Budingen and Gelhousen

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We woke up to rain again, so much for the long bike ride today.

We decided to take a drive to a couple of villages that are supposed to be good for sightseeing. Jerry has decided that Germany is a great place to drive. First of all there is the autobahn -- a freeway with no speed limit. And second, the stoplights turn yellow before the red light like ours do. But the great thing is that they also turn yellow before the light turns green. Since most of the cars here are manual transmission, the yellow light gives you the opportunity to put your car in gear just before the green light. So if you are paying attention, you can be the first off the line every time -- just like being at the dragstrip! Is it any wonder that Jerry likes driving here!

The towns we visited, Budingen and Gelhousen, were indeed a sightseeing paradise. Castles, moats, half timber houses, cobblestone streets, and an impressive church, all dating back to the 14th century.

The landscape here is interesting. You have the large city, Frankfurt, then Hanau, which is a small city, then several villages. In between the villages are miles of farmland. They raise a lot of corn and grains. It reminds us a lot of eastern Washington.

Sundays are pretty quiet in this area. No grocery stores are open and hardly anything else is open except a few bier gartens and restaurants. And there are very few people out and about. That made for a great day for sightseeing.

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Photos

The castle
Now used as a hotel

Half wood houses
The leaning of the top floor is interesting. Was it built that way or has time settled it?

More half wood houses.
More leaning.

Church steeples
Church built in the 1300s