This past Fourth of July weekend Kate and I decided to see another area of Germany that we had not seen before and at the same time check out another spa. Germany has lots of spas! We decided to head south toward the area of Stuttgart. I found a great hotel, Schlosshotel Monrepos, just north of Stuttgart in the town of Ludwigsburg. According to the website, it gave us the impression that the SeeSchloss (lake castle) Monrepos was the hotel. It wasn’t. The hotel was in another building just down from the SeeSchloss. Although it was a little bait and switch, [View Full Entry]

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Memorial Day weekend we decided to go to southern Germany to visit the Bodensee or Lake Constance, as it is also known. The Bodensee is a large lake, the 3rd largest in Europe, which borders Germany, Switzerland and a tiny portion of Austria. The lake is 40 miles long and 8 ½ miles wide. Bodensee loosely translates to “bottom lake” as it lies at the bottom of Germany. We stayed at a very nice gasthof (hotel) in Neuravensburg, Hotel Landgasthof Mohren, just a few miles north of the Bodensee. What was nice about the hotel was that it had an indoor [View Full Entry]

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This is a short blog as these are pictures I took today. It has been very cold here in Ansbach and sometime during the night there must have been some sleet and snow that had fallen. This morning everywhere you looked it was like something out of a Currier & Ives print. You may not enjoy them all but maybe one will maybe make you say, wow. I've only number these pictures as they are just presented for their beauty and wonder. Enjoy them! [View Full Entry]

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With the snow and cold of Germany in winter and no chance of going back to San Diego for Christmas, Kate and I decided to find a warm place to go during Christmas. Our local travel agent suggested either Egypt or the Canary Islands. Since we prefer islands to sand we choose to go to the island of Tenerife, a Spanish possession for over 500 years. We were going to arrange our trip to be gone over Christmas but the travel agent informed us that 1) there was a 200 Euro ($240) per person surcharge for staying over Christmas and [View Full Entry]

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The Christmas season is a very special time in Germany. During the four weeks preceding Christmas, known as Advent, in almost every city, town, or village in Germany the main market square where all the fruits and vegetables are sold, the fruit and vegetable stalls are dismantled and removed from the market square at the beginning of November, and replaced by picturesque wooden huts adorned with miniature white lights which transform town squares and city marketplaces around the country into winter wonderlands. Vendors begin selling traditional German gifts, handcrafted ornaments, wooden [View Full Entry]

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Weekend before last we decided to see a little more of Germany and took a ride to Bamberg, about an1 1/2 hour drive north of Ansbach. Bamberg was founded about 900 A.D. and was fortunate not to suffer any bombing damage during World War II. A thousand-year cultural and architectural site, UNESCO declared Bamberg a world heritage city in 1976. It is a beautiful town with unforgettable small and winding alleys with picturesque views at almost every turn. A city of about 70,000, Bamberg’s residence brag that their city is built on seven hills like Rome, has a network of [View Full Entry]

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Salzburg, the name comes from Salz (salt) and burg (castle) of which the Hohensalzburg Fortress over looks the city and has provided for its protection since 1077. The Salz or salt comes from the salt mines located not far from Salzburg and was the source of its wealth. Although famous for the birthplace of Mozart and the film “The Sound of Music”, Salzburg has been around a long time. Steeped in history, Salzburg was controlled by the Roman Empire around 150 B.C. until the barbarian invasions laid waste to the city. It remained in ruin until about A.D. 700 when it [View Full Entry]

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One of the greatest and longest parties in the world has to be the Munich Octoberfest. This year it was 17 days, visited by over six million people from all over the world who when not jammed into 14 giant brewery-sponsored tents, a good number of which can hold up to 9,000 people each, rode huge amusement park rides that rival those in the U.S. Besides the beer consumed during this Octberfest (enough to fill six Olympic size swimming pools), there were 95 oxen, over a half million chickens, hundreds of thousands wursts, and even more pretzels consumed. So how did [View Full Entry]

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A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to visit the cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim Germany. Although very much a tourist town, Heidelberg is still worth a visit. Founded in the mid 1200s, there were people living in the area even as far back as 766 A.D. Heidelberg is located on the Burgenstrasse (Castle Road), a 1000 Km (621 mile) road that stretches from nearby Mannheim to Prague, Czech Republic. Heidelberg boasts the first university in Germany founded in 1386. In fact, even today approximately 1 in 5 of the population is a student. The Heidelberg (schloss) castle was built [View Full Entry]

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Germany has to be the land of fests or festivals as almost every weekend there is some type of celebration going on in one of its numerous villages. This past weekend (July 30 -31) the village of Aub held a different type of fest, a medieval faire. Rather than have a typical festival with carnival rides and a beer fest hall, Aub holds its annual medieval faire. They try to make it as real as possible, with many of the villagers dressing up in costumes of the period. All the various booths maintain this theme and also all of the games [View Full Entry]

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