Germany plus a bit of France 2013

[OATEK]

The next day we went to Bamberg

Lots of attractive buildings and streetscapes in the Old Town

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It is situated on the banks of the Regnitz River at the spot where it joins up with the Main River. There are lots of attractive bridges etc.

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An old riverside crane.

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The iconic Rathaus

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Bamberg Cathedral 13th C.

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I thought Bamberg was pretty special - we stayed there in 2018.

 

[OZDUCK]

I thought Bamberg was pretty special - we stayed there in 2018.

I absolutely agree. Though the weather was pretty bad for a large part of the time we were there it was still a lovely city. We went for a long walk through the inner suburbs and there were some beautiful old houses and nice parks etc. It just seemed like a nice place to live.

 

[Major]

I'm so glad these older buildings survived the War.

 

[OZDUCK]

I'm so glad these older buildings survived the War.

Yes luckily Bamberg suffered very little damage during WW2. This is in contrast to the next biggish city we visited Wurzburg. It was severely damaged but very well restored.

 

[OZDUCK]

We didn't just visit the bigger cities during this part of the trip. We drove past a couple of small, historic towns on our way to Bamberg and Wurzberg. We we later visited them.

Kitzingen

To quote Wikipedia "the city's main landmark is the Leaning Tower, built during the 13th century. It is distinctive for its crooked roof. According to town legend, the tower was being built during a drought, and workers used wine instead of water to make the mortar causing the top of the tower to lean"



The footbridge over the River Main






Around town



We ran across this type of children's water playgrounds in Germany a few times. My grandkids would love all the valves, sluice gates and dams etc.



Another small town was Mainbernheim, 4 kms south of Kitzingen. It only has a population of around 2,000 and was first recorded in 889. apart from being a very attractive small town its main claim to fame is that it is the place where 'Gummi bears', the German rival to 'Jelly babies' are manufactured. The old town is still surrounded by City Walls.

 

[OZDUCK]

As I said we went to Wurzberg. It is on the Main River and has a population of around 150,000

Marienbad Fortress towers above Wurzberg. It was mostly built between the 16th and 18th Centuries.






We walked up the hill and wandered through the fortress. This photo, taken inside the fortress grounds, gives an idea of the slope.



Part of the fortifications.



Looking down from on high. The Alte Mainbrücke is the bridge.



Crossing the Alte Mainbrücke - built between 1473 - 1543



Marienkapelle - built in the 14th C.



I mentioned that Wurzberg was severely damged during WW2. Mostly by a 'firebomb' attack on 16 March 1945 that destroyed 90% of the buildings in the Old Town This is what the city looked like on April 5 1945.



The Wurzberg Residence was built from 1720 - 1780 when the interiors were completed.It was heavily damage in that bombing raid. This is what it looked like just after the war.



This is how we saw it.




The garden view

 

[OZDUCK]

This is where the apparent loss of as lot of my photos from this trip is really annoying/upsetting me. The inside of the Residence has been beautifully restored but all of my photos seem to have gone.

Just to give you an idea of its magnificence - a 'stock' photo of the staircase.



Anyway, to move on, we then headed towards Weimar - of the eponymous 'Weimar Republic' , so named because Weimar was where the new constitutional assembly created after the end of WW1 first sat.

On the way there we had to leave the autobahn due to roadworks. We got a little lost but were still heading in the right direction down smaller roads when we spotted a classic 'ruined castle' on top of the hills overlooking a small town. On a whim we decided to have a look at it.

It turned out to be the Oberschloss Kranichfeld a Renaissance Castle which was destroyed by fire during the 1930's. There was an 'art group' there sketching it.





View over the town of Kranichfeld



The remnants of the interior



We wandered around the inside and this is when things got a little bit darker - something that was also to happen in Weimar. It turns out that these ruins had been acquired by Himmler and the SS to be one of the sites to be devoted to his new and ludicrous Teutonic Order. Inmates of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp had been forced to labour here and a number of deaths had resulted from their mistreatment.

 

[OZDUCK]

Again I have only a few photos left of Weimar. It is actually a very pleasant place.

Market Square






To quote Wikipedia "the city was a focal point of the German Enlightenment and home of the leading personalities of the literary genre of Weimar Classicism, the writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.

It has a large park "Park on the Ilm" Its creation was influenced by Goethe and his summer house is still preserved in the park.



These guys were dragging this doghouse on wheels around the park for hour. I think it was a Bucks Party.

 

[OZDUCK]

The day we left Weimar was the least enjoyable of the trip. This was because we visited what was left of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. I had been to Dachua when I was about 22 and with the arrogance of youth it didn't have a great effect on my. Nearly 40 years later Buchenwald really hit me hard.

We had spent a couple of days in Weimar running across memorials to Schiller & Goethe seeing beautiful buildings and green and pleasant parklands. We then drove 10 minutes out of town and arrived at a memorial to mans worst nature. This place also puts in context the claim by many in Germany after WW2 that they didn't know about these places. It is about 10 km out of the centre of town and was visible from the outer suburbs. There were tales from inmates of being herded through town whilst being spat on and abused by the locals. The inmates were also used to clean up after air-raids. The saving grace is that the German Government has made no attempt to hide what happened here. An excellent audio guide is available and a very extensive and moving museum and commemoration site is contained within the fences.

It was a 'labor camp' not a 'death camp' but still over 56,000 people died here - about 24% of the total prisoners. After the end of the war it was used as a Soviet Special NKVD camp and over 7,000 more people died - again about a quarter of the total inmates.

It took me several days to get over this visit and I will never go to another place like this.

The main entrance and cell block





The wording on the gate reads Jedem das Seine which in contextual translation means "to each what he deserves"



The footprints of the barrack blocks





The Communist Era memorial




I am not too sorry about the loss of photos of this place.

 

[OZDUCK]

Anyway, on to more pleasant memories.

Dresden - we didn't spend too much time in the rebuilt old city as we had spent 3 days here a couple of years before this trip. And once again most of the photos are gone. However here is the "Transparent Factory" operated by VW. At the time of our visit they were manufacturing the Phaeton limousine here.







It is your misfortune that from now on most of our photos seem to have survived.

 

[VPS]

The day we left Weimar was the least enjoyable of the trip. This was because we visited what was left of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. I had been to Dachua when I was about 22 and with the arrogance of youth it didn't have a great effect on my. Nearly 40 years later Buchenwald really hit me hard.

We had spent a couple of days in Weimar running across memorials to Schiller & Goethe seeing beautiful buildings and green and pleasant parklands. We then drove 10 minutes out of town and arrived at a memorial to mans worst nature. This place also puts in context the claim by many in Germany after WW2 that they didn't know about these places. It is about 10 km out of the centre of town and was visible from the outer suburbs. There were tales from inmates of being herded through town whilst being spat on and abused by the locals. The inmates were also used to clean up after air-raids. The saving grace is that the German Government has made no attempt to hide what happened here. An excellent audio guide is available and a very extensive and moving museum and commemoration site is contained within the fences.

It was a 'labor camp' not a 'death camp' but still over 56,000 people died here - about 24% of the total prisoners. After the end of the war it was used as a Soviet Special NKVD camp and over 7,000 more people died - again about a quarter of the total inmates.

It took me several days to get over this visit and I will never go to another place like this.

The main entrance and cell block

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The wording on the gate reads Jedem das Seine which in contextual translation means "to each what he deserves"

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The footprints of the barrack blocks

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The Communist Era memorial

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I am not too sorry about the loss of photos of this place.

I went to Munchausen and I'm glad I went but I won't go to one again because it bothered me so much.

I'm very glad the rest of your photos survived

 

[OZDUCK]

Around Dresden

My wife has been interested in Ceramic Painting for a number of years so she wanted to go to the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory. Meissen is just under 30 km from Dresden. The factory started production as a Royal factory in 1710.

There was a very interesting tour, in groups with audio-guides in various languages. They showed the whole process. My wife was particularly interested in the painting of the porcelain.



The outlines are added and then the colours are hand painted. No stencils here.





Not all firings are successful



Some of their products





The price for a Toucan was very reasonable - in your dreams. That price tag is 30,000 euro.



A bargain at 50% off



The 'Monkey Musicians' set dates back to a full "Monkey Orchestra" first created in 1753. I notice that this figure, the Conductor, is now available on-line for a mere €2,490.00 plus postage.



After the tour we had a light meal in the attached cafe. All, naturally, served on Meissen Porcelain.

 

[OZDUCK]

Meissen itself is a very attractive city. It can be reached by road or by paddle steamer on the Elbe River from Dresden.

The Meissen Cathedral began construction in 1260 (one of the smallest in Europe) and the Albrechtsburg Catle 1472 - 1525 (supposedly the first castle to be used as Royal residence in the German speaking world) dominate the city.





The easy way up the hill. A busload of German tourists had just arrived so we took the hard way up'



The main gateway



Inside the castle precinct



Looking out over the Elbe from the castle walls



Walking the streets







By this stage our car had become "Australianised".

 

[OZDUCK]

After Meissen we decided to to take the backroads to return to our apartment in Dresden. Purely by chance we were amazed and delighted to stumble across this :-

Moritzburg Castle - a baroque palace originally built between 1542 - 1546 as a 'hunting lodge' for the Duke of Saxony. It was enlarged and rebuilt many times. The last being when Elector Augustus II the Strong had it remodeled as his 'country seat' between 1723 -1733.



You can stay in apartments in the two small buildings on the waterfront



Looking out over the parklands. My wife is now sporting a walking stick, bought in Meissen, after falling into a ditch at Hohenzollern Castle and badly spraining her ankle.







Once again my photos of the interior have disappeared. In this case it is not such a loss as it was not that special. The only notable item was an immense collection of mounted animal heads. You can get an idea from this photo.



You accessed the palace via a causeway from the village of Moritzburg





A slightly fancier than normal 'mile post'

 

[OZDUCK]

The next day we caught a bus up to Pillnitz Castle. It sits on the banks of the Elbe River upriver of Dresden. It is a restored baroque palace than has been enlarged and enhance ever since the 14th Century. We cunningly went there on the one day a week the main building is closed!








There were some extensive Victorian era glasshouse you could wander through





One of the steam powered paddle wheel cruise boats that operate out of Dresden. We took a trip on one of these a couple of days later.



After a pretty short visit we headed back to Dresden. We had bought an all day local transport ticket. So instead of using the bus we caught this public ferry to the other side of the Elbe. The current was very strong.



As usual in Germany, the public Transport is pretty co-ordinated. You can see the bus waiting for the ferry and there is also a tram line hidden in the trees in background. We used the tram to get back to town.



The palace from the ferry..

 

[OZDUCK]

As I said above, a couple of days later we went out for a trip on one of the old paddle steamers. To quote "The Sächsische Dampfschiffahrt of Dresden, Germany is the oldest and biggest paddle steamer fleet in the world.". They all 90 years plus old.

The engine room



A sister ship passes us going downstream. The current was so strong that the return journey took half the time of the upriver part.



Even though the day was dark and drizzly there was still plenty to see. The hills overlooking the Elbe were covered in mansions.

The Lingnerschloss - built in 1850 -53 for a "noble Prussian family."



This was the old Waterworks.






Albrechtsberg Palace - built in 1853 for Prince Albert of Prussia



Some general views






The landing at Pillnitz Palace



Returning to Dresden



The waterfront terrace of Dresden - once known as "The Balcony of Europe"

 

[OZDUCK]

When I started this TR I said that I would show some places than no-one on AFF had ever heard of. I believe that this town might meet that requirement.

We headed out towards 'Saxon Switzerland' (Sächsische Schweiz) but we made a detour on the way there to go to -:

Pulsnitz The Pfefferkuchenensatadt - Gingerbread City! Again to quote "Pulsnitz became famous for its Pfefferkuchen, a type of Christmas cookie, when in 1558 the bakers of Pulsnitz received permission to bake them. Today there are still eight Pfefferküchlereien bakeries.". It only has a population of about 7,500.

My wife really loves Pfefferkuchen - I quite like it. But the visit was also to buy some as a special gift for our friend who lives in Bad Homburg and adores them.




The female staff member of this bakery was highly delighted to have someone come from Australia to buy their products. She said that they did ship a lot to the U.K.



This is what I need at present

 

[OZDUCK]

The main reason for this day trip to Saxon Switzerland was to go the 'Bastei Bridge' ☀ Bastei Bridge Germany (near Dresden, Saxony) Saxon Switzerland ☀ - Tourism Saxon Switzerland - National Park - Elbe Sandstone Mountains near Dresden / Saxony, Germany This is about 40 km from Dresden and close to the Czech border. If you are a fan of Julia Bradbury and her walking and travelling programmes - "Australia - with Julia Bradbury" was recently seen on the ABC - she did one about this place. It was the catalyst for us to go there. The lookout is 194 metres above the Elbe.

As was usual for much of our time around Dresden it was another wet and grey day. But it did lead to some interesting photos of the hills which help give that area its names..





There is a lot of climbing around the site. Some of these walkways didn't fit well with my well developed fear of heights





The famed bridge itself. You can see how low the clouds were.





Looking downriver towards Dresden



Looking upriver towards the Czech Border. In August we were due to be on the Berlin - Prague express running on those tracks.



It is pretty precipitous

 

[RB]

I am really enjoying your report. Your above post prompted me to review our Czech trip. We went by train from Dresden to Schona and then a 2 minute ferry ride across to Hrensko so pretty close by. Also those rock photos reminded me a bit of the Prachov Rocks just out of Jicin

 

[OZDUCK]

I am really enjoying your report. Your above post prompted me to review our Czech trip. We went by train from Dresden to Schona and then a 2 minute ferry ride across to Hrensko so pretty close by. Also those rock photos reminded me a bit of the Prachov Rocks just out of Jicin


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They do look very similar and certainly are not far from the Bastei ones. I assume they were formed at around the same time.