Deutschland, Frankreich, Italia, Oesterreich
In August we made flight reservations, got a Eurail Pass [Note: links to internet sites are done like this throughout, i.e., only the 1st few letters are the link, whereas a full-word or -phrase link is to one of our pictures] and reserved a Ferienwohnung [literally, "vacation apartment"] for the first week of our vacation. We used frequent flier miles and flew American first class from Kansas City to Frankfurt via Dallas/Ft. Worth. We highly recommend first class - different from business/first. Our seats reclined all the way and made into a bed with a real pillow. The food and spirits were excellent. We arrived in Frankfurt around 7:30 am and went to take care of the car rental. Kathleen and Margaret flew to Frankfurt from Houston to join us for the first week of researching family history and meeting distant relatives. We were waiting for them when they walked through the arrival gate at 9:30 am - what fun to meet in Frankfurt - thanks to Margaret they also got to fly first class (although in comparing notes, Continental wasn't quite as nice as American first class).
October 13 - 20, 2004
We picked up the car and were on our way, sort of, to Breunigweiler; we always get lost driving out of Frankfurt and this time was no exception. It took about an hour and a half and several epithets but we found our way to Breunigweiler and our Ferienwohnung in this little town of 500 people. The Ferienwohnung had one bedroom, a bathroom with a washing machine, a small cooking area, and a pull down couch where Kathleen and Margaret slept. The owner, Frau Blickensdörfer, gave us us the lay of the land - no bakery in Breunigweiler but there was one 2 miles down the road in Sippersfeld and a grocery store in Winnweiler. Then we had lunch at the Gasthaus Zuspann, the first of several meals there.
Pat had told Margaret and Kathleen not to worry about getting traveler's checks because ATM's were an easy way to get money so after lunch we were on our way to Winnweiler to get groceries and find an ATM. We found the bank okay - Margaret stuck her card in, entered her password and it spit her card back; another try and the ATM kept her card. Pat and Margaret went in the bank and they kindly gave Margaret her card back. Margaret realized she didn't know the password. In the meantime, Kathleen sticks her card in and the ATM and her card doesn't work. Margaret comes back out to try again with another password - same thing - once more back inside to retrieve her card from the very nice bank person. Kathleen tried again and it didn't work again. Then she looks at her card and realizes it is her American Express card not her ATM card. They both buy Euros from Pat - maybe traveler's checks for them would have been a good idea after all.
The next day Pat went to Sippersfeld for Brötchen for breakfast and then we head toward Börrstadt where Pat thinks that his great- great-great-grandfather came from. We enjoyed looking around the little village; there's a story about this rake sculpture - producing rakes saved the town at one time. Pat wanted to talk to the mayor and get some information; he found the mayor's house and talked to her daughter and planned to come back later to talk to the mayor. However, he later found out that this is not the village of his ancestors so never met the mayor. On to Rockenhausen to review civil records at the Standesamt [keeper of civil records]. This is an example of the type of records that Pat and Elizabeth have been poring over in their geneaological searches; it is Jacob Karl's death certificate from 1836. We didn't have much time at the Standesamt because it was Friday and the office closed at 1:00. We enjoyed walking around Rockenhausen, a little town of 5000 people - this is most likely the church where Pat's great-great-great- and great- great-grandparents were married and where their children were baptized. After a nice meal at a hotel, we decided to head to Bad Durkheim, which is on the Weinstrasse. On the way into town, we passed a long - 333 meters, or about 3 and a half football fields - unusual looking building, the Gradierbau, that turned out to have been used for salt production. It is no longer used for salt today but it is used as a free air inhalatorium which is supposed to help breathing. We spent a lot of time in a wine shop in Bad Durkheim, tasting wines and buying several. The owner was very personable and knowledgeable and lamented the fact that Americans really didn't know much about German wine.
Saturday afternoon we drove to Würzweiler so the American and German cousins could meet - the reason Kathleen and Margaret came to Germany. Margaret had a cold but rallied so she could meet her cousins, Hilda Klein, her husband, Edmund, and her sister, Elizabeth. They had invited all of us to come to their house in Würzweiler, a small village close to Rockenhausen; their house is right on the main street. They had prepared five different desserts for us and we all sat around the table enjoying the desserts and coffee. Pat was the only one that could adequately talk to them, but Kathleen and Margaret enjoyed being a part of the connection and a lot was communicated with gestures. After dessert and coffee we took a walk around the village and then came back and had some wine before we said good-bye on their front steps and headed back to Breunigweiler. We ate again at Gasthaus Zuspann.
Pat and I decided that Kathleen and Margaret needed to experience the German trains so we went to Mannheim to buy them tickets from Mannheim to Frankfurt Airport for their return the next morning. Then to Heidelberg - a much visited but worth visiting city that lies on the river Neckar. We climbed the steep hill from downtown to the ruined castle. We were able to visit the apothecary museum and the giant wine cask before everything closed. The walk down was much, much easier. By this time, Pat had picked up Margaret's cold so he stayed at the Ferienwohung while Kathleen, Margaret and Cynthia went back to Gasthaus Zuspann to eat. Pat joined us later for a beer - so what else is better for a cold? Plus he was very sweet to not make the girls walk back in the cold and dark and wet to the Ferienwohnung! Kathleen bought an objet d'art as a reminder of her time in Germany.
All too soon, Kathleen and Margaret had to return to Houston. We drove them to Mannheim to catch their train to the Frankfurt Airport - the last we saw of them was through the window of the train and they looked like they were trying to eject the people sitting in their reserved seats. We drove on to Speyer to review church records in the Bishop's Archives. It was an interesting process - they bring out these old, old church record books and one just sits there and looks through them - I was surprised that white gloves were not required for the protection of these old books. It was here that Pat learned that his great-great-great-grandfather, Jacob, did not come from Börrstadt but probably from Neustadt-Wied in the Trier diocese. The cathedral in Speyer is an excellent example of mainly Romanesque architecture and the interior is very austere compared to Gothic cathedrals.
More family research in Kaiserslautern at the Institut für pfälzische Geschichte und Volkskunde, where Pat met Roland Geiger, who had done some Karl family research for Pat. It was a bit of a surprise because Roland had said via email that he was retired, but he is in his mid-thirties. Kaiserslautern is, touristically speaking, not particularly interesting altho' Frederic Barbarossa lived there. We had an interesting lunch companion - in Germany there usually are not hostesses to seat you, you just take whatever table is available. If all of the tables have people sitting at them, it is quite acceptable to share a table. We sat down at a table with a man who was in his seventies - he was 15 during WWII and was drafted to fight. He was curious about the upcoming American election and our opinions - he said he couldn't see much difference between the two candidates. He also preferred Budweiser beer to the good German beer, perhaps because he knew the Busch family. He had been to St. Louis on business at one time and visited the Budweiser brewery there.
October 21 - 27, 2004
Up at 4:00 am to drive back to Frankfurt and return the car at the airport - the remainder of the trip we took by train. Our train left at 7:53 am - we changed trains in Karlsruhe, Strasburg and Lyon - and arrived at 7:23 pm in Montpellier, Languedoc, in the south of France. Our good friends, Hanne and Klaus met us at the railroad station - they had flown in earlier from northern Germany. Klaus, who speaks fluent French, had made hotel arrangements for us on the Place de la Comedie, right in the center of things. Montpellier is a wonderful, old city originally settled by the Romans and is a great place to amble around in the open squares looking at the sights both old and new and wandering the narrow lanes. The city is filled with university students of many nationalities. We took a walking city tour in English - there was a couple from Kansas City on the tour. There are many parks and buildings dating from Louis XIV, including an Arc de Triomphe and an aquaduct. The late Romanesque cathedral had a lovely rose window. Right next to the cathedral is the old medical school where Rabelais and Nostradamus spent time.
We took the train to Nimes, Provence, with its well-known Roman ruins. The Roman amphitheatre, view 2 and view 3 is still used for bullfighting; Nimes also has a "run of the bulls". The Maison Carree with Cynthia and Hanne at the top was built by the Romans and was the inspiration for Thomas Jefferson's design of the capital of Virginia. We visited an archaeology museum and then ambled along the streets and encountered a neighborhood park where two or three games of boule were being played. Klaus plays boule and told us that these were very good players - Klaus talked to an older man who was observing the game. The older Frenchman expressed the opinion that he didn't much like the Germans and couldn't stand Americans. Oh well. We ended our walk in a park and returned to Montpellier on the train.
Another day we took the train to Arles, Provence of Van Gogh fame. He spent his last years of life here and painted the garden of the hospital where he was being treated. Turns out there are no Van Gogh paintings in Arles, but it is a charming town, also settled by the Romans, with winding streets. We ended up in the central plaza where there was a harp festival beginning. The doors of the church are of particular interest - a masterpiece of Provencal romanesque art, these doors are on UNESCO's world heritage list.
The next day we tried for a picnic on the Mittelmeer (German) or Mediteranean but it was cloudy and extremely windy. We come back to Montpellier and had a picnic in the park. We had many interesting walks and evening meals with Hanne and Klaus in little hidden restaurants in the student areas. The French still serve water with every meal, not for drinking necessarily, but to add to the red wine.
October 28 - 31, 2004
When we reached Venice we made a blog entry about our overnight train trip - a trip that will not be forgotten soon. We visited Venice during high tide season and the water in some places was about 18 inches deep; narrow elevated walkways were in place especially around St. Marks view 2. There were a lot of Europeans on vacation this week but it is difficult to imagine what the crowds would be like in high season in the summer. We bought a 72 hour vaporetto (water taxi run by the city) ticket and used that and our feet for transportation among the 118 flat islets that make up Venice. There are no cars in allowed in Venice. We had one really beautiful day in Venice with blue skies and comfortable weather - we took the vaporetto to Lido and passed this ship on the way. There was also this unusual looking apparatus. When you see a picture of Venice you probably will see the cathedral Santa Maria della Salute - it stands out much more than St. Mark's in a city skyline view. Completed in 1682 it was built on one million oak pilings that were sunk into the swampy earth. There are several wonderful paintings by Ghiardoni, Tintoretto and Titian in the church and the sacristy. Our last day in Venice was interesting, in a bad sort of way. Cynthia wanted to go to Venice to see the church where Vivaldi was Choirmaster (or similar) for a long time. When we awoke, the skies were pouring down, and everywhere was gray. After breakfast it lightened up a little, and we headed into Venice, the island, around noon. By the time we got there, there was some evidence of the little yellow ball in the sky, but not much. But the piazza where our bus takes us and where we catch the initial vaporetto was crammed with people. We finally got close enough to the vaporetto loading point to see that the water in the Grand Canal seemed to be about 12 inches higher than it was yesterday. Because of all the people we decided to just walk to the next vaporetto station. So off we trudged. When we got to the first bridge, it was clear that the water was significantly higher than yesterday - places we walked yesterday were now under 6 inches or so of water. It was impossible to make any progress to the next vaporetto station, and we decided to go back on the bus in the direction of our hotel and spend the day in Mestre, the mainland part of Venice.
November 1 - 4, 2004
Our overnight train trip from Venice to Vienna was much more pleasant than the one from Nice to Venice - witness Cynthia and Pat enjoying their private compartment. We had been to Vienna before so this was kind of a rest from the very active previous two and a half weeks. We found a very pleasant Ferienwohnung with a washing machine (which we badly needed) and a computer with free internet access. The apartment overlooked a wonderful open air market called the Naschmarkt. We thoroughly enjoyed a Mozart and Strauss concert the first night we were there - it was held in a room of an old palace so had a lot of atmosphere. Other days we walked around in the fussganger zone, ate at the Ratskeller, revisited some old places and visited the not very good "Haus der Musik", an interesting small Dali museum - his sculptures look like his paintings! - and a very good "Technical Museum" which would have taken a week or more to really absorb all of the exhibits.
November 5 - 7, 2004
From Vienna to Munich - one of our favorite cities. We have always enjoyed going to the Viktualien Markt in downtown Munich so we headed there and had soup for lunch at one of the stalls. We visited the Neue Pinakothek, a museum devoted to paintings from the 18th to 20th century. We went to a harpsichord and violin concert in the old court chapel - the Allerheiligen Hofkirche - which was rebuilt after WWII but it was left without all of the interior decorations. One thing we had never done in Munich was to tour the palace or Residenz of the Wittelsbachs who ruled Bavaria for 400 years. The Wittelsbachs might not be as well know as the Louis's or the Hapsburgs but their palace was nothing to be sneered at. We got sensory overload walking through all of the opulent rooms - the first room you see is the grotto, surfaced entirely with seashells, and then the Antiquarium.
November 8 - 14, 2004
We headed to Trier, the oldest city in Germany; the city gate - the Porta Nigra - was built by the Romans. Trier was a major Roman city and has a number of excellent Roman buildings and ruins; there are some spectacular Roman mosaic floors in the Landesmuseum. Pat had hopes of finding some documentation about his great-great-great-grandfather, Jacob, in Trier because of what he had been told in Speyer at the Bishops's Archives.. Unfortunately, we found nothing in the Trier church archives so the trail is cold for the moment. We enjoyed walking around in the Fussgänger zone and seeing the old buildings. The cathedral begun in 1035 is believed to be on the site of the palace of Empress Helena, Constantine the Great's mother. The market had a huge squash sitting on the floor - they sold pieces of the squash to customers. We also visited the Karl Marx house which turned out to be quite interesting. One day there was a pre-Karneval celebration which we spent sometime watching.
