12 Sep '05 - + 18 - 16 A Week in Franconia
We got back last night from spending five nights in northern Bavaria,
in the Franconia region. Jenny had to work most of the week with
Siemens in the town of
Forchheim.
Since my German classes are over I got to trail along. While that
meant I spent the first three days working on my computer in the hotel
room instead of in the apartment, we also managed some fun tourism over
the weekend.
Although I was there for three days, I didn't see that much of
Forchheim. It's an old German city that just celebrated its
1200-year anniversary, but it's more known these days as a Siemens
company town. I probably should have found the time to visit the
castle, but instead I stayed in the hotel room, working on my Master's
Degree project and enjoying wireless internet access. I managed
to venture out every day for lunch and dinner, including unexpected
Mexican and Romanian dinners. Of course, there was also plenty of
pizza and ice cream. The best meal of the week was a traditional
Franconian dinner in an old converted water mill; large pork steaks
with interesting flavors and good wine.
A fountain in Forchheim which has a runoff that extends the length of town, meaning you need to be very careful where you step
Town Hall Square
I will probably blog separately about this later, but it has been
interesting to watch the political process in Germany work in the
run-up to next Sunday's national elections. My German isn't
strong enough to follow everything in the papers, but I pick up a lot
from occasional TV ads (much less frequent than in America) and from
billboards. Unlike in America, German parties use billboards and
posters everywhere. Sometimes they just have a name and picture
of a local candidate, sometimes they advertise uplifting party slogans,
and sometimes they attack the other parties. There a few,
however, that catch the eyes, like this one for the Green Party we saw
in Forchheim (the text says "Yes to healthy food, Yes to the Greens):
On Saturday, we decided to head East to an area about which our guide books say nothing:
Franconian Switzerland.
Basically, there was a spur rail line from Forchheim to the small town
of Ebermannstadt, and we decided that anywhere with rail service in an
area named after Switzerland was probably worth checking out.
Ebermannstadt is a small town, and its tourist offices are closed on
Saturday, so we had to make up our plan on our own. We wandered
around the city center for a while, seeing some cute fountains and an
old functioning waterwheel. Then, we decided to go for a
hike. I'm not a big hiker, but it wasn't very hot, and the hills
above the valley looked inviting.
Unfortunately, it was an overcast and hazy day, so we didn't get any
great pictures of the valley. However, it was fun to get out and
get some good exercise.
After that, we returned to the town and had a fantastic late
lunch. My smoked trout with horseradish was the best non-fried
trout I'd ever had, and the accompanying
smoked beer (with an aftertaste of bacon), was perfect.
Fun fountain in Ebermannstadt
Working wooden waterwheel
On Sunday, we headed to
Nuremberg.
Jenny and I had each been there on separate trips, but we wanted to go
there together. Additionally, we were flying back to Hamburg from
the Nuremberg airport, so it made sense. We didn't really do
anything special while there. For the most part, we just followed
the walking tour recommended by Lonely Planet and acted like the
tourists we were. I found Nuremberg much more interesting than I
had on my previous trip in 1997 (when I granted it barely a sentence in
an
email).
It has a huge and interesting castle, some interesting statues,
sculptures and fountains, and really good bratwurst.
Nuremberg Castle
A fountain with seven depictions of marriage. The one visible on
the left shows two lovers in bliss, and the one visible on the right
shows a couple of skeletons trying to kill each other.
The seven virtues, spurting water from their breasts
A major bike race in front of the train station, continuing our
propensity for running into major athletic competitions (five cities so
far)
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