.: Rheingold part II Electric Bugaloo :.

Mit dem Frühlingsbeginn erwachen auch wir aus dem (in diesem Jahr längere andauernden) Winterschlaf. Eine der ersten Touren...

... führt uns am 04.05. zunächst ins bereits bekannte Wiesbaden, dort genießen wir mit der Nerobergbahn (EN/GER) bei bestem Wetter eine Fahrt auf den gleichnamigen Berg. Die Bahn führt vom Nerotal auf den Neroberg, wobei sie auf einer Länge von 438 m und einer durchschnittlichen Steigung von 19 % einen Höhenunterschied von 83 m überwindet. Als letzte Bergbahn dieses Typs in Deutschland ist die Nerobergbahn heute ein technisches Kulturdenkmal. Am kommenden Tag gings nochmal ins Rheingau - Eltville (EN/GER) und das Kloster Eberbach (EN/GER) hatten´s uns bei unserem ersten Besuch angetan.... ;)

.: Mainzigartig :.

For all the connections that we have to Wiesbaden, H and I have not really had the chance to explore Mainz, just across the Rhine, together. We tried for a windshield tour (Spitzentour) of the Market Place and sites over the weekend but we were pressed for time, first distracted by the promise of a flea market.

That turned out to be a time-consuming disappointment—an “East-Enders” Flohmarkt as my mother calls such sub-par traps because of the strange preponderance of the British melodrama for sale.

Nonetheless, we made it into the old city with a little time left to marvel at the main square, which hosted Johann Gutenberg’s first workshop and publishing house (although I think this is always a problematic claim to lay, like a lot of places all over advertising, truthfully, that Schiller/Luther/Goethe slept here) and dominated by the spires of the Cathedral of Mainz (Dom zu Mainz).
This thousand year old cathedral was the seat of one of the first Holy Sees created north of the Alps, at the nexus of several ancient trade-routes, and modelled after the original Basilica of Saint Peter’s in the Vatican.
Since the Middle Ages, the cathedral was granted the right to crown the kings and emperors of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, which could not always take place in this venue, because the place had extraordinary bad luck with fires and other disasters that put it out of commission.

It was rebuilt, however, each time with more protections, stone and then steel as opposed to wood, and is probably now nearly indestructible. We had the chance to enjoy a nice brunch with an excellent view of the square and more resolve to visit it properly very soon and discover the rest of this gorgeous and storied city.

.: swimming with sharks :.

Nachdem wir in den letzten Jahren x-mal auf der A71 an der Grenze zum Thüringer Wald die Hinweistafel für das Meeresaquarium Zella-Mehlis passierten und uns jedes Mal vornahmen, dort auch endlich mal zu stoppen, sollte es an diesem Wochenende dann tatsächlich mal passieren.

Bei bestem Wetter machten wir uns auf den Weg und erreichten nach nicht mal einer Stunde Fahrzeit Zella-Mehlis (EN/DE).

Das Meeresaquarium Zella-Mehlis zeigt auf 6650 m² Ausstellungsfläche mehr als 4000 Tiere (etwa 200 Arten in über 60 Aquarien und Terrarien), die Anlage besitzt ein Krokodilhaus, den Koi-Park und ein Haifischbecken.

Eine besondere Attraktion sind die Schwarz- und Weißspitzenriffhaie für die Besucher, ebenso die Leopardhaie und die 20 Kaimane, darunter ein seltenes weißes Tier.

.: market days oder alsfeld that endsfeld:.

A little stir-crazy over the weather that’s just seeping fog and on a mission to find a few good gifts, I took a drive through Hessen towards Giessen and Marburg, along a stretch of the historic short-cut trade route (Kurze Hessen) from Frankfurt am Main to distant Leipzig, and stopped at an antique exposition in the city of Alsfeld.

Passing through the old town on my way back, I took a few minutes to explore the market square. Wandering through a knot of narrow lanes with hosted a romance of half-timbered (Fachwerk) houses, I headed for the landmark town hall (Rathaus) that dominated the skyline it shared with a crowd of medieval buildings.

The gothic Rathaus had a matching, towering post-and-beam façade, perched on top of a foundation of stone arches.
 I hated to cut the visit short, but surely we could both have the chance to visit the area again together, since not only is the antique market a regular occurrence—there was a lot immediate area that I missed with my windshield-tour, I learned later: Attila the Hun and his armies camped there and there’s a museum plus a living legacy with the locals, who have to this days a high incidence of Mongolian genes, the storied Church of Saint Walpurgis has a particularly spectacular carillon of bells that I didn’t get to hear and apparently an ossuary (Beinhaus) to see, plus a small constellation of equally undiscovered architectural jewels to find in the vicinity.

.: jurassic park oder schwaben alb:.

After the morning fog cleared, we were lucky to have an absolutely beautiful golden October weekend for our visit to the town and castle at Sigmaringen in the Swabian Alb—part of the Jura mountain range, between Stuttgart and Lake Constance (Bodensee).
 It was one last opportunity to take the new Bully for a turn and go camping this year before the cold weather and short days set in. The castle on an outcropping overlooking a gentle, narrow spot along the Danube (Donau) dominated the surrounding, rather modern city that’s spread around and was an odd juxtaposition on the approach and when we went to pick up some provisions in the evening, with the castle’s turrets clearly visible from the parking lot of a discount supermarket chain.
Not that castles are always remote occurrences, monitoring peasants from on-high, but it was strange and impressive the way that this one just sort of mushroomed from the landscape. First we sought out the best vantage points, strolling through the historic part of town (Altstadt) and then climbing through the neighbourhoods to a chapel opposite, Saint Joseph’s, to get a view. Our campsite on the banks of the Danube, crooking around with a view of the castle at night was very nearby. The next morning we had a tour, which was an absolutely fantastic review of its history with an amazing inventory of finery to impress the visiting crowds.

No photography was allowed inside, unfortunately. Sigmaringen is the estate of a branch of the Hohenzollern family, the hereditary princes of Prussia and was host to many important and powerful guests during all its incarnations, and has been an independent principality of Prussia and the seat of the Vichy government of France in exile in its time. Aside from period furnishings from the family’s private collection, the memorable tour featured a lot of hunting trophies and a weapons collection fit for the past time of kings and an Andy Warhol painting of relative, Fredrick the Great.

.: Hennebergerland :.

We took a leisurely Sunday drive just over the border into Thüringen to visit two of the historic holdings of the ancient Henneberg line. The stately castle occupied the centre of the old town of Römhild, at the foot of the twin mountains, the Gleichberge.
The former royal residence, in late Gothic style, now housed several apartments and doctor’s practices as well as a museum in deference to the town’s reputation for distinctive hand-thrown pottery.
Next, we took some meandering country roads to see the impressive complex of Schloss Bertholdsburg, which once held between its towers, courtyard and four grand wings the whole surrounding town of Schleusingen as a villa for the Duke of Henneberg.

As the domain of the dukes waxed and waned and were realligned over the centuries, the town has since grown out of those original dimensions and now the castle hosts a quite large dinosaur museum and convention centre and after a fire took on its Renaissance style façade, but the castle still is a dominating feature of the old town district and boasts some impressive architectural features, including a Prunk Portal (fancy gate) and an expansive garden.

.: Just a little video review of our trip to the Rheingau :.