Anyway, as D was scheduled for surgery in Germany in April, we decided to do as much traveling as possible while there. We knew we wouldn't get to see very much as almost every day he had doctor's appointments, but I was still surprised to see what we were able to accomplish. We ended up having such a lovely time - Germany really is a gorgeous country. Everything is clean and well-kept, the people are very nice (not outwardly friendly, but nice), and in Spring time or at least when we were there in mid-April there were flowers blooming everywhere. Forsythia bushes, rhododendron budding, tulips and daffodils growing wild and flowering all over the place. Lots of grape hyacinth and wildflowers too. It reminded me so much of Massachusetts in the Spring (all except the wild-growing bulb flowers - that we don't have!!!). The temperature at first was in the 70s Fahrenheit and then we had a few days of rain and drizzle that cooled it down into the low-60s. We made sure to bring lots of layers and we did just fine. We never did get rained out, which was great!
Anyway, without further ado, here are our photos (and hopefully this silly site uploaded them in order!):
Passing over the Alps on our way North
Driving towards the Ramstein and Kaiserslautern area at sunset
D driving on our first sightseeing day to the Rhine Valley area. We rented a car in Germany and though we didn't even think about it beforehand, it was obviously a manual. Since he wouldn't be driving after this day, he took the opportunity to drive his first stick since living in the States and update his skills.
The small village of Bacharach, Germany. This is a medieval-era town located on the Rhine River in central-Western Germany. This photo is looking up at the town from the river. In the Middle Ages, Bacharach was a huge town for its day. A hub for the wine trade and for shipping wood down the Rhine, it maintained prosperity during the Dark Ages when the rest of Europe was falling apart. Many of the original buildings, walls, and vineyards are still preserved.
Along the line of the town lie several watchtowers (16 originally, five visible from the town currently), like this tall building here, which helped the town identify friend from foe on the river and assist in the loading and unloading of wine shipments. River reefs farther upstream forced boats to unload their wine shipments upriver and reload them here, resulting in the town's subsequent fortune for centuries. Now, Bacharach largely subsists on tourism.
In the riverside park there is this War Memorial, built along with the park in 1910 in English style. This memorial - it's "eternal flame" long snuffed out, is derelict. According to Rick Steves: "The German psyche is permanently scarred by war memories. Today, many Germans would rather avoid monuments like this, which revisit the dark periods before Germany became a nation of largely pacifists."
Each panel of this memorial honors the men of Bacharach who died for the Kaiser. One panel is dedicated to the war between Denmark and Germany in 1864; another in 1866 against Austria; 1870 with France, and in 1914 during WWI. The Maltese Cross seen here in the middle of the monument has a 'W' at its center, so named for Kaiser Wilhelm.
In the Middle Ages, the Rhine River used to lap against the town walls. Though the water levels are currently lower on average, every few years the river floods, and the townsfolk have been marking the high-water mark. There are photographs throughout the town of geese and swans swimming up the flooded streets of Bacharach!
One medieval archway leading from the river to the central town area. Great for walking, lots of rings to tie your horse, and wide enough for boats when the streets flood!
D standing underneath part of the town wall
Some of the (as Rick Steves calls it) "higgledy piggledy" architecture from the Middle Ages. Not quite Tudor style, haha! Many of the buildings are crooked, both from age and "use anything you can find" not-so-perfect construction methods!
Looking down the street towards the church. Good example of the architecture in the town.
We climbed to the top of a small hill where perched on top were the ruins of a destroyed chapel, and looked across a small valley to this building across the way. Locals just call it "the tall tower" and I believe it was once part of the old town walls. It (as you can see) leans very precariously to one side... So we were a little afraid to climb it in case it decided to topple down (turns out it was locked, anyway). We walked through the valley and through the vineyard shortly after this to the tower, which will come later.
Remains of the destroyed chapel I mentioned earlier.
Standing by the chapel, D filming the Rhine Valley while standing in front of the church steeple.
I just really like gargoyles. :)
It's really fun to see all the street signs in Germany. Every town in Bacharach had signs hanging outside advertising what each business was for. We saw pretzels for bakeries, bottles of wine, steins of beer, etc. I still can't quite figure out what this one represents! :)
Standing in front of the Altes Haus. This is the oldest building in Bacharach. It was constructed in 1368 and it's still standing strong! You can see just in this picture alone how the building bows inward at the top of the door. It's amazing this is still standing! All the doorways are short and the windows are made of the only blown glass they had available at the time - coke bottle-sized small leaded panes held together by lead sets in between. This makes for a very cool "bug eye" impression.
A sundial painted onto the side of one village house that we passed while heading across the valley to the tower. I love how the vine is being trained across the wire over the street!
The path we were on wound further into the valley and deeper into the town. There's another tower on the left there.
The lovely view of the riverfront and the Rhine from the tower.
That's love, folks! Coincidentally, this is the last picture I took of my husband with glasses on!
My poor husband, just after his surgery, with ice packs on his eyeballs. Poor guy. He was in rough shape for about five days after surgery.
We decided to take a drive...
I love road signs because they make me excited about all the possibilities that lie ahead of me!
After driving through Luxembourg (it took about 40 minutes to drive clear across the tiny country!) we entered Belgium, on our way to the Bastogne War Memorial.
Lots of remnants of WWII fighting from the Battle of the Bulge
A very beautiful place, but you can understand the strategic advantages of maintaining control of such a high hill as this. These hills and in particular this one hilltop were sites of some of the most gruesome, bloody battles of WWII (like all the movies tell you - lots of trenches and field fighting). Over 63,000 American soldiers died here, as well as countless Belgians and other Europeans caught in the crossfire.
Memorial to American Airmen
Here's some more information.
And a little more.
The memorial itself is a five-pointed star with all 50 US states engraved on the edges. This represents all of the soldiers and airmen who died here.
Very sobering.
This is what I saw of my husband for most of the day.
Yay Belgian cows...
It really is such a lovely place, so serene and bucolic. It's hard to imagine the horrors that occurred here.
Yellow lichen growing on a tree trunk
After the Memorial, we took ourselves out for lunch at a cute Parisian-style bistro. D was entranced by the five pages of beer available, including lots of Leffe brand (one we have both come to know and love in Italy). There were two whole pages of Belgian trappiste beers!
If you're ever in Bastogne, Belgium, check this place out! :) The jasmine tea they have available is delicious. Keep in mind this area of Belgium is part of the Walloon region - meaning the dominant language here is French - NOT Dutch!
I didn't think to take a picture until after I had started devouring my salad, but this is what I ordered. It's a Spring salad mixed with a hunk of goat cheese surrounded in bacon and baked until hot. OMG.
I can't remember what D ordered but I couldn't eat it, so I can't tell you how good it was. I can tell you though that he devoured the whole thing in very short order!
Another small WWII memorial by our restaurant.
General McAuliffe is very popular around here. I forget the exact story, but it too is related to the Battle of the Bulge. There are memorials everywhere to him, streets named after him, and the village is very friendly to Americans.
67 km back to Luxembourg, and another 150 or so back to our hotel. Long drive, but totally worth it!
Creepy little fountain...
Crabby McCrabPants fell asleep in the car on the way home - good! He needed it!
Our next trip a few days later was to Baden-Baden, a small spa town at the edge of the Black Forest in central-southwestern Germany by the French border. The town is famous for natural hot springs and their reputed health benefits (very much like the Italian island of Ischia). At this point in our trip, the weather was a little gray but still cooperating, and all the flowers were blooming. Lovely!
I love my macro settings.
The Caracalla Terme - The Baths of Caracalla - a beautiful spa haus where one can take advantage of the hot springs naturally present in this area in a "kur"! This one is more modern. There is another bath haus in this village that is based on Roman baths - all nude, steam rooms, massage, co-ed. Unfortunately we didn't bring bathing suits for this one and I'm a little too "prudish non-European" for the other. Ha! :)
Baden-Baden has an interesting history. Back in the day (18th century, I am told), a local princess from this town married King Leopold from Russia. As a direct result, many Russians migrated to Baden-Baden and influenced the local culture. Because of this, most signs here are written in German and in the Cyrillic alphabet in Russian. There are Russian tea rooms and other elements of Russian culture present here as well (such as the memorial above). Royalty and aristocracy have enjoyed this town ever since those days, and now people enjoy the baths and the local casino - one of the only legal casinos in Germany, with 80% of all profits going to charity!
Standing at the edge of the Oosbach River in Baden-Baden.
One wild tulip in the midst of a field of wildflowers in Lichtentaler Allee in Baden-Baden.
Only after I uploaded this photo did I notice the tiny, tiny little spider on the tulip petal!
Grape hyacinth.
Red dead nettle, very common here and also found in New England!
Lichtentaler Allee sign. This is a 1.5 mile long park alongside the Oosbach River, very popular starting from its construction in the 1800s. It used to be the place for a promenade in top hat and tails and remains popular today for its incredible beauty.
A yellow magnolia!
Forsythia and daffodils.
The entrance to a small English-style boxwood garden off of the Allee.
Fragoline (small, wild strawberries) were in season here at the moment as in Italy, and all of these delicious pastries used them and blueberries to their advantage! Yum!
Walking up the hill to the Cathedral.
Art exhibition in front of the Roman Terme, next to the cathedral.
At the same time I was taking snapshots of this church, the organist in the alcove above began practicing for the next mass. I'm not sure what was being played (several pieces, actually), but where I was standing was the perfect spot. The sound was incredibly loud and the sound waves literally hummed against my body and surrounded me. It was mindblowing. I just froze and had this out-of-body experience while it lasted. :)
Love the carved hands!
We toured the Faberge Museum while in Baden-Baden and of course I needed to take a photo of myself in the gardens with the Faberge rabbit.
Our last day trip in Germany was to visit new friends in Heidelberg, south of Frankfurt.
Looking up towards Heidelberg castle on the hilltop.
SCHNEEBALLEN!!!
Out with new friends! Dan, Thomas, and Jen took us out to a delicious dinner in Heidelberg. Jen has celiac disease like me, so it was great to talk with someone who understands what I'm going through! :) A lovely family!
Our last day we had made plans to go to Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber, but then decided to stay local and kick back. We took ourselves out for lunch at a gasthaus in Ramstein and I got a delicious smoked salmon salad with dill dressing. YUM!
D and his currywurst with sauerkraut. NOM!!!
The city of Kaiserslautern is home to a native European Wildpark, where we decided to take a stroll through the Spring woods and see some of the wildlife local to the area.
The tarpan, a European wild horse. I believe these are extinct, but in the 80s researchers set out to "re-breed" them accurate to historical records and stuffed samples, using controlled breeding to extract latent genetic information to re-express their prehistoric characteristics.
European wild boar, or wildschwein.
VERY large auroch males, resting in the woods (see description of tarpan above for more information on the recreation of this extinct species).
Auroch male and female. Very distinct sexual dimorphism. In the picture above this (of the two males in the woods), this male is only about 2/3rds the size of those males!
This female made a beeline for me!
The females are so petite, and weigh several hundred pounds less than the males. They're at least 1-2 feet shorter at the shoulder and I am taller than them! This is NOT a baby, this is a full-grown female!
Male and calf.
The European wisent, or European bison. Much smaller than American bison!
Lynx
Ah, Spring in Germany. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back! I cannot tell you how fantastic it was to see this area of Europe and experience the culture of this region. Make it a priority to visit!
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