The RED Tour

In a post that will chronicle a few assorted adventures in reverse chronological order (to make the acronym fit), I'm going to summarize our RED tour: the Rhein, the Eifel, and the Dom in Aachen. These all happened in September and October 2012 (we are terribly behind) when the weather in Aachen was still fair-to-great and immediately after our two week tour of Germany.


R is for RHEIN:

I'm looking at these photographs taken in mid-October with my mouth agape--the Rhein valley is SO gorgeous. This river cruise was another perk of being part of the Humboldt network--they brought many Humbolditians from around Bonn for a Saturday tour of the best of Bonn (and environs). The fall colors were just barely past their prime, but still breathtaking, made even better by the rugged hills on the east side of the river.



Seeing the castles atop the colored hills is certainly one of the highlights of my time in Germany. It's hard to beat castles on the Rhein on a perfect fall day:





At the end of our river cruise, we went to Drachenfels, the ruins of a castle on a hill just south of Bonn. The place offers excellent views of the whole Rhein area, and on clear days one can see the cathedral in Cologne, some 30+ km away. On the hilltop we managed to get a photo of us, together, for the first time in a while. (Also, the first picture of us with a really visible Sara Baby Belly.)



Having descended the hill, we took a (Humboldt-sponsored) guided tour of the palace Drachenburg, something we'd wanted to do since we visited there over a year prior when we were still German language students living in Bonn. We didn't take a tour at the time because they were only offered in German and our German was certainly not at that level, but Humboldt to the rescue! they arranged a behind-the-scenes, all access tour for us. I won't recap the whole experience (since we already wrote about it here), but there was one room we really wanted to visit that we couldn't the time before: the music room. This time we got to go in, which was really exciting because it has an organ. (I'm a sucker for chasing organs around Europe.) The funny thing about this organ is that it's a fake organ. It is, in fact, just the facade of an organ, placed in the room only as a very impressive decoration for guests. On top of that, the host (named Mr. Spinat, which our tour guide emphasized means Mr. Spinach) would "play" this fake organ for his guests, something of a organist/Milli Vanilli combo. Totally crazy, yet fantastic.



After the palace tour we went to a winery (surprise! Humboldt loves to take us to wineries) for a rather fun and tasty evening in the cellar. However, my favorite was the color-changing ivy on the stone outside. Fall in the Rhein area of Germany is absolutely gorgeous.




E is for EIFEL:

This year I turned 30 years old. While normally a cause for celebration--or at least a good send off party--this year we were on day two of our two week tour of Germany. Since we didn't really know anybody and didn't know the city we were in (I think we were maybe in Munich, but I'm not sure), we didn't really make much of it. To compensate, we rented a party house in the Eifel national park (just south of Aachen) and invited some 10 other people there for a mid-week getaway in early October. (October 3rd is the day of German unification, a national holiday, so we timed it just right.) The house was really large and perfectly suited to the 8 adults and 5 children there, with a small farm and play area just outside the door. The aesthetic highlight, though, was our "hike" in the forest. While not strenuous (see: 5 children), it was quite picturesque, with the leaves really changing and a reservoir alongside the trail.



Here is the Stapleton family, a favorite of ours in Aachen, hiking along the trail. (Except Timmy, who is clearly riding, and Aaron, who appears to be being dragged.)



And the rocks and the trees were just right. It was nice to just walk in nature for a little while, especially for us city folk.






D is for DOM:

Lastly, in early September the semi-annual meeting of the CHARISMA organization (an EU consortium which partly funds the cultural heritage research that I'm working on) was held in Aachen. As part of that meeting which I helped organize, we made arrangements to have a private tour of the Dom (the cathedral) of Aachen by a Dom historian. Not only that, but we got to climb into the rafters and topmost parts of the church which are normally inaccessible to the public. It happened to be a beautiful Friday afternoon that was perfect for taking pictures of our town. This is a westward view of Aachen from the Dom--the church in the background is the Jakobskirche, the spire of which we can see from our living room window.

And here is an eastward view of the city. The round building in the middle is the largest and most famous fountain in Aachen, the Elisenbrunnen. It has sulfurous water that can really make a stink in the summer.

Here is a northward view of the hills behind Aachen and the Rathaus (city hall).

A close up of a tower of the Rathaus.

And an artistic shot of the three different roofs that, all connected, form the iconic silhouette of the Aachen cathedral. This silhouette has really come to feel like a symbol of home for us here.

A bonus photo for those interested in the religious history of the cathedral: the Aachener Dom is a site for pilgrimages. Every seven years some fancy relics are brought out on display and loads of people come for a visit. (The next exhibition is in 2014.) Back in the day, before crowd control and things of that nature, the city/church did what it could to maximize visibility of the relics: they hung them out these windows of the church (now the little red door you see below). They would cover them with a shroud at night, then, during the day, the shroud would be removed for worship from all across the city. There were ordinances preventing the construction of buildings that would obscure sight of a given relic for some years. I don't know how long that lasted, but it's nice that it's all kept indoors these days. Also, the expansion of the cathedral itself would prevent sight of some of the relics' windows nowadays, something of a failure in planning I would say.



After well over a year of living in Germany, we've realized that it really feels like home. It's things like these--the Rhein, the Eifel, and Aachen's stunning cathedral--that help me see in part why we like this place so much now.

Now THIS is the fanciest castle ever

Two of the fanciest, actually. On the Tuesday of our Bavarian vacation (Bavarication?) Franz took off work and drove us to the village of Hohenschwangau, which boasts the famous castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. (Let's abbreviate these compound-word monstrosities, shall we? It'll be HSG and NSS from now on.)

HSG was the country retreat of King Maximilian II and his family. A fortress called Schwanstein had stood on the site since the 12th century, but it was in ruins when Maximilian bought the land in 1832. Final additions to his new castle went on until 1855. NSS was one of the pet projects of Maximilian's son and successor, Ludwig II (aka "Mad King Ludwig"). It was finished in 1886, the year of Ludwig's death. He lived there for a total of just 172 days (starting in 1884). Apparently no one cared to live in it after he died, because it was almost immediately opened to the public for tours.

First we toured HSG. It's a fairly small, modest castle, as these things go. The building on the left is the one we toured, and contains the king's and queen's rooms. The princes' rooms were in the building on the right.





Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle. The rooms are decorated in a very consistent style--"Romantic" or "Neogothic"--and the original furniture is still there. The walls are painted with pastel-hued scenes from legends; the ceilings, though not high, are decoratively ribbed like a Gothic cathedral's; and each room contains a beautiful tiled stove in a unique color. There are also lots of swans (Schwan=swan) in the paintings, on the chandeliers, and among the knickknacks. Secret (or at least discreet) passageways abound. The stoves are designed to be fed from the back, so the royal occupants get warmth but no smoke or ash. So half-size hallways, entered through quarter-size doors, run through the walls among the rooms to provide access to the backs of the stoves. A hidden spiral staircase links the king's and queen's bedrooms. I guess they actually liked each other.

Ludwig didn't make many changes when he became king and moved into his father's rooms. But he did cause holes to be cut in the ceiling of his room and crystal panes to be installed so the stars in the scene painted there could actually shine on him. (This, of course, necessitated servants placing oil lamps over the holes from the floor above.) He even made a sliding panel so he could adjust the phase of the moon. According to our tour guide this helped him sleep better. Perhaps that's what the naked women on the walls were for, too.   

We lunched at one of the few places open in the village on traditional foods of the region. I had my second Käsespätzle of the trip and Tyler had his sixth pretzel, served this time with two different spreads made from animal fats (yum!). (Since it didn't come up in the previous posts, I'll take the opportunity to mention here that Tyler and I ate TEN PRETZELS EACH over the course of five days. Pretzels really are better in Bavaria.)

During our lunch the morning's rain kindly let up, just in time for the walk up to NSS. Tyler and I were perhaps even more interested in the natural scenery than in the castles.

The lake on the left is an amazing blue-green color.

Artsy shot from the walk

We decided not to tour NSS (since the interior was never completely finished or furnished, there's not as much to see as in HSG), but we did look at it from lots of different angles. The red part at the front is the gatehouse.

View from inside the courtyard

Though it was officially closed, we rebelliously climbed the barriers to get to the path up to the Marienbrücke (Mary's bridge), the best place for views of NSS.

Bad luck on the scaffolding, again!

It was still just mid-afternoon when we got back down to the car, so Franz took as to see another of the sights of the region. This time it was a place we'd never heard of before, Wieskirche. On the drive over Franz told us several times that the church wasn't much to look at on the outside.

What are you talking about, Franz? This is quite pretty.

Then he amended his opionion--the outside isn't much to look at, compared to the inside.

Das stimmt, Franz! (You're right!)

My first impression was of rainbow colors, so I was pleased to see an actual rainbow on the ceiling.

Notice the traditional straw star ornaments on the Christmas tree.

Rococo organ

The Wieskirche is a pilgrimage church. All this splendor was made for the sake of a rather ugly little wooden statue of Christ that is reported to have wept real tears and healed people.

Finally, here's a panoramic picture Tyler made of the view from the Marienbrücke.You may want to click on it (links to Flickr) to see it at full size.



Huzzah for Franz! Huzzah for Bavaria! And Huzzah for Mad King Ludwig!

Stadt Blankenberg

Once again our incredibly kind landlady, Frau de Matos, decided that we're her favorite tenants and took us on a day trip to a tiny village called Stadt Blankenberg. Unlike Ahrweiler, (where we went on our previous trip with Frau de Matos) Blankenberg is quiet, secluded, and uncommercialized. Here are a few shots from the 10-minute walk from the parking area to the city wall.





The Blankenberg city wall was constructed in the 12th century, with several repairs and renovations along the way. Sometimes I wonder why the villages and cities are located where they are--for this one there's no question. Look at the view from their little hill.



The wandering river is an especially nice touch. It's the Sieg, by the way, which is a female river (die Sieg), as opposed to the male Rhine (der Rhein). Here is the city wall and one of the towers:



And then the houses. Sara and I were absolutely smitten with these houses. We've seen plenty of half-timbered houses already, but these ones have bright red wooden nails in them, just to amp up the cuteness. Also notice the doors intricate doors and overflowing window-boxes. We love how *all* of the cities here (especially the small ones) are ridiculously cute.







Is this picture crooked? No, that's the house. The renovations people have done in the village are very impressive--everything made neat and sturdy, without sacrificing the original warped beams.



For your viewing pleasure, a picture of the two of us--together--standing in front of a house with grapes growing over the windows.



After walking around the whole city (which took approximately 10 minutes), Frau de Matos treated us both to pie and ice cream. On the way back to the car, Sara noticed a sign indicating some old ruins a few minutes' walk away. We followed it to find what may be the best view I've seen yet.





It's a bit hard to tell from the pictures, but there are tiny villages--just clusters of houses, really--scattered around among these hills. Sara in particular was struck by how those tiny clusters of houses a couple of hours' walk away probably used to be the Blankenbergers' main contact with the world outside their walls. I think it sounds fantastic, but then again, I have a toy that, according to Wikipedia, only showed up in the early 19th century.

We walked for just a few minutes inside the castle/tower and found this great window with a view--the photo is from the perspective of someone sitting in the window seats. They were for the kids, I'm certain.



Thus endeth our time in Bonn. This week we're *trying* to move to Aachen (hopefully the stress I'm currently feeling in anticipation will abate or make an excellent blog post in about a week or two), so we won't be doing more day trips around Bonn. We've loved it here and are looking forward to our new home. And to Frau de Matos, vielen Dank! If you ever see this blog post, we've loved living as neighbors!

A Fancy and AUTHENTIC Castle

This is Burg Eltz. Pretty cool, huh?

Okay, I admit it, this is actually a picture I took of the front of the brochure I picked up at the castle. Lame, I know. But I had to show you what the castle is supposed to look like. This is what the castle actually looked like when we visited on Saturday:



Not quite so picturesque. The construction is supposed to be finished before next summer, so perhaps we can go again with visitors and see it in its newly-renovated glory. We each got a commemorative coin for our support of Burg Eltz and our patience with the renovation, though.

Now, to begin at the beginning: we met our friends Tim and Kimberly (formerly of Oakland, now of Frankfurt) in Koblenz on Saturday morning, where we caught a train to Moselkern, a tiny town on the Mosel River. From the Moselkern train station we walked for about 90 minutes through very pretty countryside to get to Burg Eltz. Here's a picture of us on the trail. (Hooray for friends who take pictures of us AND speak much better German than we do!)



And here's a view from the bridge leading to the castle:



Burg Eltz is a serious castle. It was built between the 12th and 17th centuries by the Eltz family, one branch of which still lives in the castle. There used to be three branches of the Eltz family in the castle. One died off (they only had daughters) and one sold their part of the castle to the third branch. The castle has never been destroyed, which makes it something of an anomaly. It's also furnished and decorated primarily with its original contents (collected by the family over several centuries). We saw 15th-century beds, 14th-century tapestries, 12th-century chests, etc, etc. Here's a tapestry I loved. Pictured are the nine muses plus a god-goddess pair; I'm not sure which. (Julia, any guesses? They're brother and sister AND husband and wife. Does that narrow it down at all?)



(Yes, this is also a picture of a picture. Photography is not allowed inside the castle.)

This is a view from inside the courtyard where our tour began. (It was in English. Hooray.) The glass in the windows was made by blowing balls of glass and then smashing them into discs. This glass is in almost every window in each of the castle's 100+ rooms. On a side note, this is perhaps the first original window glass we've seen in a significant pre-1945 building since we've been here. One is reminded of the devastation of World War II every time one enters a church in Germany.



We also got to see the castle's treasury/armory. It was most impressive. Here is a selection of cool items. (There are more on our Flickr.)

There were dozens of these intricate gold and silver objets d'art (some of which were supposedly complicated drinking vessels or candelabra). This is one of a series of three Greek guys holding spheres.



There was lots of beautiful china.



This guy has a different expression on each of his four sides, and each eye is shared between two sides. Pretty clever.



The list of cool things we can show you if you come visit us continues to grow!

P.S. This picture is on a sign near the Moselkern train station pointing the way to Burg Eltz. We were afraid they might not let us into the castle because we hadn't gotten the memo on proper German hiking and castle-visiting apparel. Kimberly and I left our skirts and pointy bras at home, and Tyler (and as far as I know, Tim) doesn't own a Peter Pan hat.



P.P.S. Tyler would like me to mention that he took his new toy for a spin the other day along the Rhine, and he liked it very much.