Germany – Page 2 – DJmotortouring

Zeil Am Main (Lower Franconia), Germany September 2023 (Tour 8)

After a third night in Triefenstein we headed off towards a campsite to the south of Bamberg, stopping on the way at the small town of Zeil am Main for a “look-see” and a spot of lunch. Zeil am Main is a town of almost six thousand inhabitants located on the right bank of the Main some 15 miles northwest of Bamberg. The town is known for it’s castle ruins (Schmachtenburg Castle) and for being the home of the long established Goller Brewery.

*We parked the Van up alongside a large pond on the outskirts of Zeil am Main*

Motor homes are popular in Germany and most German towns have a decent stellplatz close to the town centre and so it is in Zeil am Main. We parked the Van on a virtually empty stellplatz in a pretty residential part of the town close to a large fishing pond and set off into the town. The first building of any note that we came across after entering the town proper was the Hexenturm or ‘Witches Tower’. During the 17th century Zeil am Main along with many other towns in the area, particularly Bamberg, was the scene of numerous witch hunts. Some 400 people from Bamberg and the surrounding area were burned at the stake after ‘confessing’ to witchcraft. Suspected witches were held and tortured in the Hexenturm in Zeil or in the Drudenhaus in Bamberg until they confessed.

The second building of any note that we encountered was the Parish Church of Saint Michael which proved to be considerably more interesting than the Hexenturm. It’s a beautiful baroque style church with some impressive 14th century frescoes and an absolutely splendid ceiling. Outside the church is a remarkable little chapel, the Anna Chapel. Not many people know this but Anna was Mary’s mother (i.e. Jesus’s grandmother).

Leaving aside St Michael’s and the Hexenturm, there is not a great deal to Zeil am Main and I think it is somewhat overrated as a place to visit unless of course you are into beer.

Franconia is as much a beer producing region as it is a wine producer and I was keen to see and perhaps enjoy lunch at one of the large local breweries. They are famous in this area for organising large rowdy parties on a daily basis where a wide range of craft beers and good local food is served in the brewery beer gardens. Almost immediately after arrival in Zeil am Main we were lucky to stumble upon one of the town’s more famous breweries, the Brauereigaststatte Goller (which dates back to 1514) and events in their beer garden were in full swing with countless large steins of beer and great plates of the local dish (i.e. “Schaufele”) in evidence everywhere. Even Vanya whom I have never seen drink beer was keen to try the place out but unfortunately, Goller’s tables are available on a first come-first served basis only and we lucked out. The place was already heaving with people as we arrived.

We had to settle on a nearby Greek Restaurant which was a poor substitute and to cap it all their food was rubbish. Instead of “Schaufele” I had to settle for a tasteless pork schnitzel and Vanya’s dish looked and tasted even worse.

In case you are wondering, “Schaufele” translates to “shovel” and what you get when you order this dish is a small shovel of pork (with potato dumplings). It looks so tasty…

After lunch we made time to walk more around the town but as has been mentioned above there is not a great deal else to see.

I considered walking up to the ruins of the 14th century Schmachtenburg Castle (Vanya didn’t want to know) but I’d seen some photos (see below) and decided, rather wisely I thought, to give it a miss.

And so we moved on to ‘Camping Island Bamberg’ in neighbouring Upper Franconia for a couple of nights. We had it in mind to visit another small town famous for it’s beer – Forchheim.

Burgstadt (Lower Franconia), Germany September 2023 (Tour 8)

Just two kilometres from Miltenberg is the smaller town of Burgstadt. There’s a large stellplatz at the edge of the town and I left Vanya and the dogs in the Van on this stellplatz while I went off for a quick look around Burgstadt.

The most interesting features of this relatively plain town (most places will appear plain after Miltenberg) are; the old and once fortified Parish Church of Saint Margareta (the nave and tower of which date back to the 13th century); the 16th century Rathaus (the town hall building); the celebrated Rudolf Furst Winery (closed while we were in the town) and; foremost amongst all of these, the 1oth century Martinskapelle (St Martin’s Chapel). Certainly, it was the chapel which drew me to Burgstadt.

St Martin’s was built as a chapel in the 10th century and is now recognised as one of the oldest churches in Franconia. It is most remarkable for it’s 16th century wall and ceiling paintings which include 40 medallions depicting scenes from the bible (both Old and New Testaments). Unusual and beautiful.

*Some of the 40 Old & New Testament Medallions*

There was one other feature I was drawn to while in Burgstadt and that was the small rose garden behind the parish church. I spent a pleasant half hour in the garden before heading back to the Van and then on to Triefenstein.

That’s the tiny rose garden with the parish church in the background.

Miltenberg (Lower Franconia), Germany September 2023 (Tour 8)

That first day, after overnighting in Triefenstein, we thought to visit two towns in the Lower Franconian area of Bayern: Miltenberg on the River Main and then, if time permitted, nearby Burgstadt.

Miltenberg is a small town of just under 10,000 inhabitants. It is a beautiful place which straddles a curve in the River Main and is often referred to as the “Pearl of the Main”. It has a particularly attractive old town covering a narrow 2km stretch of land on the south side of the river between the two medieval tower gates Mainzer Tor and Wurzburger Tor. Being sandwiched between the river and the Odenwald Forest it is just 150 metres wide. You couldn‘t get lost there if you tried.

Given it’s proximity to Frankfurt and because it is a regular stopping place for many cruise boats which travel the Main, Miltenberg’s tiny old town is more often than not crowded with tourists during the summer months. We arrived at the end of summer and considered ourselves lucky as just one cruise boat was docked in the town.

We parked the Van in the local stellplatz and walked across the Main Bridge into the old town via the Brueckenturm or Zwillingstor, to use the tower’s proper name. There’s a lovely promenade along this part of the river bank and we walked that later in the day but our first priority was to head along Hauptstrasse (the high street) towards the town’s triangular Marktplatz (the market place), known as Schnatterloch, and plan our day from there over a local wine or beer (and a late breakfast).

Miltenberg Old Town from the Main Bridge

Schnatterloch is to all intents and purposes the centre of the old town and easy to reach. Simply follow the mostly pedestrianised Hauptstrasse, which runs parallel to the river for almost the whole length of the old town, and you’ll reach it.

It’s a picture perfect cobbled medieval market place comprising an ornate 16th century renaissance fountain (the Marketbrunnen Fountain) almost completely surrounded by a series of pastel coloured half timbered buildings, a beautiful red sandstone church (Saint Jacobus) and a small town gate which leads up to Miltenberg Castle. I went up to the castle for the views but didn’t go inside as I had left Vanya outside a cafe on Schnatterloch with the dogs and wasn’t sure if she had sufficient Euros with her to cover our brunch.

There’s a second more controversial fountain in the 0ld town of three men peeing into a pond (the Schaffelbrunserbrunnen Fountain) which I had read about but didn’t bother searching out. No more need be said about that.

In case you’re interested, the red timbered building which features in all three of the above photos is known as the Schmuckkastchen or Little Jewellery Box. It’s a hotel now and very pretty too. I understand that the town has at least 150 of the half timbered buildings and a good two thirds of them are to be found on Hauptstrasse. It’s a fascinating street with some wonderful cafes and shops. I read that it takes about 30 minutes to walk the Hauptstrasse. It took Vanya and I over 50 minutes to walk it’s length; the place was so interesting. Sadly, I couldn’t help but notice more stolpersteine along the route but credit to the local authorities for supporting this initiative.

Most of the half timbered houses in Miltenberg, and especially those on the Hauptstrasse, date from the 17th and 18th centuries but; the oldest, the “Zum Riessen Hotel’, dates back to the 16th century. The building has been renovated many times since then but the basic architecture is as it was in 1590. Previous guests of the hotel include two Holy Roman Emperors (Frederick I and Charles IV), a couple of European Kings, Martin Luther, Richard Strauss, Napoleon Bonaparte, Elvis Presley and now us (although unlike the others we didn’t stay over).

I’ll end this entry with a few photographs of the Parish Church of Saint Jacobus which, as I mentioned before, is on the Schnatterloch. The first photo was taken from the Hauptstrasse in an area known as Schwarzviertel or Black Quarter (so named because the high buildings surrounding the little lanes in this part of the town admit very little daylight) and the second photo is from a lane off of the Schnatterloch which leads up to the town’s castle. The first Church of Saint Jacobus was erected on the Schnatterloch in the 13th century but the current church is a late 18th century rebuild. Just outside the church is a small plinth with a statue of a pilgrim on his way to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, 2577 kilometres away.

*Inside the Evangelical Lutheran Church*

All in all, we were both very pleased to be able to while away a few hours in Miltenberg. There are a great many well preserved medieval towns and villages all across Europe. This must rank amongst the most striking in Germany because, unlike many, it was barely touched during World War II. It‘s a really beautiful little town to spend a few hours.

That’s it for now. There’s just enough time to stop off in Burgstadt before we head back to Triefenstein.

Triefenstein (Lower Franconia), Germany September 2023 (Tour 8)

Our next overnight stop was Camping Main Spessart Park in the small town of Triefenstein in the Lower Franconia area of Bayern Region. Following the model in Saarburg we intended using Triefenstein as a base from which to visit a couple of places in the Lower Franconia area namely Miltenberg and Burgstadt.

Starting with Triefenstein itself, there’s not a great deal to see in the immediate area. Yes, there’s the 12th century Kloster Triefenstein Monastery just outside the town but it is not generally open to the public and I wasn’t going to walk up there from the campsite just to wander it’s grounds (always assuming the public are allowed entrance into the grounds). There is also a small market square containing an obelisk dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the Dreifaltigkeutssaule, (which was inspired by similar monuments in Austria at Wien and Bayern) and; there is the Parish Church of Sankt Jacobus to see. Perhaps most interesting, there is a fresco on a nearby house commemorating Napoleon’s crossing of the Main on his way to Russia in 1812. It seems Napoleon’s army built a pontoon bridge nearby and he stayed overnight in the town.

Except for it’s impressive little Edeka supermarket, that is about it so far as Triefenstein is concerned but we didn’t expect a great deal and, as I said earlier, we intended using the town as a base from which to explore other parts of Lower Franconia. We would start the next day with Miltenberg and possibly Burgstadt.

Wolf an der Mosel (Rhein Pfalz), Germany September 2023 (Tour 8)

Unable to move on because of the wine fest we elected to use Saarburg as a base from which to visit nearby towns.

We had enjoyed a short boat trip up and down the River Saar when later in the day during an impromptu wine tasting session in the ‘Bonsai & Wine’ off- licence on Kunhof, the very friendly and knowledgeable chap running the place suggested we visit Trier and the much smaller town of Traban-Trabarch. So off we went.

Vanya wasn’t keen on our visiting Trier (her hip was causing her some considerable pain and she wouldn’t be able to walk both Trier and Traban-Trabarch in the same day) and so we headed directly for the much smaller town of Traban-Trabarch some 50 miles north east of Saarburg on the River Moselle.

Traban-Trarbach (Traben is on one bank of the Moselle and Trarbach is on the other) is a charming little town of about 6,000 people famous for it’s castle and it’s wine. Unfortunately, there must have been nearer 26,000 people in the town as we arrived (I’d forgotten all about the wine-fest) and even after driving an almost complete circuit of both Traban and Trarbach we couldn’t find a parking space anywhere near the old town centre. Vanya simply wouldn’t cope with the walking. Once again we were required to improvise but this time it was easy. All the work was done for us. As we drove in ever widening circles in search of somewhere to park (that’s a bit of an exaggeration), we stumbled upon the small village of Wolf an der Mosel.

*Wolf an der Mosel is to be found inside a tight loop of the Mosel just 3 kms from Traban-Trabarch near the more famous wine producing town of Krov*

Surrounded by meadows and vineyards Wolf, is just 3 kilometres up the Moselle from Traban-Trabarch and not far from the beautiful little castle at Bernkastel-Kues. It’s a winegrowing village almost completely surrounded by a loop in the river and it even has it’s own municipal campsite. Perhaps most important one of the Wolf wineries, Weingut Comes, was open and serving. After a good walk around the village, that was to be our destination.

The family in Weingut Comes were very welcoming and the wine was good. We enjoyed glasses of a 1921 Rivaner Trocken (a dry Riesling) and a younger 1922 Schieferlay (another dry Riesling with a stronger flavour) with Vanya favouring the Rivaner and me opting for the Schieferlay. We drank them with a shared breaded cheese which was fantastic and left with more than a few bottles in the back of the Van.

It’s odd but sometimes the simple little stops such as in Wolf can make for as good a day as any in a historically rich and interesting city.

Saarburg (Rhine Pfalz), Germany September 2023 (Tour 8)

This was a return to the Rheinland Palatinate but our first time in the popular tourist town of Saarburg. We expected Saarburg to be busy but were unaware the town holds it’s annual “Saarweinfest” during the first complete week of September and we arrived on Tuesday 5 September to find the place absolutely teeming. Ordinarily a wine festival is reason to celebrate but there will be wine festivals throughout all of Germany’s wine producing areas during the month of September and this will make it very difficult for us to find suitable camp sites along our intended route. And so to Plan B. We had secured the last available space in the Leukbachtal Campsite but were allowed to stay on beyond our planned one night (possession is everything in camp sites across Europe). We decided to stay on and use the place as a base from which to make day trips until such time as something resembling normality returned. Plan B worked. Over the next three days we saw all we needed to see of Saarburg, took a boat trip up and down the River Saar and visited both Traban-Trabarch and the little village of Wolf in the Van.

Saarburg old town isn’t that big but it is very picturesque. It’s most interesting features appear to be, in no particular order, the 10th century castle ruins (Burg Saarburg), it’s two primary churches (Saint Laurentinus and the Evangelical Church) and it’s very scenic centre (the cafe area) bordering the tiny River Leuk. The centre is referred to in certain blogs as Little Venice because of the number of footbridges crossing the River Leuk but, I suspect, it will have been named by people who have never been to Venice. No matter, it is still very much worth seeing.

My first exploration of the town took me from the Leukbachtel, past the Parish Church of Saint Laurentinus (I wasn’t particularly impressed with this church – contrary to what I’d read, it is very plain inside and the stain glass windows are not at all grand) and then on up to the highpoint of the town, Burg Saarburg. There is little left of the original castle, other than it’s keep. The castle was dynamited by a French army in 1709 and was left an almost total ruin. The focus of all the recent restoration work appears to have been towards creating a restaurant, viewing points over the town and a series of lifts and ramps for the disabled but the views are impressive and the short walking route up to the castle takes you by the pretty sandstone Evangelical Church.

*Looking down over the old town from a new viewing point*

*Looking through a castle window towards a local vineyard.*

I didn’t stay long in the castle because one of my primary objectives during this first walk around Saarburg was to find a decent restaurant and book a table for the evening. This search took me on to the scenic cafe area and waterfall… and I was fortunate enough to secure a table in a pleasant spot by the river for dinner.

I’ll let the photos of the River Leuk do the talking…

Dinner that first night in Saarburg was pleasant enough, with Vanya’s dessert very much looking as if it were the main event but my apfelstrudel wasn’t bad and the local Riesling wine was fine.

*The view from our table as darkness descended*

Over the next couple of days we made frequent returns to the old town and were invariably there for dinner. Vanya has always liked ice cream and now she has discovered ‘spaghettieis’, a dessert created by Dario Fontanella in Germany during the 1960’s. Vanilla ice cream is extruded through a potato ricer, giving it the appearance of spaghetti. It is then placed over whipped cream and topped with strawberry sauce (to simulate tomato sauce) and grated almonds to represent the parmesan cheese. It is very popular across Germany and with Vanya.

No visit to Saarburg would be complete without a walk down to the Saar River where it is possible to cross the town bridge to the Saarburg suburb of Beurig and/or take short boat trips along the Saar.

We did both, starting with the short (1.5 hour) boat trip up and down the river. I wouldn’t particularly recommend this trip (there was little to see) but the weather was ideal for a short cruise; we could take the dogs with us on the boat at no extra charge and; the bar stocked bottles of the locally produced sparkling wine which we enjoyed in the company of a couple of two friendly Dutch ladies. Well, Vanya enjoyed it. I succeeded in spilling two glasses of wine and shattering one champagne flute which almost took the edge off our little cruise.

*There are worse ways to spend a sunny afternoon*

*That’s the boat we took, photographed from the bridge across to Beurig*

Saarburg is a lovely little town. We were perhaps unlucky arriving during a local holiday while the place was so busy but, in response to that, I recall our arriving in Colmar in France during the Covid Pandemic two or three years ago and our finding the streets, even the town centre, totally deserted. That was most disconcerting and, when all is said and done, much about these places has been created for people to enjoy.

One final bitter sweet observation about Saarburg: There are numerous stolpersteine (stumbling stones) dotted all around the town. Outside one house in the suburb of Beurig, I stumbled on ‘stones’ recognising a family of ten. These small brass blocks or ‘stones’ stand outside the homes or workplaces of people who were persecuted by the Nazis during and in the lead up to World War 2. The 10 stones in the photo below are outside what was the home of a Jewish family on Kloster Strasse in Beurig. There is a stone for each family member and the stone identifies their name and birthdate and what happened to them; being the year they were arrested and/or deported, where they were taken to and what ultimately happened to the person (where and when).

In many cases, stolpersteine serve as the only memorial to so many ordinary people whose lives were devastated by the Nazis and the initiator of the scheme (Gunther Demnig and his team) and the towns and villages which support his initiative (Saarburg included) are to be applauded.

Moritzburg (Saxony), Germany July 2022 (Tour 6)

Erfurt was fantastic but it was time to move on. Our next destination was Weimar and we made it to the town within 40 minutes of leaving Erfurt but, something was going on in the place which made it impossible to park. We drove around a short while looking for a parking space but then gave up and continued on to Moritzburg in Saxony. From what little we saw, Weimar for all it’s history and culture didn’t really appeal.

Most famous for it’s Baroque Castle, Schloss Moritzburg is a pretty moated castle with four large round towers situated some 8 miles from Dresden. Initially it was a hunting lodge built for Duke Moritz of Saxony between 1542 and 1546. It seems this the forests and lakes in this area were favourite hunting grounds of the Electors and Kings of Saxony.

Almost 200 years later Augustus the Strong of the Saxon House of Wettin (who became Elector of Saxony and King of Poland), wanting something of a pleasure palace, had it converted into the magnificent Baroque castle it is today. It was not open to visitors when I arrived but the inside is supposed to be spectacular. It has more than 200 rooms and seven extravagent halls. One room known as ‘The Feather Room’ has many thousands of multicoloured feathers of exotic birds on display. Another, the Banquet Hall has a collection of 71 red deer antlers some of which are 400 years old.

I don’t know much about Augustus the Strong but I read that he was a patron of the arts and it was he who transformed Dresden into a major cultural centre. He was enormously strong (as is suggested by his name) and he is rumoured to have sired more than 300 illegitimate children with a host of mistresses – seems a lot.

The Banquet Hall with it’s collection of red deer antlers. Obviously, this is not my photo. I never made it into the castle.

The House of Wettin used the castle as a residence from then on with the last owner, Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, using it between 1933 until 1945 when towards the end of WW2 the Wettins were evicted by the Russians. Some of their most precious art treasures were buried in the castle park by the Prince and his sons but these were almost all discovered and carried off by the Soviet troops. What they didn’t find was unearthed in 1996 by some amateur archaeologists who discovered a number of boxes containing jewels and gold ornaments.

Except for the castle and it’s grounds there is not a great deal to Moritzburg but there are a number of cafes and a couple of bars (one being the hotel) and I did enjoy a nice beer sitting in the hotel gardens.

Next time, it will be Dresden, not Moritzburg. From all that I have heard, Dresden will certainly be worth coming back to.

Erfurt (Thuringia), Germany July 2022 (Tour 6)

And this is where, as so often happens, our plans changed. A pleasant, very interesting and well travelled German couple whom we met in Bacharach recommended we visit Erfurt and Weimar. He is a sportswriter who amongst other things is paid to trial new motorhomes all over the world and his wife was until recently an English high school teacher – no prizes for guessing whose job we most covet. With people such as this, you listen and you respond. We turned the Van around until it was facing Erfurt and off we went. Great decision!

Erfurt is Thuringia’s capital and it’s largest city with a population of 200,000+. The city made it’s money in the Middle Ages as a a trading centre for Woad (a then rare and very expensive blue dye) and it was, no doubt, helped in this regard by being a staging point on the Via Regia (i.e a pilgrim route set up by the Holy Roman Empire and which forms part of the Camino de Compestela) that stretched from Frankfurt am Main to Leipzig and the Polish border. It has a well preserved medieval centre and has been home to some very special people including but not limited to:- Martin Luther (theologian and religious reformer who was ordained in Erfurt); Johann Bach (composer and musician); Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman and all round good egg) and; Johann Friedrich von Schiller (poet, playwright, philosopher and a mucker of Goethe’s).

Talking of musicians, if the number of buskers playing classical (and not so classical) music in the city is anything to go by, the music tradition in Erfurt is in safe hands. They were everywhere during my morning visit into the city and again during the afternoon and evening when I returned with Vanya. Sounds odd but one of my favourites was a young fellow playing Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” on a cello.

One of the city’s most popular tourist sites and the place I made for first during my recce is the Kramerbrucke Bridge. It is a unique medieval stone arch bridge over the Breitstrom (a branch of the River Gera) which dates back to 1325. Much later, after the bridge had been lined with timber framed houses owned by the city’s merchants, it also became known as the Merchant’s Bridge. It is a wonderful looking bridge with the groundfloor of the houses now converted into shops, cafes, etc and the upstairs into apartments which are still lived in to this day. It is easy to understand it’s popularity.

At the east end of the bridge, on the Wenigemarkt, stands the Agidienkirche (the Church of Sankt Aegidius). For a few cents, visitors can access the Methodist Church which is now the Agidienkirche but, I was told by the curator that I must not ascend the 33 metre high Red Tower. Why on earth not? Other people were up there. Well if you’ve seen one Methodist Church, you have seen them all (they are remarkably spartan) and so; immediately after I had made a brief inspection of the church itself, I set off up the Red Tower and I was rewarded with some fine views over the city. On the way out I discovered that the Agidienkirche is fitted with closed circuit tv. The curator had a fair bit to say to me and it wasn’t all polite but, it was worth it.

The view from the Methodist Church window along Kramerbrucke was fine and some of the stained glass windows (designed by children?) were unusual but…

… the views in and from the belfry of the Red Tower were what I really wanted to see

From the Agidienkirche I set off down the narrow alley formed by the properties on the Kramerbrucke. I mentioned previously that the properties are now given over to cafes and craft shops and, yes, there is also the odd tourist souvenir shop but, there is one particular place which simply has be visited. It is the “Haus der Stiftungen” and it is easily recognisable. It is an original property built in 1578 and it is run by a foundation which serves to promote the bridge. Entry is free and visitors are welcome to wander around the inside of the building.

One thing I did start to notice as I circled around the back of the bridge (looking for photo opportunities) were a series of rather incongruous ‘statues’ of various cartoon characters. Subsequent research revealed that they feature in a very popular TV programme on Germany’s Children’s TV Channel (KinderKanal or KIKA for short) which is run out of Erfurt. Vanya and her dog Beanie will be interested in those.

So, much later in the day, there is Beanie with Kikaninchen the Rabbit and Vanya with Das Sanndmanchen from KIKA. We also saw Bernd das Brot and Kapitan Blaubar with Hein Blod.

To the west of the Kramerbrucke is the Fischmarkt, a particularly picturesque square of mostly renaissance buildings which were originally dwellings. The city’s more modern Rathaus (Town Hall) also sits on this square, as does the Kunsthalle (Art Gallery) and an interesting statue, Der Romer. This statue was put there in 1591 and is of a Roman soldier holding the city’s flag aloft. I had no idea that the Romans made it so deep into Germany.

My primary interest during this first sortie into Erfurt was the Cathedral of St Mary which sits on the Dom Platz (no surprise there) but, en route I passed the Theatre Waidspeicher, a converted woad store which in 1986 was renovated and converted into the Erfurt Puppet Theatre. This theatre, using homemade puppets and props, puts on plays of fairy stories, adaptations of children’s books and modern dramas for children (during the day) and adults (in the evening). Judging by advertising outside the theatre, I suspect some of the performances for adults will be quite racy.

I made it to Dom Platz and the 12th century gothic style cathedral of St Mary, built on the site of the much older chuch of St Boniface, is everything I expected it to be; as is the smaller and older Sevirikirche alongside it. Unfortunately I was unable to take any decent photos of the front of the Cathedral and/or the Sevirikirche. The ‘Cathedral Steps Festival’ takes place on the Dom Square in front of the two churches every year during July/August and the festival stage and grandstands for this years open air operatic performance were already up and blocking all decent photo opportunities. My understanding is that this year’s performance will be Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’ but I swear I could hear some of Berlioz’s ‘Damnation of Faust’ being rehearsed whilst I was sitting on the square drinking a weissbier. Strong stuff that weissbier!

No decent photos of the Cathedral nor the Sevirikirche unfortunately but, it was wonderful sitting on the square in the sunshine, with a beer in hand, listening to rehearsals. I rather like opera.

Overlooking the Dom Platz and the Cathedral and the Sevirikirche is the large Baroque Zitadelle Peterberg. However, I’ve seen enough fortresses on this tour already and elected to give it a miss. Anyway, I prefer castles to fortresses.

But, Erfurt, we are so glad we came.

Mainz (Rhein Pal.), Germany July 2022 (Tour 6)

Vanya wasn’t particularly impressed by Mainz but she’s not that keen on larger towns and, anyway, was always going to feel disappointed after Bacharach. I, on the other hand, quite like Mainz. The city has a wonderful cathedral and, joy of joys, there was a beer festival taking place over the weekend we were there.

We booked into a city centre camp site just over the river from the Old Town. The main bridge across the Rhine was a stones throw from the camp site and the beer festival was at the other end of it. Perfect!

Founded at the confluence of the Rhein and Main Rivers by the Romans in the 1st century, Mainz (previously Mogantiacum) is the capital of the Rhein Palatinate state. More than 80% of the city was destroyed by allied bombing in WW2 but, to see the place now, you would hardly know it. The damage was all very quickly and carefully restored except that the burnt out shell of one church, the Saint Christoph close to Karmerliterplatz, was left untouched as a memorial to the city’s victims of the many bombing raids between 1942 and 1945.

The Carmelite Church on Karmerliterplatz and, nearby and now serving as a war memorial, the bombed out shell of the 13th century church of St Christoph of Mainz. This was the parish church of Johannes Gutenberg and where he was baptised.

Anyone visiting Mainz old town will very quickly find the Marktplatz, simply follow the crowds of people. There’s a great deal of history to be found on this square and in adjoining areas. There are numerous pretty pastel coloured buildings, the Marktbrunnen Fountain, the Gutenberg Museum and most important of all, the Mainz Dom (St Martin’s Cathedral). It’s worth visiting the old town to see the Cathedral alone.

Almost adjacent to the Cathedral is the Gutenberg Museum. For the unaware, Mainz was home to Johannes Gutenberg who in the early 1450’s invented metal type printing. This form of mass printing revolutionised publishing and it perhaps comes as no surprise that Mainz subsequently became home to both Germany’s first ever newspaper and the Allgemeine Zeitung. William Caxton subsequently built on Gutenberg’s device and introduced printing into England.

After exploring the Markplatz and surrounding area, I headed off to the eastern side of the old town. There I found numerous stolpersteine (see previous blogs on Bacharach and Rudesheim) but, on altogether brighter note, I stumbled on the Evangelische Christuskirche (the Evangelical Church) where a string orchestra was rehearsing. I didn’t recognise the music they were playing but it was an enjoyable 30 minutes just listening and watching. I don’t think I have ever seen a conductor work so hard to get his points across to the orchestra.

Inside the Evangelical Church on Kaiserstrasse.

There were quite a few stolpersteine on and around Kaiserstrasse

On the way back to the camp site I paused at the beer festival down by the riverside. There were some 20 to 30 kiosks selling various predominantly German beers and a handful selling snack foods or wine. Needless to say, I stopped and tried a couple of the local beers (three to be precise) and a really cold Vinzentiner Weissbier won the day.

Sankt Gaor (Rhein Pal.), Germany July 2022 (Tour 6)

We were ready to take a second boat trip, this time down river. We wanted to go to Boppard (which had been recommended to us by a local) but the boat time tables worked against us and so we settled for St Goar. That was a shame because Sankt Goar proved to be something of a disappointment. Certainly, you don’t want to believe all the hype on the internet about Sankt Goar having the wow factor and being a real up and coming tourist destination, etc. It really doesn’t and it really isn’t.

The best part of our boat trip to Sankt Goar was the journey there and back. It took about an hour heading downstream and an hour and a quarter heading back and this section of the Rhein (between Bacharach and Sankt Goar) is even more picturesque than that which we experienced two days ago. Moreover, sitting and doing nothing while drifting down the Rhein is actually very pleasant.

On the way we passed the two small picturesque towns of Kaub and Oberwesel, numerous almost obligatory castles for this part of the Rhine (one of which, the Pfalzgrafenstein, is particularly eye catching) and, of course, we passed the famous Lorelei or Loreley Rock.

That’s the small town of Kaub to the left of the above photo with Castle Katz overlooking the town and the far more attractive Castle Pfalzgrafenstein in the foreground. Pfalzgrafenstein was used as a toll station between 1327 and 1866

The Lorelei Rock. Okay, so it is nothing special to look at but it is surrounded by legend.

The 132m Lorelei Rock sits on the right bank of the Rhein just up river of Sankt Goar (or, to be more precise, Sanktgoarshausen because Sanktgoarshausen is on the right bank and St Goar sits directly opposite on the left bank of the river). It’s a fairly irrelevant little hill not unlike many others on the banks of the Rhine but, it was made famous in the ballad “Zu Bacharach am Rheine” where a stunning young girl named Lora Ley, after being shunned by her lover, sought revenge and caused the death of numerous men. She was arrested and banished to a convent but, on the way to the convent, she asked to view the Rhine landscape one last time and then jumped to her death from the rock. There is another more modern story about Lora Ley sitting on a rock by the Rhine brushing her hair and distracting passing sailors and so causing them to crash and drown and, as if to support this theory, just to the south of Sanktgoarshausen is a statue of a girl sitting on a rock, brushing her hair. I favour the first story.

A little bit about Sankt Goar. The town is named after a Celtic missionary who settled in the area in the 6th century. He was subsequently made the patron saint of innkeepers. It is a small town but it’s castle, Rheinfels, was once the largest in the area until French revolutionary troops sacked it. Rheinfels was subsequently repaired and is now a tourist hotel. The town’s only other claim to fame is it has the world’s largest free-hanging cuckoo clock suspended outside a souvenir shop near the catholic church. We stood outside the shop at eleven o’clock, video camera at the ready, waiting for the cuckoo to show, but once again we were disappointed.

The approach to Sankt Goar and the Cuckoo(less) Clock. That’s Castle Rheinfels in the background of the second photo.

After walking around Sankt Goar we hopped on to the car ferry and crossed over to Sanktgoarshausen where we found a nice little cafe and sat drinking coffee in the sunshine until it was time to catch the boat to Bacharach. That was very pleasant.