Rothenburg

So on our most recent excursion we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenburg is one of the main tourist attractions in Germany. It is a medieval town that has been preserved. During the Third Reich it was used a model of German living. Rick Steves lists it. Kathy Wolfahrt founded her Christmas Stores here. Today they serve up a great tourist venue that is known world wide. Here is Marilynn passing through the wall around the city to old Germany.

 This is a fancy doorway of a building next to St. James church.

 In the middle ages the merchants hung out signs to advertise their business like this one.

 This is a wooden door that caught our attention.

 There are a number of watch towers on the town wall. This is one of the towers and you can see part of the path inside the wall that was used by the city for defense.

 This is a view of the city wall looking out.

This is so typical. These are cobble stones. They are hard, slightly uneven, and hard on the feet when you walk on them for a long time. 

 This is a store that specializes in Bratwurst!

 This is known as the Plönlein. The scene is popular on postcards. You can see two towers with arches because the street splits.

 This was our dinner.

We went on the nightwatchman tour. Here is our guide. 

 This is the town of Rothenburg at night.

Weikersheim

We drove south east down the Romantic Highway. It was a very nice day and we stopped in the town of Weikersheim to take some pictures. They grow grapes for wine in this part of Germany. Fall is coming and the grapes display different colors.

 We walked into the Dorf across this bridge.

 This town does not make any travel guides that we know about, but it is beautiful. Here is a very large timbered house as we went into town.

 This is a church in the main town square.

 This is the entrance to the Weikersheim castle. We did not have time to spend... so we may have to return some day.

Bach Museum - Eisenach

We also went to the Bach Museum. Bach lived in the town of Eisenach. The Wartburg castle is on the hillside next to Eisenach. Part of the Bach tour was the guide playing the various instruments from Bach's time. Here he is playing a small organ.

 Here is the outside of Johann Sebastian Bach's house.

 This is the inner courtyard of the Bach house.

 I don't know why they had this in a museum, but here it is--John's john.

 The Bach's had this huge cow bell. However, we could not take it with us!

 Here is a statue of JSB. He was truly a musical genius--and he was quite near sighted.

 Somehow they have this copy of JSB's skull. I have a good story about JSB decomposing (as the opposite of composing...music that is) but he had lost several teeth. And, by the way, he had a very large family (2 wives, 20 children) and numerous descendents were musical.

This is a statue of JSB in the square in front of his museum.

We had not eaten since breakfast and we were quite famished. And right across the street there was a Kondieteri. That is a German pastry shop. So for dinner we ate these three slices of torte.

Wartburg

This weekend we met several sisters at Wartburg. Here is Elena, Anahil, and Patricia climbing the stairs to the castle.

This overlook is near the entrance to the castle overlooking the countryside. 

 Here Marilynn is looking at a life-like statue of a castle knight.

 Here is Marilynn and David in front of the castle tower by the main gate.

 Here is a shield with the coat of arms of the castle.

 Here is the dining hall.

There are some beautiful mosaics on the wall in depicting some events in "Saint" Elizabeth's life.

 Here is a wooden door at the entrance to the chapel.

This is a painting showing some of the history. 

This is the great hall. Around 1207 the venue of the Singer contest became the basis for the Minstrels' Contest which Richard Wagner used as a theme in his opera, the Meistersänger.

Here is Marilynn and David in the great hall were Wagner's Tannhauser is often performed to a sell out crowd.

This is a royal bed in the castle.

This a beautiful wood carved doorway in the castle.

This is a view out of the Castle window to the countryside below.

Probably the most significant room in the castle is a small side room where Martin Luther spent about one year in 1522 hiding for safety. Here is his table.

Here Marilynn and Anahil are returning down the hill again.

T

Black Forrest Cuckoo Clock

So you might want to know what kind of cuckoo clock we bought. This is a blow up of the clock. The photo is not great, but you can see what it looks like.

 Here is the photo of lots of clocks on the wall. Our clock is like the one on the top row, the third from the right.

 Here is the clock face on the table. The master clock maker is standing behind as we discuss the final requirements.

Black Forest trip

We took a trip to the south-east corner of Germany to the Black Forest for the weekend. We went with the new Area Controller and his family. The first stop we made was here at the town of Bermersbach. You can see the church on the next hill.

Then we went on to the beautiful Black Forest town of Schiltach. Marilynn is behind Evan Larson and his daughter Megan.

Now you can see Megan, Mindy, and Evan Larsen with Marilynn walking by the museum. 

Here are the Larsen's again. This time they are in front of the world's biggest cuckoo clock which is located in Hornberg-Niederwasser.

 Next door to the big cuckoo clock is a shop that makes and sells clocks. The man with me is Adolf Hess. He was born in 1901 and his family has been making clocks since 1780. He is a nice guy and so I bought a beautiful clock that he will put together and send home. So we will not ever see it until we get home.

 Then we went to Triberg to look around. This guy walked up to me and said "Dave Madsen, is that you?" It was Clark Lowder and his wife Marsha. They were here touring with friends--so we took a picture of us together.

 Here are some of the cuckoo clock shops in Triberg.

 We ended up staying in a Gasthaus across the street from the world's biggest cuckoo clock and the store where we bought our clock. Here are the cute beds in our room.

 Here and the Larsen's and Madsen's having breakfast.

 Here we are in front of the waterfall in Triberg

 This is the Triberg Rathaus.

 Next is another Rathaus. This time in Freiburg. It is another Black Forest city.

Here are some beautiful fresh vegetables at the market. 

 And just to make a proper ending to this story, we shared this beautiful Black Forrest Cherry Torte!