A Change of Scenery

With the end of the school year and getting ready to move back to the US, life has been more than just a little bit crazy.  Blog posts about our trips and living in Germany will resume after a [hopefully] brief pause. 

Flowers from the school to us on the last day of school.

Heidelberg and Farewell to the Rhine Valley

After a full week of traveling with the Herths and being given an exceptional look into the lifestyle and cultural offerings of the Rhine Valley, our vacation had to come to an end.  It was time for them to finish up their family get-togethers and for us to head back up north for a week-long Waldorf teachers' conference about teaching eleventh grade.  That particular day the Herths were having dinner with family further south, so we had planned in advance for Mike and me to catch the train from Heidelberg. 

Heidelberg is Jo's other most favorite German city.  Situated close to his hometown, some of Jo's fondest university memories come from here.  The University of Heidelberg was founded in 1386 and has the prestige of being one of Europe's oldest educational institutions.  Because Heidelberg itself is not a very large city, the university students actually make up about one-fifth of the population. 

We arrived in Heidelberg mid-morning, which gave us just a few hours to poke around before our scheduled train departure.  After having brunch on the outskirts of town, we took the tram up to the Altstadt for some quick historic sights.

Jo made sure we saw this view of beautiful houses along the Neckar River from the tram.

Once in the Altstadt our first stop was the Heiliggeistekirche or Church of the Holy Spirit. 

 

The interior:

The vault keystone:

The Heiliggeistkirche possesses some modern-looking and controversial stained glass windows.

 

This last window, called Physics, was designed by German artist Johannes Schreiter.  It was his response to the atomic bomb and includes Einstein's famous E = mc2 equation, two New Testament verses, and the date that the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was the only window in Schreiter's cycle that, after much contention, was installed in the church. 

The square just behind the church is called Marktplatz.  I love the fleece blankets the restaurants include with their outdoor patio furniture.  Unfortunately, the atmosphere in this square was not always so nice.  In the past Marktplatz was the site of executions and the burning of witches and heretics.

The Haus zum Ritter (the house of the knight) was built in 1592 and has survived all of the wars from back then to present day.

The quaint streets of Heidelberg's old city.

 

Me posing with the Heidelberg backdrop.

Up to this point, Heidelberg was probably the most touristy city we'd visited.  There were stores aimed at tourists everywhere.

 

Apparently they also get a lot of visitors from Japan.  The Japanese language definitely rivaled English on the signs and even the store names in the city.  I decided to take a picture of of one of these massive groups of Japanese (this group happened to be entirely elderly women) with the pretense of taking a picture of handsome Mike.

The Altstadt had lots of little squares where they held markets.  This particular one had a unique fountain in the middle.

Many also had a lovely view of the Heidelberg Castle.

A closer view:

The Heidelberg Castle was first built in the 13th century.  Vast and beautiful, it was once a well-fortified Gothic castle, but despite various attempts of rebuilding, is now mostly in ruins due to destruction from the wars (going all the way back to the Thirty Years War, The War of Succession, etc)... and being struck by lightning.  Sadly, we didn't have time go look around.  We were going to take the special train up to take a quick peek, but that was closed for construction work.

Instead, we walked to the Alte Brüke, a impressively large bridge over the Neckar River that was built in the late 1700's and got another nice view of the castle.

Mike on the bridge posing in front of the medieval city gate with storm clouds looming overhead.

The famous monkey statute from the city side of the gate.

Views of the Neckar.

Just as we started heading back into the city for the next bus towards the train station, it began to pour.  We were fortunate that the rain held off until the end of our Heidelberg experience.  It was too bad that we were only around long enough to get a few impressions, but we certainly enjoyed what we saw.

Jo, Annette, and Benjamin said goodbye and we soon settled into our two and a half hour train ride up to Kassel where we were meeting Annelie for another intensive week.

150 Kilometers of the Rhine Valley

The one thing you cannot avoid seeing while traveling the Rhine Valley in Germany are castles.  They are everywhere -- especially along the river.  Every bend brings a new fortress.  The map here shows you just how many castles there are between Bingen and our original destination for that March day, Koblenz. 

We set off early that morning for Koblenz to explore and sight-see the city where Jo had spent time training with the Germany military, but also with the intent to see the plethora of castles (as we drove by) along the Rhine River.  Being our last full day in the Rhine Valley, the Herths wanted to give us a tour-de-force tour of their beloved countryside.  As it was rather gray out, my drive-by pictures through a car window are even worse than they already should be.

The first stop we made was at St. Goar, a little village nestled between the mountains of the Rhine Gorge.  It was a good place to stop and walk back down the Rhine to see the famous Lorelei rocks of lore.  

Mike and Jo contemplate the river.

Benjamin and Mike had a good time scrambling about the shores of the Rhine River. 

Benjamin's mother wouldn't let him walk in the water, but Mike took full advantage of the opportunity.

Nevertheless, we all had fun as the sun came out from behind the clouds and began to warm the valley.

One of the biggest castles overlooking the Rhine River, Burg Rheinfels, stands above St. Goar.  Like most of the castles in the valley, Burg Rheinfels's historic grounds, once five times its current size, has been converted to attract tourists.  It now houses a luxury hotel, wellness center, and restaurant.  

 

In the picture below you can see it on the cliffs along with another common sight in the area -- very large international and cruise ships.

Here is the famous corner of the Rhine River with the Lorelei rock.

The word "Lorelei" can be translated to mean "murmuring rock" or "lurking rock".  This part is the narrowest point of the Rhine River between Switzerland and the North Sea, making it once very dangerous for passing ships.  There were so many accidents that a legend developed around the rock that is 120 meters high.  The story goes that a beautiful maiden threw herself off the rock in despair over her lover.  Afterward, her spirit was seen there combing her hair and singing.  Her song and beauty distracted sailors and led to inevitable shipwreck.  

Nowadays it is not so treacherous to round the corner.

From here we continued northwards for another hour to Koblenz, considered "the most beautiful corner" of Germany.  The city lies where the Rhine River converges with the Mosel River and the very spot is marked by the "Deustches Eck"  (German corner) and a giant statue of Emperor William I.
  

Said statue.

To see a bird's-eye-view of the "corner", click here.  The views from the ground are just as nice. 

This is a view of the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress across the River from the Deutsches Eck.  It was built by the Prussians in the 1800's to defend the Rhine area from French invasions.

Here we are sitting at the very tip of the corner.

This next picture is taken from statue.  You can see some of the German state flags waving in the wind.

The Deutsches Eck was turned into a monument of German unity by the German president Theodor Heuss in 1949 when East and West Germany were created.  The flags of all the German states and former territories were installed as a reminder of that unity.

After the Berlin wall came down in 1989, plaques of the new federal states' emblems were installed onto the statue.  Here is the crest for Neidersachsen (Lower Saxony), our German home state.

Three panels from the actual Berlin wall were also installed next to the monument.  They are dedicated to the "victims of separation".

And since it was the city where Jo did some of his military service, we felt it appropriate to get a picture of the German army meeting underneath one of the flags.

There was plenty of beautiful views to see around the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz, but unfortunately it turned out that most of the city was under construction and renovation for the 2011 German National Garden Show.  (Note:  From here on out, construction on major monuments will be a continuing theme in our trips).  In the end, Jo decided he'd rather spend his afternoon elsewhere -- that and he couldn't think of a single place he wanted to have lunch in Koblenz. 

After Benjamin and Mike had a chance to be monkeys on the playground equipment (and on the statue), we headed an hour north to our new destination:  Bonn, Germany.

Bonn, the capitol of the former West Germany, is one of Jo's favorite cities in Germany.  He spent many years going to school and working in the bustling metropolitan town.

We were all starving when we arrived, but Annette knew exactly where she wanted to go for lunch -- a nice Italian place in the square of Bonn's old city hall.  Unfortunately, the entire front side of the historical Rathaus was under construction, but we still had ourselves a nice, albeit windy, meal. 

From there, we went to take a look at the Bonn Minster church nearby. 

It's cloister is one of Annette and Jo's favorites.

In the square of the church stood a statue of Ludwig von Beethoven.  Bonn is Beethoven's birthplace, but sadly we didn't have time to visit any of his historic sites.  

We grabbed some coffee and dessert, perused through a bookstore (of course), and soon started the 150 kilometers back to Biebelsheim for Annette's big family dinner at yet another winery in the village.

The Emrich Winery was a great place to have dinner and drink wine.  Their food menu was very simple, but delicious (Annette's girls claim they have the best bratkartoffeln in all of Germany -- and they were quite good).  The wine was also good and very plentiful.  Since Annette's family has known the Emrich family for a long time, all of the glasses were quite generous.  It turned into a long but delightful night with good company, good food and wine, and also helpings of some very strong brandy for the men and a delectable candy-like Dornfelder liqueur for the women.  We walked back down to the apartment that night exhausted, but very cheerful.  It was the perfect way to end our stay in the Rhine Valley.