Germany

In our various travels this year we seem to have been ignoring Germany. Not intentionally, we’ve just had so may other opportunities. A cheap easyJet flight from Manchester to Munich remedied the situation on Monday, June 11.

The "new" city hall in Munich

Munich hotels are not cheap, but we found one very close to the rail station with a good breakfast. In the evenings, we saw the main sites in central Munich, drank a beer or two at the famous Hofbrauhaus, and others.

The band plays on at the Hofbrauhaus

From there, it was only a short walk to catch the bus for a day trip to Linderhof and Neuschwanstein castles (both built by “mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 1840s-80s), with a brief stop at Oberammergau.

Linderhof Palace

Neuschwanstein Castle

On the way out of town we spent a sobering morning at the Dachau concentration camp site.

Memorial sculpture at Dachau

Armed with a Deutche Bahn rail pass, we stopped for an hour or so at historic Augsburg before continuing on to the Medieval village of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Augsburg

Once a rich market city, Rothenburg fell on hard times during the Thirty Years War in the 1600s and was “preserved by poverty” because the residents lacked the resources to modernize.

Mary on the ramparts at Rothenburg ob der Tauber

From Rothenburg we rode the rails to Würzburg, where unfortunately a couple of the things we came to see were closed for renovation. Nevertheless we got to tour the “Residenz” of the Prince Bishop, who ruled the province of Franconia without separation of church and state, and to people watch awhile in this very non-touristy, work-a-day German town.

The Residenz

Würzburg was fire-bombed by the British RAF just six-weeks before the end of World War II, but has been rebuilt and restored to its pre-War beauty.

Main square in tiny Bacharach

Bacharach street scene

We changed trains briefly in bustling Frankfurt, a modern industrial city quite the opposite of either Rothenburg or Würzburg, then changed again at Mainz to a local commuter train to ride down along the Rhine to another Medieval village, tiny Bacharach -- probably named in Roman times for Baccus, the god of wine. Bacharach is at the heart of Rhine wine country, and we spent the night in this scenic locale.

Marksburg, the only Rhine castle still in original Medieval configuration

The following morning we boarded a boat for a river cruise down the Rhine to Koblenz, enjoying scenes of vineyards and ancient castles along the way. Then we continued by train to Köln (Cologne) to stay the night. Our hotel was right across the street from the Philharmonie (a wonderful, very modern concert hall) and we managed tickets to an excellent evening performance.

Köln Cathedral

After seeing some sights in Köln the next morning, we took the train to Bremen. As it was Saturday, a number of things were closed. But we did see, at least on the outside, some of the architecture of Bremen’s charming city center. We enjoyed a good meal, and got tickets for another symphony concert, which we did not enjoy quite as much as the one the night before.

From the folktale, The Town Musicians of Bremen 

More to follow...