Prag II ..... What an amazing city .....

I might be at risk repeating myself, but I have to say that Prague is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. Well, not that I have seen that many .... ok .... a few. Most "old" cities in Europe have been at least partially destroyed in World War II, so a lot of the historic buildings and layout of the cities have been destroyed and in many cases replaced with some quite ugly architecture. This is not the case in Prague. There have been only a few buildings destroyed at the end of the war, when the German troops left the city. My Czech friend Ollie mentioned that there was probably more destruction in the 1968 uprising against communism the "Spring of Prague", when Russina troops squashed the opposition. Basically what I am trying to tell you with too many words is that you can pretty much see the historic outline of the city dating back to around 8oo AD. The "Old Town", that was later extended by the "New Town" and the Lesser Market.

On Wednesday we had a guided tour through the "Old Town". Our American guide Chris put a lot of effort into the tour and had to handle many of our questions and comments. The weather was pretty lousy, it was raining most of the time, but we had a great time and enjoed the stories and tour a lot. Of course there is a lot of history here, but there is also an amazing variety in different styles of architecture, co-existing just next to each other .... very interesting. I will post some more photoes later. We finished the tour with coffee at the cafe in one of the few cubist buildings in Prague. Cubism was much more a design style for furniture and such, however in Prague there are several buildings designed in this form.

A cubist house in Prague.

On Wednesday evening I meet with my Czech friend Ollie. We have been playing soccer in the Sports Club LA soccer league together and was in town for some time to visit his home. Although we went out in the touristy "old Town" area we found a great pub for locals. There was only one tourist in the whole place - me :-)

We had a great time and enjoyed a great local beer chatting about this and that .... a great evening. It is kind of funny that I have met so many people from San Francisco already and soon I will be going to Vienna to see another friend of mine from SF who moved away.

On Thirsday I spend the last hours of my stay in Prague to visit the "Lesser Market" below the castle. This area was build as the third stage of the Prague expansion, when all of the rich merchants and aristocrates from the country side wanted to move close to court. It is now home to many embassies, I passed the German, the US and the Italian embassies, very tight security with bomb checks on the streets. There is also a big castle build by Walenstein, the famous General of the Austrian troops during the 30 year war. The gardens (I only visited parts of them) are spectacular.

On my way back to the hotel I passed the famous "Carl's Bridge".

A photo while walking across the "Carl's Bridge"

After my return to the hotel was off to Vienna by train. The ride was pretty uneventful, except that someting caught fire and there was smoke coming out of the air condition. Think thick grey clouds of smoke. There was a short panic, but after a while the smoke disappeared and everything went back to normal.

Prague I .... Old Europe

Prague ..... What a city ..... Arrived here Sunday night and spent all day Monday exploring the city. It is just so beautiful to see all these old houses, buildings, castles and churches ..... there are small cafes or restaurants everywhere, of course with tables outside. The shopping is supposed to be great as well. It feels like every turn you make there is a surprise waiting for you. Little cobblestone streets, you walk through an arch and suddenly there is a small square with shops and restaurants, very, very nice. So far it feels not too expensive (except housing).

I meet up with an Aussie, a Canadian and a French guy while watching the game Australia versus Italy. What a steal! Australia dominated the game and deserved to win and then this extremely questionable penalty in the 93 rd minute .... what a devastating way to loose.

Later on we had dinner in a typical Czech restaurant. It was delicious and with drinks we just paid $ 10 each.

At around 10:30 pm I met with Anke from San Francisco with her friend Denise (who currently lives in Italy). We watched the game Switzerland - Ukraine on the Center Square in Old Town. Great atmosphere, very international crowd. Unfortunately the Ukraine won the penalty shoot out after overtime. Again, another game where the team deserving to win lost in the end. Today I will be spending more time exploring this wonderful city and tomorrow we will be taking a guided tour. I will keep you posted. Of course we have to watch Brazil - Ghana today, supporting the underdog :-)

I will try to find out the names of some of the buildings you see, unfortunately all the maps show the names in Czech, which is not to helpful.

I believe this is the "Powder Tower".





The old castle .... it is huge (supposedly the largest in Europe.






An old church at the Center Square in Old Town.

The Carls Bridge.

Just a view of one of the many beautiful streets with these incredible old houses.

Koblenz II / For those history buffs and fans of scenic views

The "Deutsches Eck" (German Corner) viewed from the castle.

The castle viewed from below ... the game had not started yet ....

Stefan and Kathrin at the castle wall looking upon Koblenz.

Stefan and Kathrin in a small cobble stone street in the historic part of Koblenz. I am sure you are already tired of my passion for historic buildings and views, so I thought I mixed it up with some people :-)

Koblenz I ..... or ..... Germany / Sweden 2:0

Germany is crazy about the soccer world cup these days. It is just unbelievable. While visiting Stefan in Koblenz we decided to watch the game at the "Deutsches Eck", loosely translated "German Corner"., where the rivers Rhine and Mosel meet. It is the home of a monument of Kaiser Wilhelm ("Emperor Wilhelm").

For the soccer world cup it was transformed into a public viewing area, where games are shown on a big projection screen and beer is being sold like in an American baseball stadium for $ 10 a pint. Nevertheless the atmosphere was amazing. Supposedly there were 50,000 soccer fans dress in black, red and gold, swinging flags, drumming, chanting, clapping, singing ..... and ..... drinking. It was about 105 degrees, the sun was blasting the place but everybody was in a great mood, especially due to the fact that Germany dominated the game early and scored two beautiful goals. The crowd was singing "Ihr koennt nur Moebel bauen - Ihr koennt nur Moebel bauen ...." ("You can only build furniture" implying that the Swedes are famous for IKEA, but not for their soccer skills)


The statue of Emperor Wilhelm "surrounded" by German and Swedish soccer fans. The steps were completely packed with people.

















In the back drop you can see the big screen, in front large number of "Ballacks", flags ... etc.

On our way to Koblenz .....

Well, you just learned that two friends moved to Heidelberg .... one of my best friends Stefan was also visiting Germany briefly on his way from San Francisco to London. We decided to take our car and drive up to Koblenz since we have never been there and meet up with Stefan. On the Autobahn we drove past Mainz and the beautiful wine area towards Koblenz. We passed the Mosel (one of the largest rivers in Germany (that "meets" with the river Rhine in Koblenz) and stopped to take some photos of the scenic Mosel valley.

It is a very fertile valley due to the regular floodings in the spring, primarily fruit orchards in the low land and vineyards on the hill sides.

The hillsides are extremely steep, nevertheless the grape growers planted their vines almost all the way to the top when it is almost vertical. It is a lot of hard work to maintain the vines and harvest the grapes, but this very unique location provides southern exposure with a lot of sun and perfect conditions for the local grape varieties.

A biker was so kind to take a photo of Kathrin and myself. We would have liked to have the Mosel valley in the back drop, but instead you can see our feet :-)

Heidelberg 6/23 - 6/25

So much about the world being a small place. Two of my friends from San Francisco moved to this small University town just recently. Katharina actually graduated from High School with me a long, long time ago and then later on worked for the same company IDS Scheer for a little while. Kathrin is a good friend of my friends Andrea & Scott and moved back late last year to become a teacher.

I arrived late from Bonn due to heavy traffic and met up with Kathrin for a coffee and some home made cake ...... very yummy :-)

Later then I enjoyed an awesome dinner of White Asparagus (for the last time because the season ended officially the day after). It was just nice to sit outside having dinner, enjoying a nice wine, Port & cheese, dessert and a Grappa (on the house) to finish it off. We were the last guests outside and probably could have been sitting there until they closed, no ".... whenever you are ready .... take your time".

Unfortunately no photos of the historic city of Heidelberg ..... the batteries were still recharging ....wanted to give you a break anyways :-)

After our trip to Koblenz I returned briefly to Heidelberg and on Sunday morning left for the 50. birthday of my cousin, then heading to the airport in the evening.

Bonn - No photos or ..... The world is a small place

I arrived in Bonn on Wednesday evening. A good friend of mine moved here from San Francisco in 2000. Bonn is the former capitol of Germany, close to Cologne on the river Rhine. The parliament and most of the administration has been moved to Berlin, but it seems that it was rather for the better, because the city seems to be prospering. I would have loved to post some photos of the Rhine, the river boats (there was one in the shape of a whale called "Moby Dick"), the old parliament, the historic buildings (some of you will probably say "oh no, please no more old buildings"), but as I mentioned earlier the battery of my camera is dead and the adapter that I brought with me does not fit.

Yesterday I spent quite some time searching for a new adapter or a new charger, but all without success. Then last night when we came home from watching the Brazil game we passed this small electronics shop. So I went there this morning. The shop was filled with old stereo equipment, receivers, tape decks, amplifiers, record players ... all used for very little money .... all the current and long forgotten brands. I believe some stuff was at least about 30 years old. I thought "boy, not sure if this will be successful", but of course I was also very interested in this stuff, so I gave it a try. The owner was from Syria and has lived in Germany in 1967. It was really interesting to talk to him. He was extremely helpful and searched all over the place, always telling me that he knows exactly what I am looking for. He found all kinds of adapters, but unfortunately they were all for American plugs to convert to European. Well, he would not give up and over the course of our conversation he mentioned his sister who lives in Washington. He remembered that he bought an extension cord there. Finally he found it, still in original wrapping, with an American price tag. Unfortunately, it did not fit so we thought about what to do. Finally we had to sand off the edges to make it work. Not very professional and definitely not up to code, but what the heck ....Yeah ..... now I have an extension cord that fits into my adapter and I will be able to charge my batteries. Soon there will be more photos of old historic buildings of course ....

Who is this guy .......

So, I got many complaints that there are no photos of me .... I guess I told the story many times that my mom was a photographer. There was a camera around all the time .... In hindsight it is great because I have a great documentation of my childhood. Nevertheless you really have to catch me by surprise to get a photo. Oh well, I gave in under the mounting pressure and tried to take a shot of myself. Not the best in the world, but you can see that I am in good health, my rastas are growing nicely and that I have not burned off my face in the sun yet.

Landau (Pfalz) .... or ..... Germany - Ecuador 3:0

Earlier this week I was visiting a very good friend of mine in Landau. Where the heck is Landau? ... you might ask. No worries, most of my German friends do not know about it either and I have only been here before because of my friend. Which does not mean that it is not worth visiting. If you love wine it is definitely a place to go. It is situated close to the "Deutsche Weinstrasse" (German Wine Road). There lots of small villages nearby that have small wineries and wine tasting. Landau is a small town in the South West of Germany close to Frankfurt and Mannheim. It has about 40,000 inhabitants and a really cute historic center city. Landau is a small university town that has been part of France probably as often as it has been German. Lots of old military buildings and facilities that have now been converted to small shopping malls, museums, pubs and apartments.

The city center is a small market square surrounded by historic buildings. It was farmers market when I visited (see below) and we bought 2 kilos (4 pounds) of white asparagus .....yummmmmm :-)

But first things first. We watched the game in a restaurant / bar with about 200 people. It was fun. Big projection screen, cold beer, great atmosphere and a German team that surprises even the biggest optimists. It is actually really fun to watch them, they play a very good offense and score many goals (8 so far). After the game we celebrated some more (of course) and met 4 Australians that came to Germany to wtach some games. God knows how they found their way to Landau ..... it was fun. Next day they went off to see Brazil and some other game. Well, if they made it out of bed. We heard that they kept going for quite a while. We got into trouble because we were running reeeeaaaalllllllllyyyy late for dinner .... The Asparagus was just wonderful.

This is a small wine bar ("Weinstube") which is actually located in the house in which the grand parents of Anne Frank used to live (Anne Frank was a jewish girl that was safed by friends who held her in hiding from the Nazi's. Her diaries became a famous book. It was early in the morning so that's why there was nobody sitting there.

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On Wednesday I visited a friend of mine near Landau where she lives with her family and 6 month old Martha) in an old Winery. Her partner is a stone mason that uses the old buildings as his shop. I would love to show you some pics, but .... well the batteries of my camera died and now I am frantically searching for an adapter that would fit the charger .... bummer. I got only one shot of the village, which shows you the little cobble stone streets and wood frame houses. Almost every second house in this street is a restaurant or wine bar.... nice.

Greetings from Zeitgeist

Freiburg (Breisgau)

Freiburg is a great city about 50 kilometers south of Lahr. It is a wonderful city to go to university or live and work. It has a great cultural offering (theatre, symphony, opera, jazz), great outdoors activities such as mountain biking, hiking, skiing, inline skating (roller blading) and much, much more. There are tons of coffee houses, bars, restaurants and as you can see all of them have outdoors seating in the summer. The soccer club of this town plays in the 2nd Bundesliga after several years in the Bundesliga, even participating in the European Soccer Cup (UEFA). The city has a very historic feel to it, there are little streams running through the downtown area, mostly is pedestrian only (no cars, just delivery) and the main transportation are streetcars. I have lived here in 1991 and 1992 when I was working for a Pharmaceutical company called Goedecke AG (at times part of Warner Lambert, now Pfizer) and enjoyed the time very much. Although it was a short stay I made friends for life. One of them actually lives in Brazil now and I very much look forward to meet him in September.

One of the old city gates.

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Cobble stone street with street car lanes and the "Freiburger Muenster" (Cathedral of Freiburg) in the background. It has one of the largest towers in Germany, I believe it is only second to the Dome in Cologne and the Cathedral in Ulm.

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Just another shot, showing the approaching street car, coffee houses

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For those history buffs, I thought you might be interested to read some information about this great city. I borrowed the history part form the website of Freiburg, you can find it at http://www.freiburg.de/6/6/611/index.php.

After the House of Zaehringen built a castle on Schlossberg in 1091, the small settlement on the site of today's southern old town and Oberlinden was chartered as a free market town by Konrad and Duke Bertold III in 1120. The market rights, favorableble location and the silver mines in the Black Forest soon led Freiburg to grow into a prosperous and influential city. In 1200, Bertold V initiated the construction of a new, large parish church, Freiburg Cathedral. The citizens of Freiburg later took on the financial responsibility for building the Cathedral, which was completed as early as 1513 - making it the only German cathedral to be completed in the Gothic style. After the last of the Dukes of Zähringen, Bertold V, had died in 1218, he was succeeded by his nephew, Egino, Count of Urach, who assumed the title of Count of Freiburg. The 150-year rule of the Counts of Freiburg was mainly characterized by wars with other rulers and disputes with the town's inhabitants, which is why, in 1368, the wealthy citizens bought their independence by paying him 15,000 silver Marks and submitted to the rule of the House of Habsburg. After an initial decline, the city grew and prospered and became Reichsstadt from 1415 to 1427. Archduke Albert founded the university in 1457, which was taken over by the Jesuits in 1620. The city had to survive many sieges during the Thirty Years' War, which reduced the population to 2,000 and largely destroyed the suburbs. This wave of destruction and change culminated in the taking of Freiburg by the French troops in 1677. On the orders of Louis XIV, Vauban completed the fortifications which the Austrians had begun, had the city walls razed to the ground and built a fortress with eight bastions around the old town. He had three forts built above one another on Schloßberg, on the site where the old castle had been. After 1697, Freiburg went from French to Austrian control and back again several times, until it finally came under Austrian rule again in 1745. Before leaving, the French razed all the fortifications to the ground. In 1805, Napoleon incorporated Freiburg in the newly established grand Duchy of Baden, which was involved in the wars of liberation of 1813-14. In subsequent years, the city evolved into an economic and political centre on the Eastern bank of the Upper Rhine. In 1821, the Bishop's seat was moved from Constance to Freiburg, and in 1845 the first train ran from the newly opened Freiburg train station to Offenburg. During the revolution of 1848-49 Freiburg saw fights between revolutionaries and government troops. The liberal politicians Carl von Rotteck and Carl Theodor Welcker taught at Freiburg University. In the second half of the 19th century, Freiburg experienced strong growth and the emergence of completely new suburbs, Wiehre and Stuehlinger. In 1899, Freiburg University was the first German university to accept a female student; in 1910 the municipal theatre was inaugurated; and in 1911 new university buildings were finished. In 1920 and 1921 respectively, two Freiburgers, Konstantin Fehrenbach and Joseph Wirth were appointed Chancellor of the Republic by the Reichspraesident. In 1938, Freiburg's synagogue was burnt down. On 27th November 1944, large parts of the city were destroyed during an air raid, the Cathedral largely escaping destruction. In April 1945, Freiburg was occupied by French troops, who established a government and administration for Baden in 1946. Since the merger with Wuerttemberg in 1952, Freiburg has been the seat of the district's administrative offices. Today, the city has around 200,000 inhabitants, among them 30,000 students at the university, polytechnical colleges and the teaching college. Many research institutions also benefit from the proximity of the university.

Black, Red and Gold .... the "hip" colors this summer.

Yesterday I went to Freiburg, I cute little town of about 200,000 at the foot of the Black Forest to meet up with friends from Zurich. We spend our time strolling through the city, enjoying the beautiful weather, drinking coffee, shopping and having lunch in a "Biergarten" (think Zeitgeist in SF, an outdoors area with tables and chairs or plain benches where beer and simple food is served). We were passing many little coffee houses, pubs and restaurants on our way. I have to admit that I have never seen something like this. It was about the time that Portugal played Iran (2:0 for Portugal by the way). There were big screen TV's or projectors in almost every place. People of all origins sipping a coffee or drinking a glass of wine or beer and watching the game "together". It seems to be one of the great themes of this world cup, to be "together" with other people to watch the games. Even a lot of shops have TV's installed ..... it seems to entertain the guys while their girl friends or wives are shopping.

Soccer everywhere ....

The so called public viewing places (they basically built big stages with huge video walls and stadium like seating) draw thousands of people to watch the games on big screens, in big cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt or Stuttgart these places attract 10s of thousands of people, sometimes even more than 300 to 500 thousand. There are flags of all nationalities everywhere, people are were the national shirts of their favorite teams ..... boy I can not tell you how many Ronaldos and Ballacks are running through the streets .....

The favorite colors seem to be black, red and gold - the national colors of Germany. I have to say that it is about time. Yes, we do have a dark history and we should never forget the bad things we have done (ever), but it does not mean that you should not be proud of your home country. Even where I am staying right now (with my god child) and the family is really not into soccer .... although I am about to change that with the boys ha ha ha .... they have put out a German flag. There are flags on cars, scooters, bikes, strollers, houses, faces ...... stores have even special sections where they sell flags, baseball hats, make up to paint the national flag on your face, there are folks that air brush the national flag on your body .... it is just fun to be here during this exciting time for soccer.

Germany - Poland 1:0 ......... Puuuuuuuhhhhhh, that was close!

I just can't help it. It is the world cup and I can not escape it. Germany is soccer crazy these days. I have never seen so many German flags on cars and houses before. People talk about nothing else. Yesterday we played Poland. We (my god child and his two little brothers and even the mom) watched the game with all the neighbors in the street. One guy brought a projector from work, the other had a projection screen, a satellite receiver and a long cable, benches, beer and wine and we were ready to go. There were lots of little kids running around all clad in the German colors, laughing, screaming, playing ..... only watching the game when we were getting loud because we missed another chance to score. They immediately came running because they thought we had scored, just to return to their plays disappointed after they learned about the missed shot. The polish team had to win to maintain a minimal chance to advance to the next round, but played very defensively, waiting for a chance to counter. Germany had many chances to score, but failed over and over again. Also the Polish keeper has been outstanding. It was a nail biter and the longer the game lasted the more we got concerned that the Polish team would have one chance to score and actually make it happen. I have to say that the German defense, which had been criticized a lot over the last couple of weeks played really well and took care of all the dangerous situations. After a red card for a Polish defender with 15 minutes to go Germany tried everything to win the game. We have this young player 'Odonka' (he is from Bavaria .... ha ha ha ... just kiddin') who is extremely fast. He created a lot of pressure from the right wing. In the 90st minute we had an amazing chance to score, two players hit the bar and then Odonka scored ...... but no goal. What happened? We could not believe what we saw .... everybody was disappointed, but it became obvious in replay - Ballack was off side. Geez .... we thought that's it. Just a tie against Poland, which would be ok but not really what we wanted..... and then ..... one last attack on the right wing. Odonka sprinting down the line, passing into the middle and ........... ggggggggggggggoooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll (well, I stole that from a Mexican TV commentator). Everybody was jumping up, yelling, laughing ..... everybody was sooo happy. It was just cool! Later on you could here people singing in the neighborhood until the early hours. Wow .....

So what is next? Ecuador and then we shall see what is possible in the next round. Not sure where in Europe I will watch the game, but I will definitely watch it.

The Black Forest

So "What is the Black Forest?" you might ask. I have used this term quite a bit in my blog already. Of course I googled a little to get you some info and combine it with some of my impressions during my current visit in Breitnau, where my god child lives with his parents and two brothers (more on that later).

A good 200 kilometers long and 60 kilometers wide, the Black Forest is not only one of the most varied but also one of the biggest and probably best known regions in Germany.

13,500 km² in the south west of Germany is home to a rapidly changing landscape, with forests in the north, the less dense middle Black Forest and the mountainous 1493 m heights of the south leading down to the Rhine. Germany's highest "low mountain range" comprises only around half of the total surface. The lush, sprawling heights of the Baar in the East, the wine country to the west, in the Rhine valley and to the South: Whether it's the Baden "Weinstrasse", Kraichgau, Ortenau, Breisgau, Tuniberg, Kaiserstuhl or Markgräfler Land, - each store has top-quality wines from its regions.

The Black Forest enjoys the highest density of restaurants with top chefs, Gault Millau or Michelin stars. But even in the small village restaurants the entire selection of the hearty regional cuisine can be enjoyed in many of its delicious variations.

Thermal baths like Baden-Baden, Badenweiler, Bad Wildbad have a long tradition. Such a wealth of thermal springs can be found nowhere else in such close proximity. The location at the meeting point of Germany , Switzerland and France offers guests the most attractive and diverse cultures and landscapes within the shortest of distances.

The Feldberg is, at 1493 meters, the highest mountain in the range. The Black Forest is the birthplace of skiing in mid-Europe. The first ski club was founded here, the first wooden skis were carpentered and the first ski lift built. The Feldberg region is home to one of the largest ski resorts outside the Alps.

This is a photo I took while hiking around Breitnau. It provides a good impression of this area. You can see the farmhouses, rolling hills and tree covered mountain ranges.

Well, my little camera is not really suited for shots like this, but I had to try anyways. From this point in my hike you had this amazing view down this valley which was covered with little yellow flowers and you could see for miles and miles and miles, all the way to the high mountain ranges in the back drop.

Just one more picture ....

.... and one more.

Just could not help myself.

Oh .... almost forgot ...... Tannenzaepfle ....the beer we drink here.

I have mentioned the "Tannenzaepfle" before. This is a famous local brew which is just amazing, not to say the best beer I have ever had ....sorry Scottie, but you have to work a little on your Pilsener .... ha ha ha.

Lahr (Baden) - my hometown

Well, we are all from somewhere. My 'other home' besides San Francisco is a small town in the Black Forest region of Germany. I thought you might be interested where I am from, so here we go. Lahr has approximately 44,000 inhabitants. It has quite some history starting as early as a small Roman settlement dating back to 200 AD. Due to many wars it was home of the German, French and Canadian armies and air forces. The most famous person of Lahr is an engineer with the name of Wankel, who developed a special type of car engine called a rotary combustion engine. See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Wankel. Believe it or not, but our city park has actually a red wood tree that grew from a small sapling to a pretty significant height.

It has been a long time since I actually lived here, but I do have fond memories of my childhood and am really proud to be a 'Lohrer'. Soon after my graduation from high school in 1985 I joined the German Army for the mandatory military service. After that I went off to Munich to go to school. Technically I have lived more years outside of Lahr than actually in Lahr. Probably because I only come here occasionally for a brief visit it really pains me to see that the city is not prospering as it should or could. It is a great place to live and raise children, good schools, great offering of social and sports activities, one of the largest airports in the region (the former Canadian air base) ..... but somehow it feels (to me) that all the neighboring cities prosper and grow while Lahr faces many challenges. I still do have many childhood friends here and I am really thankful that they always welcome me as if I would have never left. It is fun to chat about the 'old times' sipping a beer in a nice street cafe or Biergarten. Below is an aerial shot of Lahr that I 'borrowed' from the cities homepage with some other shots in this posting (www.lahr.de), I hope they don't mind that I promote this cute town a little :-)

Lahr (aerial photo)






















The city of Lahr was founded in 1218, when the Family of Geroldseck started to build a castle at the entrance of the valley of the river Schutter. Starting with few houses for the constructionworkers and their families the settlement gaind the right of a city in 1278. The only remains are parts of the old city wall and one tower of the castle, the 'Storchenturm' (see below). The print to the left shows the city in 1620.

This photo shows the main shopping area 'downtown'. As in many cities in Germany there are no cars allowed, only pedestrians. There are lots of coffee shops and restaurants that have tables outside - very nice in the summer time, sipping a coffee, reading a newspaper and watch people walking by.

Storchenturm

This tower is the only remaining part of the castle, which was originally build in 1220 and destroyed by French troops in 1677. Later in the 18. Century the tower became a prison for some time. On top of the tower is a stork nest, which gave the tower its name. Unfortunately in the most recent years no stork family chose this site to raise their chicks, however at least in neighboring villages and cities there are stork nests that recently house stork families - a good sign.

Hohen Geroldseck - An old castle ruin

This is the second castle built in the area by the family of Geroldseck. From this location the family was able to control the trade from the Rhine Valley to the Black Forrest. It was the location of many battles and finally in 1688 primarily due to the arrival of modern artillery it was destroyed and burned. For many years it was used as a source of building material, several large houses and farms in the region used stones from the ruin. It was forgotten for many centuries until it was rediscovered in the 19. Century.

Well, a nice zoom lens would have helped quite a bit here, but nevertheless it gives you a great impression how the castle sits on top of the mountain, controlling the pass road that runs below its walls .... ready to collect a fee.

Impressions of Baden

Baden is part of Baden Wuerttemberg in the south west corner of Germany (think the bottom left when you look at the German map), close to France and Switzerland. Wine making is big business here, there are hardly no hills that are not covered with vines. Summer has returned .... temperatures in the 70s, sunshine, blue skies .... I am really starting to enjoy my vacation. Many of you probably heard me talking about how the wine country and Marin reminds me a lot of home (Baden). Well I tried to proof my point and took advantage of the great weather yesterday to explore the area and take some pics. I took over 50 shots, but believe it or not I am working with a dial-up connection here, so 4 pics have to be enough for today. Hope this will give you some idea about how nice it is here.

Vineyard in Ettenheim (Baden)

Wine growing is much different in my home state. Geographical reasons (there are lots of rolling hills ) prevent almost large industrial farming. For economical reasons (easier maintenance) as well as to expose the vines to the sun better grape growers started to build out terraces, changing the landscape quite a bit.

Freshly planted vines Ettenheim (Baden)

I was running through the vineyards one sunny day (yes, I was running although it was pretty steep at times) when I passed this field. The farmers had just started plowing the field. When I past the field the next morning again, they were already done planting the vines. Now they just have to provide some TLC for a while and after a couple of years they will get their first harvest.

More vineyards .....

Here is a shot that somehow shows the terraces I was mentioning earlier. In the 70s grape growers really started out changing the landscape without any consideration of the environment. They create an almost artificial landscape free of all vegetation, except vines of course. Similar to some developments in the Napa region where large grape growers bulldoze entire hillsides to be able to use larger equipment. Later on folks came to their senses again and reversed the process a little.

Ettenheim (Baden) a small Barock town

A small little town that still has a little medieval flair. The city was build in circles within the city wall and then adding a new circle and a new wall over time. There are plenty of old houses, small cobble stone streets - very nice.