A Trip to Franconia: Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Würzburg

On the first weekend in December I traveled to a pair of cities in a region of Bavaria called Franconia. I have to say that I'm learning quite a bit about European geography and how the boundaries of long gone kingdoms and principalities are still alive and well in the people's minds.

I was treated to some unusual weather this year.  Normally it is relatively mild, but this December in Germany it was both cold and snowy. Essentially I got Boston weather in Germany. The first bit of snow blanketed the the Bavarian countryside and made for a beautiful drive along the autobahn and the side roads into the town of Rothenburg.

Amusing side note: Along the roads of Bavaria I found speed limit signs with a small picture of a tank under them.  Tank speed limit?  I figured that couldn't possibly be it, but when I checked back with colleagues, it was indeed a posted speed limit for tanks on the roads. It was explained to me that it was possible that one day a tank might need to roll down the roads and so you had to have a spped limit posted. Okay...

My first stop for the weekend was the Medieval walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Here you can see two pictures from outside the wall artistically dusted with snow.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber streets

The Not-Quite-So-Comfy Chair

First stop: The Crime and Punishment Museum.  The Museum documents the process of jurisprudence in the Medieval era and includes a frightening collection of torture instruments. Apparently a confession of guilt was not considered believable unless torture had been used to extract it. The rationale for torture and brutal execution methods was that in hurting the body one was also helping to purify the soul.  I am reminded yet again why I am so happy that I'm not living in the Middle Ages. My favorite of all the stuff in the museum was the witch catcher.  Remember when catching a witch you need to keep your distance, so you must use this handy device to grab a hold of them without approaching too closely.




Witch Catcher
A four foot handle extends off to the left.



The Shame Mask
For those that had behaved badly you had to wear this mask
around the city so that all would know of a person's crime

Rothenburg is an adorable city and here are a couple of photos around the city.



Wall Walk



 

Photos into the Tauber Valley

Double decker bridge over the Tauber River

St. Jakobs Church.  This was originally a Gothic basilica.  Construction began in 1311 until 1485.  In this era, Rothenburg was along two major trading routes, one north-south and the other east-west and was consequently a major trading city and quite wealthy. This enabled the council to commission some very impressive works of art. The High Altar is one of the finest in Germany, or so says the English guidebook in the church.



Main Nave and the High Altar



What I found the most impressive was the Altar of the Holy Blood, carved by the famous sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider.
Seen below.

Nightwatchman Tour. 
One of the most entertaining parts of Rothenurg is the Nightwatchman Tour.  Here is our tour guide, dressed up in the garb of the Medieval Nightwatchman.

The guide was a great deal of fun to listen to.  He had little quips and amusing stories to tell about the city and how things were in the Middle Ages. The watchman was the third lowest member of society, right above the Executioner and Gravedigger. The executioner was the pariah of the society, taking communion last in church and often marrying into other executioner families, because no one else wanted to consort with them.

On the tour we learned that one of the houses has been continuously occupied by the same family for over 300 years.  Our guide pointed out that it wasn't actually the same people, but just the same family. Germans are a healthy lot, but not quite THAT healthy.

In the pictures above, you might notice that the city appears to be surrounded by a number of cliffs.  Rothenburg is in fact surrounded on three sides by shear cliffs and was not captured or occupied by foreign forces for over three hundred years after it was first constructed. The gates locked in the evening to keep it secure and one could only enter after that time by going to a single gate on the far side of the city where a very tiny door could be opened. That door is still there and one would have to crouch over into quite a contorted position to get through.  This prevented the door from being used by an invasion force.

The second oldest building in the city has a foundation that dates back to 900 AD and is called Hölle or Hell.  It is now a delightful tavern and restaurant, so in Rothenburg, if someone tells you to go to hell, then you should take that as a good restaurant recommendation.

Rothenburg, despite walls and surrounding cliffs, was captured during the 30 years war. Apparently, it had been a terrible week of rain and the commander of one of the armies (French, I think) promised his men that they would stop at the next town for food, lodging, and provisions. The next town was Rothenburg. The city did manage to fend off the invaders for several days, but eventually their stores of gunpowder ran low and someone went up into the dark Powder Tower....with a torch. Needless to say, there was a massive explosion and a huge chunk of the wall was destroyed.  Rothenburg promptly surrendered. There had been a slight discrepency in casualties, 300 on the French side and 2 on the Rothenburg side, the guy who went into the Powder Tower and someone else standing too close.

The other interesting story about Rothenburg concerns WWII. As you might imagine, Rothenburg did not have a lot of strategic value during the war, and yet it did end up briefly bombed.  Why? Because several Nazi commanders had fled Nurenburg, just down the road, and were hiding out in Rothenburg.  The Americans found out and started bombing. In an interesting story on the important of tourism, the American commander's mother had visited Rothenburg years earlier and brought back this beautiful paiting of the city.  The commander had grown up with this painting and had always imagined Rothenburg as a magical, ancient city.  He could not stand by and let it get bombed. Instead, he contacted an official within Rothenburg and told him that if they handed over the city to the Americans, they would not continue with the bombing. The Rothenburgian agreed and they met on the old double-decker bridge, where the city was officially surrendered.  This action was technically treasonous, but as this was 1945 and the war was in its final phases, treason soon became a moot point.

And a final picture from Rothenburg.

View from my hotel room window

 Würzburg

A bit north of Rothenburg is the city of  Würzburg, which was ruled for centuries by a Prince Bishop.  That title certainly confused me. The first place I visited in the town was the Residenz, seen below.  I could not stand far enough back to take a picture of the whole thing in one frame, so imagine melding the two photos below, plus the right wing and now you have a feel for how enormous this was.  The Residenz was built in the 1700s by the current Prince Bishop, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn.  That's a name and a half.  Anyway, during this period, the residents of Würzburg were beginning to question why they were being ruled by a Prince Bishop (PB) and there was some discontent in the area. To counter this, the interior of the Residenz is meant to awe, amaze, and explain why the PB is so important. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the interior, so I'll just have to describe a couple of the more noteworthy parts inside. It was decorated in a completely out of control Rococco style.  And I thought Baroque was bad...

After entering the front hall, where a carriage with six horses could comfortable turn around, you walk up a large two-level staircase.  On the ceiling is the largest continuous fresco with each of the four sides representing a continent, Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. It was also one of the more entertaining examples of propaganda.  America is anthropomorphized as a half-naked woman with feathered headress riding an alligator and engaging in canabalism. Of course.  I know that alligator is often my preferred mode of transport. Then there is the Asia and Africa, which were slightly less sensational but still featured women riding on wild animals. Europe was the land of intelligence and culture, where its anthropomorphic female presided over learning and discourse.  And for that extra bit of propaganda, an angel floated above her holding up a picture of the venerable Prince Bishop Johann Philip Franz von Schoenborn and blew a trumpet to proclaim his general amazingness.

If that wasn't enough to convince the rabble that their PB was one awesome guy, he also had a picture in the next hall explaining exactly why he was so important in the grand scheme of history.  In the 10th century the bishop married Friedrich I "Barbarossa" (aged 35) to his wife Beatrix (aged 14). It was for performing this duty that the Bishop of  Würzburg was given the title of Prince Bishop. And because historical accuracy was never too important, the people in the painting are wearing Renaissance clothes and the PB's face is that of Schoenborn.
In the pictures below, I also have a photo of the Marienberg Fortress.  This was the original home of the Prince Bishop's before the Residenz was built.  It is much better fortified and was for an era where invasion was always possible. Of course, invasion is always possible no matter what the era... As with so much of Germany, large portions of the Residenz were destroyed in WWII and were later restored.  The most impressive of these was the Mirror Cabinet, an entire room of mirrored walls with paintings done on the reverse side of the mirrors.  Since it was completely destroyed, they had to remake all the mirrored paintings from scratch and rebuild over the course of 7 years. I would recommend looking this up online to see the room.  Really amazing.



Residenz of the Prince Bishop

 


The left wing of the Residenz




Marienberg Fortress
Original home of the Prince Bishop when serious fortification
was necessary.



Marienkapelle and a bit of the Christmas Market

One very architecturally confused church.
A bit of Romanesque and Baroque squished together

Found this back in the US. The beer from Wurzburg!
Too funny.

Strasbourg: Welcome to Alsace

It occurred to me today that I have not written a blog in quite some time and I am WAY behind.  To be fair, November was a quieter month for traveling what with the cold and unrelenting gray. I'm not kidding, I don't think that I've seen the sun in 6 weeks.  Actually, the only time I see the sun is when I skype with my parents and they hold the camera out the window. Oh, the power of technology.

Okay, onto Strasbourg. Strausbourg is technically in France, but directly over the border (Main River) and in a region called Alsace.  If I'm remembering my history correctly, Alsace was important for its coal deposits and so it found itself swapped between France and Germany several times through history.  This is why the food has a distinctly German flair, but they speak French. I had an interesting time dredging up my high school French. This was made especially difficult because I'm trying to learn German now. Apparently, I'm incapable of keeping more than one extra language in my brain at a time. I tossed out a lot more Dankes than Mercis. Oops.

Strasbourg is also the only city I've visited so far without a tour book telling what I should see and where I should go.  It's oddly liberating to enjoy a city just to enjoy a city. Below is a collection of random photos from different point through the city.

First stop was the Old French Quarter with a collection of half-timber houses that should look very familiar at this point to anyone who has read previous posts.

Old French Quarter house
Most of these houses were stores or restaurants



One of those rare cases where I'm in a photo from my own
vacation. Thank you Sakeena for joining me in
Strasbourg!



Another cute little house

And what is France without a picture from a bakery window?

That is extruded chestnut paste that was piled on top
of some creamy inside. I didn't get one but had to take
a picture.

Time to wipe the drool off the keyboard.

In Strasbourg there is a very famous cathedral, whose name completely eludes me, but I think it's a Cathedrale of Notre Dame.  Cathedrals to Mary were quite common at that time, 13th century.  These things are almost impossible to take pictures of from the outside because of their sheer size, but I did get a few photos of the interior. 

This is one of the famous astronomical clocks that crop up around Europe.
I saw one in Prague and also a smaller version in Goethe's House.

Stained Glass Windows

I believe the Garden of Gethsemane (sp?)
It's not so easy to see in this picture but there are three sleeping
apostles and those are the soldiers rushing in on the right.

And the gray, gray sky....

This is one of the older (built in 1427) and more famous houses in Strasbourg. It's a restaurant and I believe, also a hotel. It's called Maison Kammerzell.  You can see in that name the odd mix of German and French that has occurred in this region.

Roasted Chestnut vendor.
You can just tell what that little kid is saying.
But Mommy, I want THAT!



If there is one thing that pervades all of Europe it is memorials
from WWI and especially WWII. This was one of the
more poignant ones, in my opinion.

 The two photos below amused me.  And I thought the houses in Amsterdam were skinny...

Thin house

Thinner house

Darmstadt

This is just a random assortment of photos from Darmstadt that I thought might be fun to share.

The house in which I'm living in Darmstadt.
I'm in the back in the sous-terrain apartment.
I would've loved a balcony, but let's get real.

Mixed Johnny Depp metaphors. It's a hair salon and
one I'd be hesitant to visit, especially with the
wurst shop next door...

The front of the Stadttheater. This space just seemed
so modernly cool. I kinda like it.

Cologne aka Köln

Cologne, home of Eau de Cologne, and the first city to have successfully deflected invaders (and ornery tourists) with chemical warfare, namely the Perfume Cannon Ball or Parfümskanonenkugel in German. Modern perfume warfare scholars agree that the closest modern equivalent is the Department Store perfume counter labyrinth (Kaufhausparfümthekelabyrinth) on free sample day.
Cologne City motto: Why bathe when you can splash on some Eau de Cologne?

Sometimes reality is boring and needs to be spiced up a bit with a more exciting narrative. Okay, down to some actualy facts about Cologne. Cologne is one of those German cities that ended up with a different name inside and outside the country.  Outside it's Cologne and inside it's Köln.  I'll be going by Cologne in this blog entry only because it's easier to write that than Köln with that funky ö.

Cologne is a not particularly interesting city with some lovely sites in it.  The most impressive site being the famous Dom Cathedral. 

This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice.  I simply don't have the right camera to capture the sheer size and majesty of this old gothic cathedral. What I found particularly interesting was that although the cathedral construction began in the 13th century, it wasn't actually completed until the 19th century. They had a little funding problem in the Middle Ages as well as the tumultous years following the Reformation.

Inside the cathedral is a fascinating array of stained glass windows from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and even a few panels of 19th century Bavarian. The mishmash of styles makes for an intriguing walk through history. I could recognize that there were differences in the way the stained glass was constructed, but could not identify which was from which era.


 

The interior of the cathedral is on the left.  It's quite simply massive with those huge vaulted ceilings stretching up 140 ft.

Some examples of the stained glass windows below.  Unfortunately, it was quite cloudy that day and it was difficult to get a nice picture of the stained glass under those conditions.  Or at least, I don't know enough about photography to coax a stunning picture from those conditions. 

Painted around 1440 by Stefan Lochner.  It was noted in
one of the books that the painting was so realistic that
one could identify dozens of plants in the foreground.
Not having keen enough eyes or vast enough knowledge of
botany, I will have to take their word for it.

After touring the cathedral I went to the Roman-Germanic museum in Cologne.  That might seem like an unlikely combination of countries, since the German hordes are generally blamed for the sacking and general destruction of Rome, but Cologne was a Roman city.  While building bomb shelters during WWII, the following mosaic was discovered. 

Detail on one of the panels in the mosaic.

Also in the museum were some lovely pots, glasses, and assorted markers and statuary.  Being a huge fan of Greco-Roman art it was a most enjoyable museum, even if I couldn't read any of the signs. 

Ancient Flip-flops?

After touring the museums, I stopped for lunch and had the requisite Kölsch, a local beer. It's a beer with a very low level of carbonation, so you only get 200ml at a time and they come in these little glasses called stange - shtahng-e. At least, I think that's how you spell it.  It means pole.

Old Town along the Rhine River

I then wandered down to the old town, which like every respectable European old town has meandering streets, houses scrunched together and a high overall cuteness factor.  This old town also had an endless string of bars.  I can imagine that bar hopping is quite a fun activity in Cologne.  The little beers are pretty cheap and you can easily get a few in one bar before hopping onto the next, getting a few more...rinse and repeat until you stagger home. 

In addition to the Dom, I also checked out another old church, but one that was more severely battered during WWII.  It had a quite different feel.  I must admit a preference for these old churches free of almost all adornment.  This was called St. Martin Grosse. It was built on top of an old Roman granary. The stained glass is all modern, but I think makes for an intriguing juxtaposition with the raw stone in Middle Ages style.

Approximately six hours later I had finished wandering the streets of Cologne and headed back down the A5 to Darmstadt.  I took one last photo when I returned because I thought it would be nice to have a pretty photo from Darmstadt and I am a sucker for sunsets.