Heim, sweet Heim

Just south of Darmstadt along the B3 or Bergstrasse are a series of adorable old towns with a certain similarity of name.  Let's see if you can pick it out: Weinheim, Heppenheim, Bensheim, Mannheim, Seeheim, Reinheim, and the list goes on.  It turns out that Heim means home and once I visited Weinheim and Bensheim I could see how the name fits. The towns have a certain cozy, homey charm to them. A bit of German Gemütlichkeit. That was another great word I learned recently that cannot be adequately translated into English, rather like Schadenfreude. To explain Gemütlichkeit my officemate showed me pictures of rustic homes with a fire burning and a tall glass of beer on the table. I would have substituted in a hot chocolate, but I got the concept.

Back to the -heims. I started with Weinheim. I arrived and immediatley took my morning constitutional, which consisted of a hike up the hill to the remains of the old castle or Burg. I have already posted multiple castle remains on the blog so I will spare you pictures of crumbling stone. What cannot be captured on camera is the feel of crumbling castle remains when you are the only visitor strolling along the ramparts. Most castles are swarming with tourists who are chatting, taking pictures, and generally giving the place a touristy feel. An empty old castle has quite a different vibe. The history of the place seems more palpable.

Following the hike up to the castle was the long walk back down and lunch in the center of town.  As is quite common for Saturday there was a local market with fruit and vegetable stalls, cheese carts, meat trucks, and bread stalls.  I ate outside (drausen) and enjoyed a beer and a flammkuchen.  The flammkuchen is a specialty of the Alsace region and consists of a crisp paper thin piece of bread with cheese, onion, and ham. I however went for the non-standard flammkuchen with cinnamon and apple. Who could resist warm cinnamon apple? Not I.

After lunch I strolled through the old part of Weinheim that was originally the tanning district. The houses are all half-timber and line streets that curve, twist, and double-back on themselves regularly. Adorable and something that can only arise from a time without urban planning, or really planning of any kind.  I've attached a couple of pictures of the houses from Weinheim as well as a few from Bensheim. You will notice that very old houses have descriptions of what the house was used for or what was changed over time. Enjoy!

 Not sure if this is any historical interest, but I was just amazed at the sheer quantity of plants on these houses.

As soon as I figure out what that says next to each date, I'll update it here.

Clearly the door moved on this house. In front is a narrow
canal that I imagine was important when this area was
full of tanneries.

If you click on this picture to enlarge, you should be
able to make out the descriptions of what this
building was used for through the centuries.