Rothenburg ob der Tauber (#6 Germany)

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is an old Franconian town, built sometime in the 11th century, that still has it's encircling wall and defensive towers intact. It's an adorable little town, but a bit commercialized and full of tourists. Despite that, I'd recommend it to anyone taking a trip to Germany.

This is part of the wall, with an attached defensive tower.

This, too, is part of the wall that surrounds the town.

I'm not sure what that cute little house above the wall was used for, but it's darling; wish I could have seen inside.
This church is also built into the wall.

Once we entered the gate to the town, we climbed to the top of the wall to get a good look at the town from that perspective. This is a view of a residential area from the wall. I had a picture of us climbing up the wall, but somehow I managed to delete it from this post so.....use your imagination!
This is Fawn, Peggy, and Liz as we walked inside the wall surrounding the town.

Another view of the wall.

We had a little lunch at a sidewalk cafe. It became a memorable experience, because I was kicked out of the cafe and not allowed to sit at our table!
You'll have to ask me about it the next time we see each other.

Is this building cute, or what!

A street view with one of the defensive towers at the end.

Me with one of the many fountains in the town. As I said in an earlier post, it became a tradition to get my picture taken by every fountain we came across.

There were many of these carriages taking people on tours of the town.

Another street; another tower.

Me and another fountain.

Typical street in the town.

This building in the town square is called the Ratsherrntrinkstube (Councilor's drinking-room).
It was built in 1446 and is special because at the top of every hour. . . . .

. . . . the small windows open to show the main figures involved in what is called "the Meistertrunk." According to tradition, this was a magic potion which the fighting men of the town drank in 1631 before storming out against a besieging army and thus saved the town from destruction.
So at the top of every hour, the windows open, and you see a man in each window drinking from a stein. . . .very cute.

This shop is a very popular, year-round Christmas shop. It's pretty spectacular inside. Unfortunately they wouldn't allow any photography inside, but trust me, it's worth seeing.

And, of course, I had to have my picture taken by their darling little delivery truck.

Can you believe we're only thru our fifth day in Germany?!

Our New Toy

Gus and I have a new hobby. When I returned from Germany Gus told me he'd had a fantastic time in Utah with friends who had a quad and he wanted one. He caught me at a good time, because I was feeling guilty about spending all that money on myself for a trip to Germany.
So......we went out and bought this.

I have to admit I wasn't too enthusiastic about it until we took it out for a day and realized it could be fun dashing around the hills in this cute little thing.

Last week we took it up past Idaho City and roared up the mountain trails and couldn't believe how well it handled.

We stopped at 6100 feet and had a picnic lunch with that fantastic view to enjoy while we ate.

We stopped off at Amy's on the way home so we could get a picture of the two of us with our new toy. Since the weather is getting a bit cold, this was probably our last chance to take it out this year, but look for reports of our adventures in the spring.

A Drive Down the Romantic Road (#5 of Germany)

There are many towns along the Romantic Road, but I've just downloaded a few pictures from three of the towns we stopped at.
The first town is called Tauberbischofsteim. How would you like to have to spit that out every time someone asked you where you were from?!

This is the town square of Tauberbischofsteim.

That's Peggy , Fawn, and Liz by the town square fountain.

One of many cute streets in the town.

If you look closely, you'll see that this cool fountain has stone toads hopping out of it.

One of the many timbered buildings in the town. This one stood out because of the pretty flowers under every window.

Next we stopped off in an old spa town named Bad Mergentheim that was established as the court of a Franconian king in 1219. The word "Bad" means spa.

This is the town hall situated in the town square.

That's me by a fountain in the town square.

One of the painted buildings in the town.

The last place we went to was Weikersheim.
That's me having a conversation with an interesting sculpture by Guido Messer, that we passed before we actually entered through the gates to the old town.

This is another one of Guido's masterpieces in the town square. Apparently, someone thought it needed a bit of color, so they donated a bright orange sweater to one of the women.
These modern sculptures seemed a bit out of place in this very old town.

This is the gate we entered through to tour the town of Weikersheim.

A sample of some of the cute buildings.

That's me by a fountain in the town square, with a Gothic parish church in the background.
You'll find that "me by a fountain" became a bit of a theme on our trip.

This is the entrance to the Palace. Those are two quadrant houses on either side of the entrance.

This is the Palace courtyard. This Palace was home to Counts, Lords, and finally Princes of Hohenlohe. It's now home to a music school and we were fortunate enough to get to hear them rehearsing. I'd say they sounded as if they didn't need any more schooling.

These last pictures are of the Palace Gardens. That's Fawn standing on the bridge that takes us into the garden.

The Palace with the gardens in front.

We loved these cute sculptures.

And we each took a turn posing with one.

Fawn picked this little guy. And. . .

. . .Liz picked this fellow.

Looking from the gardens towards the Palace and town.

The Palace

Another view of the Palace with one of the garden fountains in front.

The orangery at the far end of the Palace gardens.

One last view of the Palace with Fawn, me, and Peggy.

My next post will take us to Rothenburg ob der Tauber; a darling ancient walled town.
Of course, by now, you've seen that every town in Germany is darling.

Our Day in Nuremburg (#4 of Germany)

Nuremburg was an interesting and ancient city. We spent our time in the old town city center and ended up not having the time to tour the WWII history sites. I guess that's a good excuse to make another trip there, right?!

Many of the buildings in Nuremburg had sculptures, like this one, placed on the corners.

This is a view of St. Sebaldus Church, built in the 13th century.

This is The Schoner Brunnern, which means "beautiful fountain" and is in the main market square (Hauptmarkt). It was built sometime in the 14th century. There is a solid brass ring that hangs from the fountain and the superstition is that if you turn it three times, your wish will come true. Apparently, the people really believe that to be true, as there sure was a crowd of people lining up to turn the ring.

The day we were in Nuremburg they were having a Market day in the square, where they were selling all kinds of things, including some yummy looking food. Peggy and Fawn were eying those huge pretzels with the idea that they might make a great lunch.

This is The Frauenkirche, a Gothic church built between 1350-58, that sits in the middle of the Market Square.

Each day at noon, figures come marching out, that are said to be seven electoral princes, and these figures march around another figure (Charles IV) three times to chimed music. We were fortunate enough to be there at just the right time to watch this spectacle.

Peggy , Fawn, and Liz standing in the doorway of The Frauenkirche.

A view of the Market Square from across the street.

A closer view of St. Sebaldus Church.

Fawn on a Nuremburg, cobblestoned, street.

An ornate building in Nuremburg.

I liked the clock painted on the face of the building. These clocks appeared to work, as they did seem to have a shadow covering a number that coordinated with the correct time of day.

Another sculpture on the corner of a building.

The Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle) in Nuremburg.

That's me at the entrance to the Kaiserburg.

Peggy and Liz taking pictures in the courtyard of the Kaiserburg.

The gate we entered through.

More views of the Kaiserburg.

Mary, Fawn, and Liz by the door that leads into the Kaiserburg courtyard.

More views of the Kaiserburg courtyard.

The central tower of the Kaiserburg.

Liz, Mary, and Fawn in the Kaiserburg courtyard.

A view of the city of Nuremburg from the Kaiserburg.

This building is just outside the Kaiserburg. I liked all of those interesting dormers on it's roof.

That's Peggy pointing out our location on this relief map of Nuremburg.

The next day we took a drive along the Romantic Road in Germany, so I'll post some of those pictures tomorrow.

Our Home In Morlesau, Germany (post #3 of Germany)

We spent our first four nights in the darling little village of
Morlesau, Germany. This little village was very old and didn't
have any shops; just homes, farms, and one restaurant.

We stayed in this old school, built in 1822, and used by the children of Morlesau until 1959.
It's now converted into a home.

This is a picture of it from the back. That's Peggy, Fawn, Liz, and our
faithful Audi rental by the yellow school house.

The interior of the house was a bit inconvenient, to put it mildly. Both of the bathrooms
were on the main level, while the bedrooms and living area were on the upper levels.
Peggy didn't look quite this chipper once she drug her luggage up....

.......these!
She stayed on the top level of our little school house, which was four flights of
stairs UP from the entry!

This is the view of the village from our place.

These beautiful flowers are just a sampling of the gorgeous landscape
that was the village of Morlesau.

I took this picture because of that rooster you see perched upon the
roof of this home. We saw a lot of those roosters on not only homes and
buildings, but on many churches.
Liz says it has something to do with the cock crowing three times
before Peter denied Christ.
We're not sure if that's the reason for their placement on so many of
their buildings, but they do look cute.

This is one of several ancient barns in Morlesau.

This barn was next door to our house and if you get close, you'll notice
that it's well ventilated.

There's a cute little church in the middle of the village with
this interesting graveyard.
Each plot is a bordered garden.

Peggy by a particularly well maintained garden/plot.

About 4-5 kilometers from Morlesau was the small town of Hammelburg.
This town was obviously where the residents of Morlesau had to go to
do any kind of shopping.

It was a very pretty town, too, illustrated by this building with the gorgeous flowers
flowing from every window.

I loved this little sign on the side of a building, directing the public
to a "water closet" around the corner.

This is another common sight....clocks painted on the face or . . . .

. . . side of buildings.

I took a picture of this coffee shop because of the cute. . .

. . . . coffee beans sitting in the windows.

A pretty hotel in Hammelburg.

In my next post, I plan to revisit Nuremburg, Germany.

Marienburg Fortress in Wurzburg, Germany (post #2 of Germany)

After touring the Residence, or Palace, in Wurzburg, we drove up the hill to tour
the Marienburg Fortress.
The Celts began to fortify this area 1000 years before Christ and at the turn of the
13th century, the bishop princes began to extend the fortification.

That's Peggy standing at the entrance to the courtyard of the Fortress.

A view of the tower from inside the courtyard

Another shot of Peggy at the entrance to the courtyard

This is a building that housed a well. They had the well lit and
the other ladies got some great shots of how deep it was, but
my little camera's efforts came out black.

Liz and I within the courtyard, with the ancient chapel in the background

This is a view of Wurzburg from the Fortress

Another view of Wurzburg and the Main River from the Fortress

A view from the Fortress of the vineyards that climbed the hill up to the Fortress.
That prominent tan building is the St. Burkard Church

This is the Prince's Garden at one end of the Fortress

I think tomorrow I'll show you where we spent our first 4 days in
the little village of Morlesau and a nearby town called Hammelburg
where we did our grocery shopping.

A Day in Wurzburg, Germany

As most of you know, I just returned from a wonderful trip to
Europe with Liz and a couple of friends from Nampa.
We spent most of our time in Germany, but did venture into
Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Luxembourgh.
It was an amazing trip and I took over 1200 pictures;
a record for me.
But not to worry, I'd never make you look at all 1200, but I thought
I'd give you a little taste over the next few days of what we saw.
You must keep in mind that I only had a tiny little Canon that I left
on automatic the whole time, so these pictures will not do justice
to the gorgeous scenery and architecture I saw, but it'll
hopefully give you an idea.

The day after we arrived, we drove into Wurzburg and the following pictures are of, what the Germans call, The Residence. It was used as a palace for the Bishop-prince. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so these are of the exterior and the gardens.

Peggy, Mary, and Liz in the Residence gardens

A view of the Residence from the gardens

In the gardens, there were several cone-shaped trees with lovely
sculptures attached to the trunks.

A view of the upper gardens from the lower gardens

A view of the back side of the Residence

Liz and Mary in the upper gardens

A view of the upper gardens

This is a picture of the Church of St. Burkurd's

This is a view of the Marienburg Fortress from the Residence. We did go up to the fortress and take some great pictures from there, that I'll have to post on another day.
Those are grape vineyards growing up the hillside.

This fountain is in the front courtyard of The Residence.

It was such a great time, that I love reliving through these pictures, so this is mostly for my pleasure, but I welcome any visitors who care to venture my way.