Friends in Deutschland; Other Adventures

Daniel with Darius and Maya and Emma with Vida and Arianna, who lived in an apartment upstairs from us. The kids formed fast friendships with the three siblings, who were also visitors from the U.S.

In our final week before our vacation in Switzerland, we enjoyed other adventures in and near Stuttgart. With our US friends, we visited Leuze, a mineral bath in Stuttgart. The kids enjoyed watching bubbles collect on their skin and sampled the salty mineral water, which some people believe adds years to one's life. We also toured the impressive Rosenstein Museum of natural history, a former palace, with beautiful dioramas of different ecosystems and an overview of biological evolution.

(Emma was fascinated to see a real whale skeleton and a model of its inner anatomy.)

Museum am Löwentor, a fossil museum housed in a separate building across the park from Rosenstein, has a fantastic collection of fossils, also beautifully displayed; but at the end of the day we had limited time to view them. (Emma Maya did get to hug a dinosaur, however.)

Also during our last week in Germany, we met relatives of one of our US friends in the Stuttgart-area town of Esslingen, who showed us a beautiful church and other preserved Medieval buildings in the lovely town center. In the bottom picture of the town wall (with original shingles from several hundered years ago--imagine a roofing job that lasts that long!), you can see some of the vineyards that cover the hillsides all around the Stuttgart area.

On a beautiful Sunday, we toured the Black Forest town of Baden-Baden, near the border with France. Since Roman times, the area has been known for its elegant mineral baths/spas (including co-ed spas enjoyed au natural). In recent history, it has experienced an influx of Russian immigrants, some of whom became involved in the local gambling industry (perhaps beginning with Dostoevsky, who came when gambling was illegal in Russia). The underground hot springs have produced a Mediterranean microclimate, where plants that usually grow in south Mediterranean countries can thrive. One Catholic church in town is built over an ancient Roman bath (this one not open to the public) and receives all of its winter heating through its floor tiles. The church is unusually humid year-round; pews have to be replaced regularly. (Unfortunately, during our kitchen remodel back at home, it was discovered that our crawlspace--located near water-table level--is producing a similar effect.)


We read that the Baden-Baden castle, pictured above, was purchased for billions of dollars by a Kuwaiti woman, who plans to refurbish it. Word is that she is facing the usual hassles and red tape involved in restoring an historic building.

Automobiles and Fun with Language

Since the automobile was invented in Germany, it seemed natural to visit the renowned Mercedez-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Although I'm married to an engineer specializing in combustion, cars (or any mechanical item) are not my thing, so I was surprised to find the museum quite interesting. It documents the history of the automobile and how social trends influenced automobile development (and vice versa). It also unequivocally points out that, during the horrors of WWII, the company cooperated fully and unhesitatingly with the leadership of the Third Reich, including using up to 30,000 forced laborers. The kids enjoyed taking many photos of impressive cars, and at least one of us admits to being enamoured with the just-too-cute Smartcar.

We continue to have fun with the language here. One German word for driving, going, or travelling is "fahren," and a form of this is "fahrt," so you can imagine what the kids do with that one. The name of each city's town hall building, or seat of government, seems aptly named "Rathaus" (actually pronounced something like rot-hows). In addition, when we visited Rothenburg, the infamous (at least, in travel writer Rick Steves' opinion) treat Schneeballen (shnay-ball-en, "snowballs") are marketed everywhere. Schneeballen are globs of pie dough, baked and covered with powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, chocolate frosting, or some other glop, and I agreed with Steves that they were highly overrated (but Daniel did not). So when we saw a building called Schneeballen Traumhaus, I joked with Daniel that it was a trauma center for all the Schneeballen victims. (Though I have seen the word "trauma" used here as in the U.S., "traumhaus" actually means "dream house.")

Bad Urach and Its "Wasserfall"

Southern Germany is filled with thermal springs, and spas that pump this mineral water from the ground are called bader (bahd-er, for "baths"). Stuttgart itself sits on the largest source of natural spring water in Western Europe. Just south of Stuttgart, in the Swabian Alb, the town Bad Urach lies among limestone caves and waterfalls. We hiked to the Bad Urach waterfall, which drops from a height of 37 m and then runs another 50 m through a mossy woods filled with ferns, some with unusual, undivided fronds.

That water is cold!

The town of Bad Urach also sits below ancient (1,000-year-old) castle ruins (on the hill in the background). The castle became a prison in the late Middle Ages and was destroyed by the area's citizens in the 18th century.

Ludwigsburg

We visited "The Swabian Versailles," the Residential Palace in Ludwigsburg, an elegant town just north of Stuttgart. It is the largest baroque castle in Germany, with 452 rooms, four museums (including an impressive historic fashion museum), and many gardens (including an interactive fairytale garden for children, complete with Disneyesque moving figures and a boat ride through Pinnocchio's whale). The Wϋrttemberg rulers were not content with one palace but built three, including Favorite Palace across the street, on a large game reserve, and Napoleonic style Monrepose Palace on a lake garden.

From the fairytale garden:

Rapunzel's tower (she even lowers her braid):

Daniel's reaction to facing yet another castle tour
(inspired by fellow Norwegian, Edvard Munch):

Maya looks like she's not sure about these guys....

Wilhelma Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Stuttgart

The Wilhelma Zoo is Europe's only combined large zoo and botanical garden. Once a palace (like so many buildings in Germany--even Stuttgart's library), it now holds an impressive and beautiful variety of greenhouses and plant habitats, in addition to thousands of animals. We were lucky enough to witness nurturing time for a pair of baby gorillas; a zoo staff worker cuddled, kissed, crooned to and played with the two, who responded like toddlers of opposite personalities (one a clinging, calm cuddler and the other a playful, hyperactive imp). Vying for cuteness, however, was the rambunctious baby polar bear, Wilbär. (It was a warm day and there were so many plants and animals to see, we didn't take time for many photos.)

Oddly enough, I found out that a penguin was kidnapped from the zoo last spring, in broad daylight. Also, while we were living in Stuttgart (but unfortunately, not the day we visited the zoo), a new world record was set at the Wilhelma: the world's largest flower, Amorphophallus titanum, bloomed for the second time within a few years. It is a carrion flower, which smells like rotten meat when in bloom.

Neuschwanstein Castle and the Bavarian Alps

To celebrate July 4 and Maya's birthday, we visited the great tourist magnet: the fairy-tale castle Neuschwanstein (Noy-shvahn-stine) and the less famous but fascinating Hohenschwangau (I think, Hoe-hen-shvahn-gow) in southern Bavaria near the border with Austria. Both castles and their interiors are a spectacular feast for the eyes. Many published photos of Neuschwanstein, taken from vertiginous Marienbrücke bridge (like our photo here), don't fully show the castle's intimate relationship with the Bavarian mountains around it. Views from inside the castle are truly breath-taking. The tranquil in-the-clouds setting and the fantastic paintings and tapestries that grace most of the castles' walls help one understand how "mad" King Ludwig II might have retreated into a fantasy world in his final years. (As we listened to the tour guide describe Ludwig's indulged but regimented childhood, his obsession with composer Richard Wagner, his preference for fantasy over reality and his preoccupation with building wonderland castles, I couldn't help think of Michael Jackson.... The panel of psychologists who declared Ludwig insane, however, had never met the king.)

Here is an 1890s photochrom print of Neuschwanstein castle:

For our Neuschwanstein/ Hohenschwangau trip, we rented a car for the first time here (we found out that it can be much cheaper, if more time-consuming, to take the trains), and it was not the most relaxing undertaking. On the autobahn, things went fairly smoothly; but it can be disconcerting to have to pass someone, only to find another driver barreling in behind you at over 100 mph. Even motorcycles ignore the suggested speed limits and exceed 100 mph.

(Two of us acrophobes avoided scaling the bridge, but those who did said the crowd was shoulder to shoulder.)

Our bed and breakfast had low ceilings (it was a loft) but a lovely view.