Wednesday 28th September, 2011 – Venice to Innsbruck

Left Venice this morning and headed for Germany.  Not that we are there yet.  We have one night in Austria at Innsbruck on the way.

We had intended to visit Verona but the further we got west the greater the pollution and when the roads didn’t quite fit where the GPS wanted to take us we decided to miss Verona and head north, hopefully to cleaner air.

We had to stop before we crossed the border to buy a Vignette – a sticker that entitled us to drive on the autobahns in Austria for 10 days (it was only €7.50 but we still had to pay extra to actually travel on the autobahn – but not as much as in Italy and France I guess.)  We’re looking forward to German roads and no tolls.

Got to our hotel about 7km from Innsbruck about 2:30 and found that there was not a booking for us.  With a lot of fussing around the women did eventually find our booking and allocated a room.  

The alps from our hotel looking over Innsbruck

We dropped off our gear and then drove into Innsbruck to have a look around the old town. This is a pedestrian-only area and has lots of interesting buildings;  the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof); the Stadtturm (the Old City Watch Tower) and the Hofkirche ( the Imperial Church).

Innsbruck is an internationally renowned winter sports centre and hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics and the 1984 and 1988 Winter Paralympics. It is to host the 1st Winter Youth Olympics in 2012 which is advertised everywhere.

The old City Watch Tower in 'Old Town'

The word bruck comes from the German word Brücke meaning "bridge" which leads to "the bridge over the Inn".  We walked along the banks on the Inn River.  The river is a very milky blue, a bit like the water that comes off a glacier.  I guess melted snow must have the same effect as there is still a lot of snow on the tops of the mountains.  We got into the mountains not too far after leaving Verona and have been driving through them ever since.  It’s quite spectacular countryside but unfortunately, we have not left the haze behind.

The Inn River

Back at the hotel, we admired the view of the alps from the window.  There is an equestrian centre next door and when it got dark you could see people riding their horses around inside a very large building.

The hotel also has a spa and sauna which we made use of before dinner.  The spa wasn’t quite hot enough but was very nice all the same.

Dinner was very pleasant.  Probably one of the nicest restaurant meals we have had in Europe (although we had an excellent seafood lunch the other day).  I had lamb and Jill had seafood paella.

Thursday 29th September 2011 – Innsbruck to Lenting (near Munich)

We had a lovely drive through the mountains this morning to Hohenschwangau in Germany where I had booked a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle.  This is a really amazing spot, the castle is something out of a fairytale building with great views of alpine lakes, especially the Alpsee.  The story behind the castle is pretty amazing too.

The Alps near Innsbruck

Neuschwanstein Castle was commenced in 1869 so is not that old compared to most castles.  It was built by Bavarian King Ludwig II to replicate medieval architecture and to pay homage to the operas of Wagner.  Ludwig had always wanted a medieval castle, so he had Neuschwanstein built in what you might call a neo-Romanesque style. That is to say, it was made to look a lot older than it really was, and unlike authentic medieval castles, it had such luxuries as forced-air heating and indoor plumbing. But the most distinctive feature of the castle was that it was designed to be a stage for Wagner’s operas, both literally and figuratively. Some rooms were designed explicitly as places where an opera might be performed, but in every room and corridor of the castle the architecture and artwork reflected the German mythology that formed the basis of Wagner’s operas.  One of the most unusual rooms—if you can call it that—is called the Grotto. It’s actually an incredibly convincing artificial cave, complete with stalactites and a waterfall. The Grotto was intended to represent a cave from Wagner’s opera “Tannhäuser.”

Neuschwanstein Castle

Around the time construction began, estimates were that Ludwig would be able to move into the castle within about three years. But the work proceeded at a painfully slow pace and more than a decade later, the castle was still not complete. In 1883 Wagner died, causing Ludwig tremendous grief. So the composer never actually set foot inside the castle that had been built in his honour. A year later, Ludwig decided to move in, even though the structure was still unfinished and the throne room was not yet ready to hold a throne. But the king resided there for a grand total of only eleven nights.

View from the castle

The reality was that Ludwig was heavily in debt.  When the banks threatened to seize his property (this was 1886 remember) the government had him certified insane and interned him in Berg Palace.  Here, on 13th June 1886, he died in Lake Starnberg – a tragic accident? suicide? murder? - no-one knows.   After his death construction on Neuschwanstein continued for another eight years. When the builders finally stopped, only a third of the rooms had been finished and decorated.

The tour of the castle was fascinating and the views really are amazing.  We had lunch at a pub in Hohenschwangau before setting off – good German tucker of goulash soup for Jill and bratwurst and potato and sauerkraut for me.

From Hohenschwangau, we had a two-hour drive north.  We only have a couple of days to get to Essen so there will be limited sightseeing along the way.  Skirting around Munich we are spending the night at Lenting, just off the A9/E45.

A seafood dinner in the restaurant next door – excellent.

Friday 30th September – Lenting to Koblenz

Our first and only stop of any length of time today was in Nuremberg or more correctly Nürnberg to explore the old town – another walled city.

Originally Nuremberg's city wall had a length of five kilometres and five gates. From the 13th to the 16th century the wall was continuously strengthened and is one of the reasons why the city withstood all attacks during this time. Nearly four kilometres of the wall are still standing. We walked quite a bit of it and at one stage (near the castle) we actually walk on it. This wall, being much newer than many of the walls we have visited is in very good condition.

A glimpse of the castle from the wall

The castle dominates the north-western corner of Nuremberg's old town. Most of the current building was built in 1495 and is today used as a youth hostel. Part of the castle, the five-cornered tower, was constructed before 1050 and is the oldest building of the castle and city.

The Pegnitz River

Throughout the old town, there are many old buildings that survived the war, some sandstone, others timber-framed.  In Untere Kraemersgasse there are 16 timber houses in a tiny courtyard that are now arty/crafty shops.

The 'Good Luck" ring at the 'Beautiful Fountain'

We called at the Toy Museum but ended up not going in as we felt we did not have the time to do it justice.

There are lots of impressive fountains (the Schöner Brunnen- or Beautiful Fountain and the Ehekarussell or Marriage Merry-Go-Round fountain)  and churches and the area along the Pegnitz River is particularly picturesque.

Untere Kraemersgasse

Had lunch before we hit the road for the often very slow trip (despite being on the autobahn) to Koblenz.  In some places road works held us up, in others, like skirting around Frankfurt it was just bumper to bumper traffic.

Booked into an Etap tonight and walked down the road to an Asian style buffet restaurant for dinner – quite adequate.

Tomorrow we visit the Lupp family in Essen.  Larissa and her friend Marsha stayed with us as Couchsurfers a couple of years ago and Larissa’s mum, Eva, has kindly invited us to visit while we are here.  Phoned Eva tonight to make final arrangements.

Saturday 1st October 2011 – Koblenz to Essen

We didn’t have too far to go today so we had a bit of a sleep in and a late breakfast before setting off for Essen around 10am.  Rather than choosing the autobahn, we took the secondary road along the Rhine River.  It was great to see the amount of cargo that is being transported up and down the river on barges.  At one stage we even saw the equivalent of a B double, a motorised barge pushing another barge along both loaded high with shipping containers.

Cargo on the Rhine

We stopped off for a while (time for a coffee) at the Linz ‘Old Town’.  The town square and many of the streets are dominated by the very attractive half-timbered Rhineland houses.

Linz 'Old Town'

From there it was back to the autobahn for the run to Essen.  We only expected it to be an hour but we met a gridlock where three highways converged into one so it took almost an hour longer than expected.

Thanks to Eva’s excellent instructions we found the Lupp household without any difficulty.  We were met by Eva, Eckhard, Larissa, Krischan and Kira.  The home is in a lovely area on the southern side of Essen called Kettwig.  You can look out their windows at trees and farmland across the lane which is a real bonus in what was once a huge industrial area.  Essen was once one of Germany's most important coal and steel centres and historically linked to the centuries-old Krupp family ironworks.  These days it is reinventing itself as a cultural centre and last year was the European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area.

Had a nice lazy afternoon and then a wonderful barbecue dinner – barbecued on charcoal. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a barbecue and being cooked on charcoal certainly beats cooking on gas when it comes to authenticity. Larissa’s other sister, Kondja and her partner Simon also joined us along with Eva’s mother.  It was a lovely family gathering – good company, good food and a few good German beers.

Family barbecue

Sunday 2nd October 2011 – Essen

We had a nice sleep in today as breakfast had been arranged for 9am.  Unfortunately, Jill’s bronchitis is not getting any better and she did not have a particularly good night.  We might have to track down a doctor’s appointment for her – being Sunday, with a public holiday tomorrow is not a good start.  Eckhard and Kira had risen early and had headed off as they were involved in the organisation of an old car meet called Oltimertreff  Zollverein where we were going to join them later.

We had a lovely breakfast of fresh buns, cold meats, cheese, eggs, coffee, etc etc.  After a homeopathic Jill was feeling a bit better and was particularly excited about breakfast as Eva had tracked down gluten-free buns, sheep and goat cheese and soya milk for her.

After breakfast, we headed off to the Oltimertreff Zollverein.  Oltimertreff Zollverein is a meet for vehicles over 30 years old and is held on the first Sunday of the month from April to October.  Eckhard and a couple of friends started the meet and it has now been operating for some years.  There were over 500 cars there today and some beautiful old machinery ranging from a 3 wheeled BMW Isetta up to a Mercedes limousine.  While mostly German cars (obviously), there was also a sizeable collection of British cars including, Triumphs, MGs, Austin Healeys and a beautifully prepared Jaguar E Type (and a few French and Italian cars as well).  It was interesting to see the 1960 -70s Opels and realise the influence that General Motors Europe had on the design of the Holden Toranas of the time.

From the cute (BMW Isetta)

To the beautiful (Mercedes SL190)

Holden Toranas by another name...

The meet was held at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, a former industrial site now turned into open space and a museum site which has, since 2001, been inscribed into the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.  The first coal mine here was founded in 1847 and mining continued until 1993.  Shaft 12, built in Bauhaus style, was opened in 1932 and is considered an architectural and technical masterpiece, earning it the reputation as the ‘most beautiful coal mine in the world’.  We climbed to the top of one of the buildings at  Shaft 12 where there is a panorama over the city of Essen.  One would be able to see ‘forever’ if it weren’t for the haze.  The building we were in had a museum in its upper floors.  Another building we walked through had lots of artist’s galleries.   There is also a lot of reforestation happening on the grounds.  It’s great to see these buildings being used rather than being left idle and an eyesore in the community. 

From the Zolleverein site

On our way back we passed an airstrip where there was a Zepplin just taking off.  Apparently, it takes something like 10 people at a time for joyrides over the city.

One way to see Essen

Back to the Lupp home for a restful afternoon.

Dinner was raclette (a bit like a fondou except instead of cooking in oil you cook on a grill).  It was delicious and it was finished off with a desert raclette of fruit and chocolate - scrumptious.

Monday 3rd October 2011 – Essen

We had another lazy morning this morning.  Breakfast was a 9:30 so we had the opportunity to skype Bradley and Damian beforehand.  Technology is amazing and it’s great that we can make visual contact with family from the other side of the world.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs plus cold meats, cheese etc.  Eva’s mum lives downstairs and she joined us.

Jill is no better so we are making arrangements to get her to a doctor today.  It’s a public holiday in Germany so we thought we would have to get to an emergency centre somewhere.  As it turned out, when Eva made contact, the ‘emergency’ doctor was making a home visit not far away and said that it would be easier if he came to Jill.  You no longer get that sort of service in Australia!  About half an hour later he turned up and after an examination prescribed some antibiotics, some probiotics and an expectorant.  She can now have a nice restful day and hopefully will be a little better tomorrow.

After lunch Eva, Eckhard and I went for a wander in the ‘old town’ of Kettwig.  The village is situated on the Ruhr River and thanks to not having any important major industries, emerged from World War II largely unscathed and with most of its medieval old town still intact – lots of lovely half-timbered houses. 

The 'old town' of Kettwig

We wandered among the cobbled streets and along the river and back through a wooded area.  Lots of other people were out enjoying the sunshine as it’s another beautiful day with the temperature around 25 degrees.  The trees are now beginning to turn and there are lots of leaves falling so it’s probably not to far from the last of the warm weather for the year.  They are so fortunately to have an area like this so close to the city of Essen.

The Ruhr River

Back to the house for a nice restful rest of the afternoon and rest of the day.

Tuesday 4th October 2011 – Essen & Münster

After a latish breakfast, we (Eva, her mum, Gertie, Larissa, Jill and I) headed off to Münster to take Larissa back to University.  She had a meeting with her professor this afternoon.  We visited her flat which she shares with another two girls – a nice tidy little flat right in the centre of everything in Münster.

Munster

Jill had a rest in the flat (she is still not all that well but better than she was yesterday) while Larissa went off to her meeting and the rest of us had a wander around the streets of Münster.  Munster is a university city – out of a population of around 270,000 there are close to 50,000 students.  It is also known as the bicycle capital of Germany so you can imagine the bicycles everywhere.  There are also lots of pedestrian only areas and the streets are lined with merchant houses some dating back to the 14th century (a few even earlier).  The architecture is quite different to anything we have yet seen in Germany – built of stone and more rectangular.  Wandered into St Paul’s Cathedral, built in the 13th century in a mixture of late Romanesque and early Gothic styles. It was completely restored after World War II damage and includes an astronomical clock of 1540.  Like most of the cathedrals we have seen in Europe the architecture is quite impressive.

Got back to farewell Larissa and then headed back to Essen, an hour’s drive.  Was probably a bit longer today as the traffic was pretty heavy in places this time of day.

Had a pleasant dinner with lots of chatting and then off to bed.  We have a big drive tomorrow to Backnang.

Wednesday 5th October 2011 – Essen to Backnang

After a leisurely breakfast and a tour of Gertie’s unit downstairs we ‘hit the road’ for Backnang.  We had a lovely time in Essen, helped by the fact that everyone is so friendly and that everyone (except those of Gertie’s generation) spoke English so well.  We are very fortunate, in the English speaking world, that so many countries choose English as their ‘main’ second language to teach in schools.  The only time we have really had much difficulty with language has been in restaurants where there is no English on the menu and no one at the restaurant speaks English.  On this trip, we were particularly fortunate that it was here that Jill needed to see a doctor.  The family rallied around and it was all sorted out.  I can’t imagine what we would have done if we were in a hotel.  A big thank you to the Lupp family.

We expected a fairly straight run down the autobahn to Backnang but plans often don’t work out in reality.  Not far out of Essen we hit a standstill as the traffic crawled along at snail pace and didn't improve a great deal for almost the first hour.

We pulled into parking area just before Frankfurt for picnic lunch, provided by Eva, and decided that we would then go to Backnang via Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Jill has on her shopping list a Christmas table centre with some sort of working mechanism.  While in Essen, Eva had tracked down the Käth Wohfahrt stores on the internet which specialise in this area (as well as anything else to do with Christmas).  It so happened that there was one in Rothenburg about 100km away from Backnang.  Rather than leave it to chance that we might get back we decided to head there on the way.

Rothenberg

The ‘Old Town’ of Rothenburg is very cute.  It’s predominately car-free and the houses are very traditional half-timber German houses.  Jill didn’t quite find what she was after but did purchase a garden scene, clockwork, music box which will do the trick.  They will even send it to Australia overcoming the problem of how to get it home.

After a cup of coffee, we headed for Backnang.  The fact that we were now on secondary roads and also had to stop for fuel meant we arrived in Backnang quite a bit later than expected to a welcome from Horst and Klara.  Horst and Klara had stayed with us a couple of times in Australia while visiting their daughter.

A nice Pizza tea with some good German beer/wine followed by an evening walk and we were ready for bed.

Thursday 6th October 2011 – Backnang & Stuttgart

Another leisurely breakfast – the Germans do enjoy leisurely breakfasts it would appear.  Horst had specially gone out to get some spelt buns and Klara already had lactose free cheese and butter so Jill was catered for.

We had a guided tour of their lovely garden and productive vegetable patch and then set off to Stuttgart for some sightseeing.

Jill with Klara & Horst

Then some sightseeing.  The first stop was the Fernsehturm Stuttgart (TV Tower Stuttgart).  It’s the world's first TV tower built from concrete (and a prototype for many towers of that kind all over the world).  It is located on the so-called "Hoher Bopser" hill on the southern side of Stuttgart and was placed in service in 1956.  From the two observation decks, the view is pretty amazing over Stuttgart and on to the forests and vineyards in and around the city.  The sky is quite clear today (and fine, despite the weather forecast for rainy weather).  Jill wasn’t too impressed with the height but managed to stay in the coffee shop while we climbed the few metres to the observation decks.

The TV Tower - great views from the top

Next stop was downtown Stuttgart where we had a wander around the old town – some beautiful old buildings and gardens including the 'New Castle' (now parliament house) which was built between 1746 and 1807 and the 'Old Castle' which dates back to 950.  Had lunch and a coffee in our wanders.

The 'New' Palace

On the way out of Stuttgart we drove to Württemberg Hill where there is a chapel built by King Wilhelm I in memory of his wife Katherina.  The chapel was built between 1820 and 1824.  It’s a spectacular building inspired by the Pantheon in Rome – and is pure white inside.

The views from the hill are pretty impressive both across the valley to Stuttgart and over all the vineyards which appear to be planted on every southern facing slope you can see.  It’s picking time and on our way up we passed long lines of vehicles, pulling wagons of grapes, lined up waiting to deliver their bins to the crusher.

The wine harvest waiting to be pressed

The view from Württemberg Hill

Back to Backnang for dinner – a speciality of southern Germany, Fleischkäse (a pork loaf) served with potato salad and a green salad.  It’s so good to eat the local food.

Friday 7th October 2011 – Backnang

It rained last night and after a beautiful day yesterday, it has turned cold and windy today.  The maximum is expected to be eleven degrees.

After breakfast, it was off to the local shops on a shopping expedition.  In Essen, Eva had had a ‘singing’ egg which you put in with other eggs when you boiled them.  It sang when the eggs were cooked.  We were on the hunt to find some.  Our first stop was a kitchen shop where we had no luck.  On the way to the next shop, we called into a nursing home where Horst and Klara do some community work.  It’s a huge complex and in addition to catering for the elderly also has an MS wing and a nursing training section.  The facilities included a heated swimming pool and a gym – don’t see that sort of thing too often in Australia.

Half-timber building in Backnang

At the next shopping spot we had better luck.  Not exactly the eggs we were after but a fancy one (meaning much more expensive) which has a different song for the three stages of cooking – soft, medium and hard.  The ‘soft’ song is ‘killing me softly’, for medium it’s a German song which goes something like ‘I want to be a chicken, I want to lay an egg, and On Sunday I might lay two” – very cute and we had to buy it even at 24€.  We also got an antibiotics script filled for Jill just in case she needs it ‘down the track’.  Fortunately, she has responded pretty well to the last lot and is much improved on what she was a few days ago.

Backnang from Tower Hill

We parked in downtown Backnang.  The old town is beautiful with many half-timber houses.  Backnang is on the River Murr and historically has been a tannery town with all the pollution problems associated with such an industry.  Now that the tanneries have gone the river has been cleaned up and they have done a wonderful job of rebuilding and refurbishing this part of the town so that it not too out of place with the older buildings a little further up the hill – Castle Hill.  While there are remnants of older buildings, St Pancras church for instance, with its one remaining Romanesque tower (built in 1130), much of the town was rebuilt following a major fire (started by French troops) in 1693.  The fire destroyed most of the town.  

From there it was back to Horst and Klara’s for lunch and to wait for the man to bring oil for their central heating boiler for the winter – over 3,000€ worth!!!  Fortunately, that should keep them going for about 18 months.

About 3.30 we were back into town.  The first stop was at a small winery where they had just finished this year’s crush.  Had the process explained to us in German (with Horst translating) – most interesting.  We then drove to an old hand-operated crush (for grape juice) in a museum shed.  Although the museum was closed we were able to see a video on its operation and view the press.  You would certainly appreciate your juice after the effort that went into making it.

We drove back into town and parked on Tower Hill.  We had a wander around town and ended up with a cup of coffee on the river bank.  From there we walked up the hill for a view over Backnang and back through the new part of town.

As we were heading back to the car we came across a group of men playing Pétanque near where we were parked.  There was a beautiful red sunset over the town.  By this stage, it was getting quite cold so we headed back to Horst and Klara’s to somewhere warmer for dinner, a local Backnang wine and a chat.

Saturday 8th October 2011 – Backnang to Freiburg

After breakfast this morning we said goodbye to Horst and Klara and headed for Freiburg, loaded up with some goodies for lunch (and more) which we appreciated later in the day when we had a roadside picnic lunch.  We had had a lovely couple of days getting to know Backnang and the area.

We had heard that the drive from Stuttgart to Freiburg was a very pretty one through the Black Forest and Horst had given us a route that would take advantage of it (using secondary roads rather than the autobahn).

Our first stop was at Herrenberg a very impressive town not too far from Stuttgart with houses in the half-timber style (many brightly painted) but somehow more ‘organic’ than those we had seen to date.  Nothing seemed to be straight and we wondered whether that floors inside were actually level.  There was a market happening in the Marktplatz (marketplace) and it was quite thriving.  Also impressive is the "Herrenberger Rathaus" (town hall) and the town church, the "Stiftskirche”, its tower being the symbol of Herrenberg.

Herrenberg

Herrenberg

From there we drove through the Black Forest and the mountains to finish up near Furtwangen.  It was interesting to see the change in architecture from the half-timber homes to the alpine château type homes you would expect to find in the mountains.  Lots of pretty villages, dense forests, steep mountain roads and bubbling streams.  We even found snow on the ground near Furtwangen.  It got down to 5 degrees while we were driving through the mountains.

The Black Forest

Snow near Furtwangen

We arrived in Freiburg a little after 4pm to be met by Mascha.  She is living in a two-bedroom flat with a uni-mate, Linn and has kindly given us her room with a double air mattress on the floor for the two nights while she bunks in with Linn.

We went for a walk along the creek near the flat but had to return when it started to rain.  Across the road to buy a few things for breakfast and a bottle of wine for dinner then back to the flat for pumpkin soup – very nice it was too.

Sunday 9th October 2011 – Freiburg

After breakfast with Mascha (bread, cheese, paprika spread, tomato, cucumber, coffee & blackberry jam) we drove into the centre of Freiburg (10 minutes).  Parked at Mascha’s university and walked through the streets – very quiet on a Sunday morning with only cafes and restaurants open.  Freiburg is known as the "Jewel of the Black Forest" and is a pretty impressive city.  Particularly impressive are the Schwabentor and the Martinstor – the old city gates.  It’s particularly cute that the trams go through them.  Also cute are the Bächle, small canals that crisscross the streets of the inner city. These canals were once meant as a way to fight fires in medieval Freiburg. The locals say that if you accidentally fall or step into one, you will marry a Freiburger.

Martinstor Gate, Freiberg

We walked up quite a steep wooded hill, the Schloßberg, to a lookout over the city.  The Münster cathedral pretty well dominates the skyline (its spire in scaffolding at the moment undergoing renovation).  There was a tower at the top of the hill but unfortunately, the bridge to it was closed so didn’t quite get there.  It’s great that they have a ‘wild’ area like this so close to the city.  The hill actually had a vineyard on one side stretching down to the houses below.

"Let's go climb a mountain ..."  - Schloßberg Hill 

Freiberg Münster

Grapes on the slopes above the city

Back down the hill again and found a Thai restaurant for lunch – food was excellent and obviously popular as it filled up fairly quickly.  We followed lunch with an ice cream/sorbet and then back to Mascha’s flat for a restful rest of the afternoon.

It was fine this morning (even sunny at times) but the rain set in again later in the afternoon.  Gluten-free pasta for dinner and then an early night.

We all have an early start in the morning, Mascha to head off to Essen and we head back to France.