German dinner, washed down with the aforementioned Kölsch, which was worthy of its reputation.  Six Kölsch, one Fanta, three entrees, two desserts, two souvenir glasses and a wonderfully charming waiter for the amazingly low price of €60.