HEIDELBERG (Chapter I)

We have just begun to explore Heidelberg and its surrounding areas.  The Altstadt (old city) is not considered old in European terms as most of it was destroyed during the Thirty Years War in 1622!  But it's plenty old by our standards - there are even some churches and buildings that have survived from the 1300's. One of the highlights of the old city is the Schloss, the castle.  It is largely in ruins, some from 1400, but the walls and facade still dominate the city. The Schloss is especially beautiful lit up at night.  The surrounding gardens look very impressive now, so we imagine they will be spectacular when there are flowers and leaves "dressing things up" a bit more! Here is a view of the old city from the castle grounds and one of the gates at the castle ruins, followed by a picture at night and in the snow (a few days after we arrived).


There is a strange mix of beautiful architecture and post-war "box" buildings in the city.  We have tried to focus on the prettier ones to share with you (including the quirky one pictured below with the dog statue near the door)!  The one on the right is the University's library, not a private home. We live in the university "guesthouse" in an area called Neuenheimer Feld. It's about a 20 minute walk from "downtown" and from the main train station, so it's extremely convenient.  There are visitors from many countries and there are periodic "events" at the guesthouse  to bring us together, which is interesting and nice.  Now that we have bought some (used) bikes, everything is that much closer. The city is well set-up for cyclists, with most streets having special bike lanes. Very civilized! Also, the path along the Neckar River (that runs through Heidelberg) connects to many towns in the area and many of the trains "accept" bikes on them, so we should be able to use the bikes to explore more of the surrounding area (and to get more exercise!).

Our apartment is very well laid out and is in an area that is pretty modern.  We are in an apartment on the side of the building facing you in the picture below left.  The location is terrific.  There is an Italian café on the ground floor of our building (with outdoor seating that includes blankets on cold days!), and another restaurant and a bakery a few stores down.  We can go to the downstairs café without putting coats on, which is especially helpful since smoking is VERY common here, especially in restaurants (so at least our coats and scarves are spared the stench of cigarette smoke when we go to this café).  We are also lucky in that we are only a block from the (Neckar) river and there is either a path along the river that we can take or the "regular" walk into town that passes through the old village of Neuenheim, which is quite beautiful.  There is an open air market in Neuenheim on Wednesdays and Saturdays (see picture below) and we have been going there for our fruit and veg shopping.  It doesn't compare with the market in Adelaide, but it's a nice break from supermarkets.  We expect the market will get even better when there is local produce to sell. The biggest challenge with it (even greater than the language barrier) is that it is right across from a bakery that smells SO good that it's hard to resist indulging each time.  (Did we mention that the bread and pastries - never mind the beer - here are amazingly good? We expect to be many kilos heavier by the end of our stay.)
 
We decided to stay close to home for the "Fastnachtsumzug" or the parade for "carnival" - the celebration that precedes Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Apparently in some of the Rhineland cities (since this is a mostly Catholic tradition), there can be half a million or more spectators at these parades! The one in Heidelberg is pretty tame by comparison, but the streets along the parade route were still filled with people - of all ages - most of whom were dressed in costumes and carried bags ready to be filled with the candy and other treats thrown from the floats and paraders.  Some people even had umbrellas hanging open and upside down from their balconies along the parade route to catch the goodies!  There were some VERY cute costumes (the ladybug below was one of the cutest!). In the end, Elyse's hair was filled with confetti - we kept finding pieces hidden for hours after!  

 

  

FRANKFURT

We are going to try to use our weekends - and Gerald's invitations to give talks/work with folks - to explore other towns/areas in Germany and Europe. The train system is superb - most towns/cities are accessible by train and the trains have been very reliable. Our first venture was to Frankfurt.  It is only about a 45 min train ride from Heidelberg and proved itself to be a fairly straightforward way to break ourselves into the workings of the rail system.  It is also quite an interesting city.  It is the financial center of Germany and has some of the country's tallest skyscrapers, but it also has a long history in trade and politics. It was first mentioned in 794 (!) in a document signed by Charlemagne and was involved with coronations during and after the "Holy Roman Empire." John F. Kennedy also called it "the cradle of democracy in Germany" because it hosted Germany's first parliamentary meeting in 1848.  Most of the city (80%) was destroyed in WWII, but much of it was rebuilt, as you can see below.  The picture on the left is the Römerberg - the old central square - with its restored 14th and 15th century buildings.  On the right is one of the many interesting pieces of art we saw in the Frankfurter Dom (the church with the 95m/290 ft. tall steeple at the left of the Römerberg picture).  The Dom was actually left mostly standing after the WWII bombings, and was built between the 13th and 15th century (the tower was completed in the 1860s).
 
After walking around the town a bit and touring the Dom, we visited the Museum of Modern Art. The museum's building is fascinating.  It was designed by Hans Hollein and is wedge-shaped, with a maze of rooms and stairways inside (see below, left).  Neither of us was awed by most of the artwork, but the building itself was worth the visit.  Then we headed over the Goethe Haus - the home of Germany's most famous poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. There was an excellent audio/PDA guide that also had extra pictures on it (for example, the "innards" of the upright piano forte they had in one of the rooms). The house was much more lavish than we expected and very interesting to explore.  One of the highlights was the astronomical clock pictured below that, in addition to the time and date, showed the phases of the moon and zodiac signs.  If you look at the bottom of the "case" you can see a circus bear, inside the purple area. The bear falls on his back as a warning that the clock needs winding!  Elyse has been inspired to read Goethe's "Faust".  It's been interesting so far!


After a bite to eat (and a bit of a rest), we headed over the river to the Städel Art Institute.  There were some fantastic pieces by the "old masters" (Vermeer, Boticello and others), along with some more "modern" artists (Manet, Renoir, etc.) as well.  All in all, a very impressive collection.  We stopped into the museum's book shop after and noticed a book they had on an exhibit - at the sculpture branch of the museum down the road (it was closed by then, but we wouldn't have had the energy to explore it anyway!) - of the works of the Austrian sculptor, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. The pieces looked great - we've copied an example from the Internet below - and we were surprised to find out that he wasn't a modern sculptor, but had actually lived from 1736-1783. Definitely work we'd like to see in person at some point.  Reminiscent of Daumier's lithographic caricatures, but in sculpture form.

When we came out of the museum, the sun was shining beautifully down the river Main (pronounced mine), with a view of the Dom (again).  We decided to take a tram to explore some of the old quarter on this southern side of city.  We came across a traditional pub serving the local apple-wine specialty, and decided to try it out (the pub - not just the wine) for dinner.  There were big wooden tables that people shared with strangers and a lively, friendly mood; clearly a local favorite.  The apple-wine was very good.  It wasn't sweet like cider, but wasn't as dry as "grape" wine either.  Very tasty!  They sold it in jugs with enough for 14 people, but we stuck to the regular glasses (wimps that we are).  The food was also very good.  Luckily, Elyse ordered a "light" meal that was enough to feed us for 2 days!  Gerald's schnitzel was falling over the sides of his plate.  All in all a nice way to end a great day.
   

ERLANGEN / NÜRNBERG and surroundings

Gerald was invited to give a talk in Erlangen (home of the university and a major site for Siemens), so we decided to go in for the weekend before. Erlangen is only a 15 minutes train ride from Nuremberg (strange transliteration from the German name - where did the M come from??), and we knew there would be a lot to explore.  We arrived Saturday and were pleasantly surprised to find what a beautiful town Erlangen is, with a few Huguenot temples (their terminology for churches) and narrow, winding streets with nice old buildings (see below, left).  We went into Nuremberg for Saturday afternoon/evening.  We walked around the town and stopped into the St. Lorenz Church (pictured below, middle - we couldn't fit the whole thing into one picture!).  St. Lorenz was begun around 1250 and finished in about 1477.  The inside is covered with incredible art - sculptures, frescoes, woodwork - that just enhance its awesome size.  The clock on the right is on the Frauenkirche and dates from 1509 (the church itself is from 1350!).  At noon, the seven figures you can see glide out of the clock to come and "bow" before the figure of Emperor Charles IV.  In addition, the musicians surrounding the central figures move and "play" their instruments.  Quite impressive - even worth standing in the rain to watch it!
 
Our next stop was the Albrecht Dürer House.  The painter lived in this house from 1509 to 1528.  They had a fascinating film that introduced us to his life and his art.  Not only did he create some incredible portraits and intricate woodcuts, but apparently he was the first to do watercolors (in Europe anyway). They had his workshop intact (with artists working there on some days), including all the minerals and materials used for the colors.  The audio guide was superb, describing life in general at that time as well as Dürer's accomplishments.  We had dinner in a restaurant/brewery set up in the old cellar rooms of a grain customs warehouse.  Gerald tried the local wurst specialty (we have not even begun to distinguish among the seemingly infinite variety of wursts in this country!).   Elyse took advantage of the fact that we are in a month with the letter "r" to sample the carp specialty (apparently only available in these months!).  The fish arrived and was HUGE - curved up at the head and tail ends - and delicious.

Sunday, we headed back into Nuremberg to visit the German National Museum.  It is the largest of its kind in Germany and is housed in an old monastery. It has an impressive collection of art and artifacts, including altarpieces and armor, and scientific and musical instruments.  We realized after we left (having spent 3 hours looking around) that there was at least another half-day's worth of things to see.  One of our favorite parts was the collection of musical instruments.  Apparently it started with a private collection that had been donated to the museum and grew from there.  We also learned that the clarinet is an invention from Nuremberg! Not only did the collection have pretty much every type of piano imaginable, but there were strange and wonderful examples of wind and string instruments as well.  

BAMBERG

We headed back to Erlangen after lunch as Gerald's host had graciously offered to meet us there to take us to nearby Bamberg for an evening tour and dinner.  Bamberg is one of the few towns in Germany that was not damaged much during the war.  Its main cathedral (Dom) is celebrating its THOUSANDTH(!) birthday this year and was a very impressive place.  It included the simple, but touching tomb of Heinrich II (crowned Holy Roman Emperor here in 1003) and his wife, sculpted by Tilman Riemenschneider (well-known in these parts).  There was a mass starting, so we didn't wander around much. However, this did mean that we got to hear the organ in action. The Dom's surrounding residences and buildings reminded us of the Vatican in (relative) size.  Bamberg itself is a picture-book medieval town, with half-timbered homes along canals, narrow cobblestone roads and formal mansions along the river.  The Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall, pictured below, right) straddles the river (a ruse to avoid paying real-estate taxes, apparently) and is incredibly ornate.  Note in the picture, below right, that a cherub's leg is sticking out of the mural just above the rail/edge, about half-way across.  The blue building is on the other side of the bridge from the Rathaus.  It was too dark to take a lot of pictures around town, but we very much enjoyed walking around.  For dinner we went into a pub where Gerald tried the local "rauchbier", which has a smoky flavor.  It was a fun evening.
   

VIERZEHNHEILIGEN / BEYREUTH

While Gerald was giving his talk and working that Monday and Tuesday, his host's partner (Rachel) kindly offered to tour around with Elyse.  On Monday, they drove to a town about 20 miles away from Erlangen to visit the "Vierzehnheiligen" (Fourteen holy helpers/saints) church.  This is a rococo-style church that was built in 1774 on the site where a shepherd was supposed to have seen visions in the mid 1440s.  It is used as a pilgrimage site for many with various ailments and there is a room filled with thank you notes and tokens, along with discarded crutches, etc.  Each of the saints has a "specialty" ranging from headaches to health of pets to family discord.  Doesn't seem like an even division of labor to us ...  But the most striking thing about the church is how incredibly ornate (WAY over the top for Elyse's taste) the decor is in the church.  We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside, but here is one from the internet. The columns are not marble, but stucco that has been polished to look like marble!  Impressive anyway.

Our next stop was the town of Bayreuth (pronounced bye-roit) where the composer Richard Wagner lived.  There is an important opera festival held here (held since 1876) every summer.  We were lucky to find the house empty of tourists, so we were able to see the many exhibits at a leisurely pace. Elyse probably would have gotten more out of the visit if she were more familiar with Wagner's operas, but it was still interesting.  The (neoclassical) house  was beautiful and the exhibits included many examples of set designs and costumes, along with letters and photographs of Wagner himself and important people in his life (e.g., Franz Liszt was his father-in-law).  Also copies of his original scores and concert programs.  Apparently the music (and festival) were important for Hitler as Wagner's music is very dramatic and is based on German mythology and highlights its historical "strength", fitting well into the Nazi view of the world.  That evening we met many of the physicists (faculty and students) for a pub meal in Erlangen.  A fun time.

On Tuesday, Rachel and Elyse headed to the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, just out from Nuremberg's city center.  By 2001, the town had concluded its 50-year debate on what to do with the building(s) and had converted the massive,  half-finished Congress Hall (pictured below) into a museum that houses the "Documentation Center" and a permanent exhibit entitled, "Fascination and Terror".  Hitler had laid the foundation for this colossal building (designed to mimic the Coliseum in Rome and to hold 50,000 people for meetings) in 1935.  There were plans for an 11 square kilometer/7 square mile complex of buildings and grounds, planned by Albert Speer, that would be used during Nazi Rallies to reflect the "power and glory" of the party.  Rallies had been held in Nuremberg since the late 1920's; the city was apparently chosen as the site for these important symbols partly because there had always been a lot of support for the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in this area, and partly because the city had a long history of imperial rule (the rally grounds were designed to line up with the castle in the background), which reinforced Hitler's desire to be viewed as building an empire.  

Elyse hadn't realized Nuremberg's importance in the rise and power of the Nazi's; it was strange to see sites in the archival footage that she and Gerald had just visited on the weekend. The exhibits and filmed interviews explained the rise and impact of the Nazi Party (and the Nuremberg trials) very clearly and effectively. Rachel surprised Elyse by buying her the book of the museum (in English, no less!), so Elyse will have that as a reference as the detailed memories fade. The book also explained the design of Austrian architect, Günther Domenig for the glass/steel "spear" that pierces the hall at an angle and houses the exhibits. If anyone would like to see more about the museum online, the address is: http://www.museen.nuernberg.de/english/english/reichsparteitag_e/index_reichsparteitag_e.html.  
It was a disturbing place - as are all the monuments of this horrible period - and a stern reminder of the dangers of propaganda/media hype and a culture based on fear, power and excessive nationalism.  Potent lessons for today as well, unfortunately.

Gerald had had a productive and successful visit at the University in Erlangen and we had managed to fit a lot into a few days.  But it was nice to get on the train after dinner and head back "home" to Heidelberg.