I expected cold, rainy weather throughout my visit, but you can see from the blue skies at the Kepler Monument in Weil der Stadt (near Stuttgart) that the weather was wonderful. I never had to use my umbrella during the entire trip! This town is not exactly a tourist mecca, especially in the Fall, so I practically had the town to myself. I had driven in from Frankfurt, so I had a few pastries here for a late lunch. Finding bakery in Germany is never a problem, even in the small towns.
The Kepler museum is just behind the monument, and covers several floors. I am always impressed with the intricate work in the simple tools used in this era (16th-17th centuries), and I am glad I could see some of the tools used by the famous astronomers. This compass was used by Kepler in his studies of the planetary orbits.
It did not take too long to tour the Kepler museum, and I am never too bothered by jet lag, so I decided to continue on to Speyer on my first day. The market place in front of the cathedral was also fairly empty this time of year. Unfortunately, the cathedral was closed in preparation for a large festival on Sunday, so I could not get in. From one of the locals, Sunday morning would be a pretty well-attended event, with lots of high-ranking church officials and 300 gallons of wine in a cup in front of the cathedral! The event is to be a commemoration of a 19th century priest who worked in the region.
On Saturday morning, a farmer's market was set up near the cathedral. Lots of local vegetables and fruits just off the farms, but since I had no way to store them, I had to settle for some pastries and a jar of honey. The ground was wet from an evening rain, but the drizzle stopped by about 8 am.
It's not often that you find a real rubber stamp store in Europe, so Carol would have been very impressed with this store. Not only that, there were several places in town that sold items for this hobby! We will both return when the cathedral is open.
Between the main city parking lot and the Cathedral is a small park, perfectly placed so that kids can get out and play after a car trip. I really liked this giant spider, with the webbing coming out its backside forming a netting for the kids to play on. Inside the spider, its anatomy is painted in detail, so you can see all its major internal organs.
I decided to skip the Speyer festival and return when it would be less crowded, hopefully, with Carol. I drove up to Idar-Oberstein around noon, and visited the Felsenkirche, the church built into the side of the cliff over the city. Since it was Saturday afternoon, I expected lots of the stores to be closed, but since this is a tourist town, nearly everything was open until early evening. The town is the center for gem cutting and carving, and the pedestrian mall was filled with dozens of jewelry stores selling everything from trinkets to fine jewelry. I bought some tie tacks for me, with amethyst (my birthstone) and lapis lazuli (one of Carol's favorite stones).
The view from the old castle above the Felsenkirche offers a wonderful view of the towns below. I didn't expect the fall colors, so that was a nice bonus all through Germany and Poland.
The mineral museum in Idar-Oberstein filled several floors, and turned out to be the only place in town where I could see mineral specimens instead of gems. I could not find any mineral dealers in the main part of town, so this was my only opportunity. Unfortunately, I was not too impressed with the specimens. I was also expecting to see some pretty amazing carvings, but they must have been on tours. After this disappointment, I decided not to stay a second night in town, and head to another place - Köln.
As I passed through a train station on the way to Köln, I saw a poster for a movie that looked pretty interesting. Translation - "Dwarves - the forest is not enough". Looks like a comedy worth seeing!
Köln! One of the largest cathedrals in the world. It is situated right between the train station and the main shopping center, so it gets a lot of foot traffic. Lots of tourists were around to ask help in taking my picture. Still no rain - a little cool breeze; perfect weather for traveling. It was impossible to get the entire cathedral in a picture that includes a single person, so I had the guy take my picture just in front of the main door. Note all the detail and sculptures. When the place was built, everything was white, so it must have been even more impressive.
The narrow interior makes an optical illusion to me. The eyes are drawn upward, and when they return to ground level, the place just seem so much larger. The stained glass windows are overexposed here, but in person, add magnificent colors. I don't know if there is another more impressive cathedral in Europe, except perhaps the Sainte Chapelle in Paris.
The route up one of the spires requires 509 steps in a narrow staircase, but the view at the end is magnificent. The Rhine River is below. In addition to the city view, the observation platform and a few windows offer good close-up views of the details in the cathedral's construction.
I have a pretty wide angle lens on my digital camera, but its still difficult to capture the entire cathedral from the plaza. At night, the lighting makes the cathedral look even taller. It seems that the since the steeples get narrower as they get higher, and you expect them to look narrower because of distance, the effect is multiplied, making them look even higher - a really great optical illusion. One of the souvenirs I picked up was a porcelain medallion of the cathedral. I collect these types of medallions from the foreign cities I visit, but this is the first non-metallic one in my collection. The manufacturer, Meissen, is one of the oldest porcelain manufacturers in Europe, so it was an appropriate memento.
The main pedestrian shopping mall near the cathedral has all manner of stores, from high fashion stores to fast food to specialty stores like this honey store. I could not resist my tradition of getting dark honey from various locations, but since I already bought a jar in Speyer, I bought some honey wine and honey liquor from this shop.
Nordsee is a chain fast-food fish sandwich place with stores all over Germany. I was not bold enough to try some of these apparently uncooked offerings, no matter how colorful they appeared. I wimped out and got an Alaskan deep-fried fish sandwich.
Carol and I were in Berlin in 2002, but the Brandenburg Gate was being restored under a large canvas. I met Jerry a few hours earlier in Hamburg, and with a few hours in Berlin to spare, we walked on over. Still nice weather, perfect for walking a few miles. From here, we walked over to the KdW, the large department store. The sixth floor is the food floor, with its huge selection of sausages, cheeses, and exotic foods. Its always an amazing place to visit.
From here, Jerry and I continued on the Berlin-Warsaw Express into Poland. For a chronological tour, click here, or else continue with the German visit by scrolling down.
Our first night back in Germany, after a 12 hour train ride, put in Hannover. Jerry enjoyed trying the local beers, but this one was definitely a loser! It reminded him of the beer/soda-pop mixtures in Nigeria that he imagines are pretty bad. He ordered the Radler beer without reading the label that said "Beer mixed with lemonade"! I guess it is an acquired taste.
Breakfast in the hotel formed a little nicer memory - a typical all-you-can-eat buffet, including sausages, pastries, and fruit. I tried to not eat too much, saving room for snacks later in the day, but Jerry saw things a little differently...
Jerry's first time on the Autobahn, and he could not resist going as fast as he could in our little Volkswagen Polo. While the speedometer here shows about 158 km/hr, he did get over 161 km/hr (100mph) a few times.
The Germans are so precise, I love it! Note that the deer warning signs on opposite sides of the highway are both facing toward the road. In America, they use the same sign on both sides. Who cares if a deer is *leaving* the highway? The orientation of the signs above make perfect sense!
On Sunday morning, we visited the home of the Holsten ancestors, a small village near Bremen called Kirchtimke. Carol and I visited here in 2002 (click here), but Jerry had not been here, so it was worth a repeat visit.
Silvia Mangels lives in Ostertimke, and Cord Holsten and his wife live in Kirchtimke. They were gracious enough to spend Sunday morning and afternoon with us, showing us around the neighboring villages and some old houses, where "Holsten" is painted above the door. Cord is an eighth-cousin, if we counted correctly, and Silvia is even further removed, but they are always a pleasure to meet and spend some time with.Return to Germany-Poland)All text and images are owned by Stellar Products, 1992-2006. Any use by others without permission of Stellar Products is prohibited.
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