Germany Day 1-2

 Herzliche Willkommen von Deutschland!

Day 1

Arrival, Wiesbaden, Braunfels, Marburg

Today we are departed on a 15 day tour in Europe especially to Germany for Oktoberfest.  We will also be going to Austria and Switzerland on this trip. We are travelling with our friends Dave and Jina Morris and Lloyd and Pam Hebbe.  

We took a direct flight from Austin to Frankfurt, leaving at 4:30 pm and arriving around 9:30am.  After 90 minutes in customs and 2 hours (yes, two) in the Avis/Budget line, we finally got our Mercedes 9 passenger van.

Our first stop was in the city of Wiesbaden, only a short distance from the Frankfurt airport.  Our destination was the Nerobergbahn, a water powered tram to the top of the Nero Mountain (Berg) - a short but steep climb of about 500m.  You can learn about this tram here, but basically it uses water pumped into one train at the top and then its weight pulls the bottom train to the top.  The water is dumped at the bottom and then the process repeats.

After this, we raced to Braunfels.  Between Austin and San Antonio, we have a German town called NEW Braunfels, home of the famous Schlitterbahn waterpark.  This is OLD Braunfels and we were trying to get there for the last tour at 5 o'clock, but we got there just a little too late.  However, we were able to walk around inside the castle and museum and see artifacts as old at the 7th century.   

Then we headed north to spend the night in the town of Marburg.  We stayed at Marburger Hof and would definitely recommend it to travelers.  The restaurant at the hotel was good and reasonably priced and the rooms were clean and modern with nice patio balconies.

Day 2

Marburg, Altenhasungen, Kassel, Rothenburg odt.

We started the day with a trip to Schloss (castle) Marburg.  Actually right before that we went across the street form the hotel to admire St. Elizabeth church. In Pflugerville we also have St. Elizabeth of Hungary church which is where we were married and where the kids were baptized and confirmed.  It is a beautiful old church, but we only saw it from the outside.

At Schlosss Marburg we walked the grounds and then saw the two story museum which had a good sized exhibit of the history of the castle, including see-through floors where you could see the original stonework.

Then we left for an hour and 20 minute drive to a small town called Altenhasungen which is where the Pfluger family originated from.  This was a key stop for Lloyd, who is a descendant from this family. Jina brought a history book with pictures of Altenhasungen and we were able to find the exact home house from the 1800's.  It is now owned by a different family, but the owner of the Auto repair business there gladly told us what history he knew and even unlocked the church across the street for us to admire.  We then went to the Pfluger butcher in the neighboring town which turned out to be a totally different Pfluger family, however, there were houses in the town that were from the same family. All in all it was a highly successful trip and we were able to get pictures of the church and house which looks nearly identical to how it looked in the 19th century.

We then proceeded to the town of Kassel, only about 20 minutes away and the home of the Bergpark Wilhelmshohe, which has structures carved out of volcanic rock and a huge set of reflecting pools going down the side of a mountain toward a palace.   A lot like the mall in Washington DC, but all naturally fed from rainwater, down the side of a mountain.  If you wanted to climb the steps, it's a long way down and even a longer way up. ;)

After visiting the Bergpark, we got on the road for the 3.5 hour drive to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (aka Rothenburg odt,). We arrived at dusk and were lucky that our hotel, Hotel Zum Breiterle, had dedicated parking which is at a premium in this small walled city. The hotel is in an older building, but the rooms were updated and clean.  They serve a continental breakfast and the waitstaff is very responsive.

Hotel Zum Breiterle - you can see the city wall
and a turret for the wall in the background

The hotel is in a good location (there are not any bad locations in this small city), and we were able to walk to the main Marktplatz and find a restaurant.  After a 30 minute wait, they were able to seat the six of us together.  The food was traditional fare - just remember that meatloaf is not what Americans consider meatloaf.  It's more like a couple of pieces of ham or finely ground pork formed into a meatloaf shape and sliced.

Everything shuts down pretty early, so we went home shortly after dinner, but someone was partying somewhere, because we heard revelers late and cars speeding around, the sounds of which are amplified in the walled city.