Gnomes of Hemsbach

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here.  Its been in the upper 50's and 60's since we've been here and nothing but sunny skies.  Tuesday, the 22nd of March we were suppose to head back to Heidelburg for the day while Lauren and Doug were at work but our dear Lauren came down with a cold and stayed home from work.  Instead we wandered the streets of Hemsbach, their home town, to visit the church.  While we were looking at houses and yards, our adventure turned into a quest to find native German garden gnomes.

 Lauren catching some early morning rays

 Grumpy gargoyles

 Mannheim found a sleepy friend

 Under a forsythia bush

 A welcome gnome

 We saw two of these sleepwalking gnomes with the nighty shirts and caps still on

 Lauren spotted this guy down a driveway

 The owner of this house trims the bush into a heart for his wife every Spring

 Two gnomes, a frog and a wind catcher

 Manny against a forest and castle back ground

 Lots of gnomes at the Kik store

Manny was so happy to find lots of friends to talk to at the grocery store

Trier

Farther down the Mosel Valley is Germany's oldest city, Trier.  Its history boasts 1,300 years of Celtic residents before it became an ancient capital of Rome, Dom Trier, Germany's oldest Christian church, Porta  Negra and the ancient Roman bath houses.  Trier was founded in 16 B.C. by Augustus.  Constantine built a basilica that was used as a throne room in ancient times. Karl Marx was also born in Trier.

Porta Negra is the only remaining gate out of four original that guarded the city in ancient times when it was walled in.  It was built without any mortar.  Only iron pegs hold the sandstone in place.

Porta Negra

The Hauptmarkt (market) square is alive with flower peddlers, cafes, and fountains.  St. Peter's fountain is a  symbol of a thoughtful city government. 

 Weinstube Cafe inside the city square

 St. Peter's Fountain

Trier Square

Säurekraut

Schnitzel

A block away is the Dom Trier which was the seat of the archbishop.  It is the oldest Christian Church of Germany and houses the Holy Robe, a tunic that is rumored to be owned by Jesus.  It was bombed very badly during World War II and has been restored since then. 

 Dom Trier

 Three angels in the courtyard.  They were my favorite piece

 In the courtyard

 Under the cross in the pulpit is the Holy Robe on display.

This ceiling was very detailed above the back of the nave

Constantine's basilica is also a few blocks away from the cathedral and adjoins St. Helena's palace.  St.  Helena was the mother of Constantine and legitimized Christianity in 312 AD

 The Basilica

 It was closed this day so we couldn't go inside

 It is a very large, sturdy structure

 The Palace connecting to the basilica

A lion, lady figurine

The last place we visited in Trier were the Roman bath houses.  Only ruins today, they were the most intricate bath houses the Roman's ever built.  They had a large amphitheater, two levels of subterranean baths and a large courtyard where games were played.

 Oz standing next to the foot of Constantine's statue

 The remaining ancient Roman bath house of Trier

 Inside the under ground bath houses

 Oz inside an amphitheater

 Doing some modeling

This is where the Roman's held their concerts

Cochem

After days of traveling on the Autobahnen I have come to the conclusion that Western Germany looks just like the Willamette Valley.  I'm not kidding.  There are fields surrounded by hills, the trees are very similar this time of year, there are Christmas tree farms and vineyards.  The only thing missing from the Willamette Valley are the castles and church steeples in the middle of towns.

On Monday, March 21st we drove to the Mosel Valley along the Mosel river.  We stopped in the town of Cochem.  Only 6,000 people live there but they draw in more than 2 million  tourists a year.  The town is build on the Mosel river and has steep hills surrounding it, a perfect location for the Cochem (Reichsburg) Castle.  It was originally built in 1000 AD but was destroyed by the French in 1689 by King Louis XIV.  200 years later it was rebuilt and then sold to the Reich in 1942 and today it belongs to the town of Cochem.

 The town of Cochem

 Walking through the town up to the castle

 There were a lot of cute shops with flowers in bloom 

 The castle sits above grape vines

 Entrance to the Cochem castle

 Doug is about to take control of the town with his cannon

 Inside the courtyard of the castle

 This stove is made of ceramics and features ornate scenes from the Bible. In between this wall is a secret passage way for servants to add wood to the stove without being seen.  This was common in most of the castles we visited.

 The witches tower.  It is named this because witches were tried at the castle.  To decide who was a witch and who was innocent they would through them out of the top window.  If they died they were proven innocent.  If they lived, they were said to have been a witch and then killed for their evils.

 A mermaid chandelier with antlers.  If you rub her belly and make a wish it is suppose to come true.

 A knight's suit of armor. There was one on display that was over 7 feet high and belong to an actual person.  It dwarfed every one in the room.

Walking through town we found this underground wine cellar

The wine was stored in large glass containers.  You pick the jar you want you put your wine in and pour it through the funnel.

After the tour we went back through town and ate gelato and continued on to Trier.

Strasbourg, France: Day Two

Sunday, March 20th, was off to a slow start.  We were all sleeping off the four giant beers we had the night before.  Amazingly we all felt pretty good the next day.  No hangovers for us.  I thank Lauren for that.  She was our mother hen the night before, making sure we all drank plenty of water before passing out.  Also that morning I pulled the biggest tourist move and blew the entire fuse to the whole room.  I wanted to use the hair straightener and I know that the plugs are different in Europe so Lauren brought her adapter so we wouldn't fry the straightener.  Instead, when I plugged the adapter in, all the lights and sockets stopped working.  The receptionist to the hotel was a little peeved since it was Sunday and nothing in Europe is open on Sunday so the fuse couldn't be replaced until Monday.  Luckily they did not charge us for this.




Mannheim on our balcony



 Outside our hotel room

Once we left the hotel we walked around the Notre-Dame again, ate breakfast at our new favorite French bakery from the day before and explored the area around the river Ill.  The cathedral had a choir playing on Sunday and we sat in to listen.  The acoustics inside were amazing.  Its surprising how loud someones voice amplifies in a large cathedral.  We did some more souvenire shopping and then strolled the banks of the river.  We found another cathedral that was under construction so we just took some pictures near one of its doorways.  We crossed the bridge and found a few other churches and a botanical garden and park on our way back to the main part of the city.

 This was our favorite bakery on the trip

 French Swans

 The banks of the river Ill

 Douglas is the man

 Just hanging out under a bridge

 There were beautiful willow trees all along the river

 The steps of a cathedral

The cathedral from across the river

 When we reached the river again we were just in time for a parade to start.  In March, Strasbourg puts on a dazzling parade with 40 or more floats and participates and winds through the city and at the end they celebrate with samba dancing and more partying.  We were fortunate to be here on this day and take part in the parade.  I usually are not fond of parades.  I guess I've never seen a great one.  The one is Strasbourg however blew me away.  It was the best parade any of us had ever seen.  There were tons of paper mache floats and creatures that interacted with the crowd, lots of different cultures from around the world were there, there was marching bands, flag throwers, dancing girls, witches, we even danced to the macarena (the latin song from the 90's).

 Lauren and Doug waiting for the start of the parade

 This dragon was amazing.  Someone sat in the middle of him and swiveled its head up and down and it went flying across the crowd just barely missing peoples heads

 This giant witch had a smaller puppet witch in the spot between where her hands are

Witches figurines were found at all the tourist shops.  My best guess as to why they were prevalent in this town is Strasbourg may have been a place witches were sent to drown during witch hunts of the past.

 Macarena dancers

 These people in the window were also dressed in clown costumes

 This was just a cool picture of someone in costume

 Zorro was checking out his teeth in his balloon

 Bunny rabbits.  One has a carrot in his mouth

We stopped at our favorite kabab place again before hitting the road