BMW European Delivery - Day Six

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Another day of “sleeping in”. After doing my morning ablutions and while the wife was getting ready to head over to breakfast in the main building of the abbey, I did some reading about Kloster Nimbschen. In 1523 Katherine von Bora, one of the nuns at this abbey, became quite enamored of the teachings of Martin Luther. She and a dozen other nuns conspired with Luther and his cronies to escape from the clutches of the Catholic Church. Hiding in barrels of fish that were loaded on a merchant's cart, they escaped to Wittenburg. The other nuns soon married others in the growing Lutheran movement. Only Katherine remained single two years after the miraculous escape. She said she would either stay a virgin or marry Luther himself. In June 1525 the 26 year old Katherine married the 41 year old Martin Luther. Eventually she bore six children and figured prominently in the early Reformation movement. It seems the whole Protestant revolution started in Germany and later expanded upon in England was strongly influenced by guys (Luther and Henry VIII) smitten by the ladies (Katherine and Anne Boleyn). I guess I've done dumber things for the same reason.



Once again this breakfast exceeded the magnificence of the previous lodgings. In a huge well-appointed but vacant breakfast room stood over 50 feet of counter top devoted to starting the day right. Besides the usual wealth of cereals, juices, waters, rolls, cold cuts, cheeses, dairy products and fruits, this spread included bacon and scrambled eggs along with some local sausages and stinky fish. The soft-boiled brown eggs were perfectly cooked. I was tempted to take a couple but I decided to save room for the myriad other possibilities, For a guy who was supposed to be watching his cholesterol I would need to do a great deal of penance at the abbey.



On our way back to our room we passed a small field that held a couple of goats and two miniature deer. Unable to lure them over to us we then headed over to the crumbling remains of what once had been a medieval church. Renovations were paused for the winter months but in fairer weather it looked like this would be an ideal spot near the river to enjoy a day of picnicking. Maybe next European Delivery.



Once again this was a day I was eagerly awaiting. The nearby town of Grimma was unknown to me and not much was written about it in tourism books. What I did see on the internet told of a very old riverside town with a number of unique historic buildings; many dating back to the Middle Ages. In my mind I couldn't wait to “discover” Grimma and tell everyone on Bimmerfest and Fodor's that I had uncovered the new Rothenburg ob der Tauber.



Leaving our parking spot I followed the little green street sign showing the way to Grimma. It was a beautiful crisp winter morning with nary a cloud in the skies as we paralleled the River Mulde on an ever narrowing blacktop road. I started to worry about oncoming traffic as we passed a series of abandoned underground bunkers and mist-covered fields hiding small herds of tiny deer. Big fat hawks seemed to be sitting in every other tree as we inched up the 8 foot wide road. To my left I could see we were beginning to parallel the main road leading to Kloster Nimbschen. When we eventually passed through an open gate I realized that I had been cruising down the local bicycle path. The green signs were for bikers and hikers. The blue directional signs were for drivers. In any case, the X1 performed beautifully on the bike path.



Driving into Grimma we were initially a little disappointed. The roads were very narrow and although the buildings we passed looked nicely painted and in good repair, there was something very Communist-Eastern-European-looking about all of them. Now I realize they lacked shutters, window boxes for flowers, any real ornamentation, and were totally devoid of charm. The few businesses we saw lacked the big display windows seen in southern Germany and displayed almost no signage. The system of one way streets made it very difficult to drive through town taking pictures. I wanted to get close to the river where I supposed the most interesting of the older buildings might stand. But there seemed to be no way to get there, I decided to park.



We proceeded to saunter through a rather dull, lifeless little town which seemed to be stuck in time: Not back in the Middle Ages like I dreamed it would be but more like 1960's East Germany. I even saw a restored Trabant as we strolled toward the river. The closer we got to where we thought the river stood the uglier things got. There was no path to the actual river. We walked a couple of blocks along a run-down factory facade that appeared to be part way through a reconstruction project, past a few crumbling brick buildings and even next to a church that was inaccessible due to a gaping hole and wall of dirt at its entrance. Discarded bottles and ciggie wrappers lay along the street. I was not being charmed. The one restaurant the GPS had marked was boarded up and gutted inside. This section of town put the “grim” in Grimma. Just past the bombed-out part of town we were able to get closer to the partially frozen river. Along its banks stood cranes and more piles of dirt and debris. Apparently they are working on improving the river walk but it was a long way from being a tourist must-see. Climbing over electrical cables and workers' tools we made our way onto the longest suspension bridge in Saxony. The old steel cable bridged swayed as we ventured half way across.



Once we headed a few streets away from the river we came to the commercial part of town. I was bored but the wife found a few shops to her liking. Enjoying the mild temperature and intense sun I simply rested on the many benches scattered around town. A farmer's market was taking place in the front of the town hall That entertained me for a short while; especially when a local farmer and his shill tried to convince me that his home-made honey was the best I'd ever find. They spoke entirely in German which meant I understood about 1/3 of what they were saying. I just smiled and nodded a lot. Then walked away. After about an hour and a half walking through Grimma I had had enough. So much for spending the day exploring the new Rothenburg OdT.



Back in the X1 I asked the GPS to find us some points of interest. The first interesting one was the castle of Colditz just a few miles away. About 5 years ago on a family Christmas vacation we stayed in Colditz. I had no idea we were so close this time around. As a kid growing up in the Sixties I was strongly influenced by the movie “The Great Escape”. It got me interested in all the WWII escape stories and the most interesting of all was the history of the men imprisoned at Colditz. How incredibly stupid and incredibly German it was to put all the Allied troublemakers in the same supposedly inescapable castle. They were just asking for trouble.



Since it was such a beautiful day I only half-listened to the GPS directions. A couple of times I deliberately deviated from the directions to check out an interesting building or side street. Around noon we passed through the big hospital complex that was once the occupying Russian army barracks on the outskirts of Colditz. Before too long I found myself on the back side of the castle. Because we had been here a few years before we only spent a few minutes here looking around and taking a few photos. A quick stop in the gift shop resulted in my buying two new books about the prisoners held here and a souvenir shirt, I passed on taking the tour but I did take advantage of the free WC. German travel tip: never, ever pass up a free toilet. They are getting tougher and tougher to find.



In the gift shop I grabbed a brochure promoting the castles of Saxony. The map inside showed that there were eight other castles in the nearby area. Our new plan, after hitting the Colditz Lidl, would be to squeeze in as many of these castles as possible in the next 4 hours of daylight. The perfect excuse to put some more miles in with our new car and to take advantage of an absolutely beautiful sunny day.



The visit to the Lidl food store would have been uneventful except for the fact that when we decided to grab a couple of sandwiches at the attached bakery, there was nowhere to sit except with an old man at the single dining table. He smiled when I asked “Bitte?” about taking the two remaining seats. He started yakking to me in German until I said “Nur Englisch, es tut mir leid”. He then slowed down his German and started thanking us for restoring their freedom. I didn't understand too much but he was grateful either to the Americans or the English for bringing freedom back. And I don't know if this was in reference to freedom from Hitler or freedom from Russia. For some reason he started mentioning Yugoslavia as well. Once again, I ended the conversation with a big smile and lots of nodding. Then stuffed the sandwich in my mouth.



The rest of the afternoon was a very leisurely and fun drive through miles upon miles of rolling countryside. We succeeded in seeing 5 of the 8 remaining castles. We didn't bother going inside any of them partly because of time constraints, but mostly because I doubted English tours would be available during the off season and because I didn't know anything about the historical significance of these places. Perhaps on a future trip I will read up on the history of Rochlitz, Gnandstein, Kohren-Sahlis, Kriebstein and Podelwitz. One other interesting discovery on our day's excursion was the fact that the old women in this region of Germany know very little about dyeing their hair. We saw at least a dozen senior citizens with the most grotesque purple dye jobs. Instead of searching for punch buggies, we spent our time trying to spot the worst-looking hair.



It was a shame to see this day end, but as comfortable as my X1's seats may be my butt was getting mighty sore. It would turn out that this was the only day of the trip we did less than 10,000 steps on our Fitbits. Since downtown Grimma had been such a disappointment we decided to play it safe and eat at the Klosterschänke again. As it was still Schnitzel Week I moved on to another cutlet on the menu. Starting off with bread soup and the usual wheat beer I decided to try the turkey Schnitzel surrounded by a bed of Spaetzle and green beans. Mmmmm. In my next life I need to marry a German cook. I was eating better on this driving vacation than I did on the 7 day Caribbean cruise. And as I write this little travelogue a week later I am in the process of cooking up my own version of Jagerschnitzel using one of those Lidl sauce mixes.

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Photos

Waking Up to the Prettiest Day of the Trip
We had been blessed with tremendous winter weather so far. Today we woke up to spring-like weather. By the end of the day we had shed our winter jackets and were hopping in and out of the car with just our sweaters on.

On-Site Chapel at Kloster Nimbschen
A great deal of construction was going on at the hotel. We didn't hear any of it, but on our way to the breakfast room we passed the ruins of the old abbey being repaired, this chapel undergoing renovations and a frontend loader moving pile of dirt down by the tennis courts.

A Look Back at Our Accomodations
Our room was in this out building maybe 200 yards from the main hotel. We were far away from the road and other guests. We never heard a sound all night. And by the time we got to breakfast we looked to be one of the last to make it down there.

The Hotel Kloster Nimbschen Main Building
Inside we had one of the best breakfasts ever. There was also a very nice looking restaurant that we were tempted to try, but the Klosterschanke across the street offered cheaper prices and it was schnitzel week there.

Breakfast Room of Our Very Own
Either we got up really late or nobody else was spending the night at the Kloster Hotel. People are missing out on a great place if they don't stay here when they are in the Leipzig area.

I Think I Should've Taken Two Cholesterol Pills
Way too many choices at breakfast. My favorite is always the soft-boiled eggs, but stuffing all that meat and cheese into one of those home-made hard rolls is a close second.

German Bacon
Like everything else they do the Germans do bacon best. It's never over-cooked and for many it may be under-cooked. I love it chewy.

Our Favorite Grimma Tavern
Since we ate both our dinners here this little restaurant across the street from the hotel was our choice for best in town. This was another place that would hold a reserved table all night for diners even when others needed a table much earlier in the evening.

Ruins of the Old Abbey
There was no placard explaining what exactly these ruins were but I am assuming that it must be the abbey that Mrs. Martin Luther escaped from. They are building a nice little park with picnic tables and grills on the same grounds.

I Guessed Right
"In this cloister for nuns lived Katharina von Bora from 1509-1523. On April 5, 1523 she was freed by councilor Leonhard Koppe and later united with Martin Luther"

Inside the Abbey
So what's the plan? Do they leave the place in ruins or restore it?

The Way Inside
I couldn't figure out if this was actually where one entered the building or if it was just demolished here and never rebuilt. It seems like an awfully huge entrance into the nuns' quarters.

Beautiful Downtown Grimma
This was about as good as it got in disappointing Grimma. Just not much charming stuff to see in this town.

Church Closed Due to Construction
Our walk through downtown Grimma and along the riverside constantly ended with construction or destruction in our way. Even this little church was closed due to a big hole being dug behind me.

Not an Ugly Little Town
Just not "charming". Once all the work gets done and when the warmer weather comes maybe this place will be a bit more picturesque.

One of the Grimma Restaurants Listed on Our GPS
In trying to find the sites to see in Grimma I had programmed the BMW SatNav to list the notable hotspots in town. This Biergarten restaurant was the first to pop up. It was boarded-up in front and looking through the backdoor we could see the inside was gutted.

The Grimma Riverwalk
There's potential here. They just need to set up a beer and Würst stand in the park and put some boats in the river. And lose all the construction cranes.

Even This One-Time Palace was Under Construction
Even though this iron suspension bridge (the longest in central Germany) was also being worked on by a repair crew, Gail and I climbed over their tools and past the warning pylons to mosey onto the bridge over the Mulde river. The impressive house on the hill is apparently historic for some reason, but the Grimma tourist bureau doesn't list it on their town map nor does a sign indicate its purpose.

Not What I Thought It Was
When we walked by this huge building fenced in with a tall iron fence surrounding the entire block, I assumed this waseither a looney bin or some kind of Catholic church facility. Instead it is the Polizeirevier - the federal police headquarters for the district around Grimma. We rarely saw any police anywhere on our trip. I was expecting to be stopped and questioned at some point because of our temporary licence and brand new car.

A Nicely Maintained (Restored?) Trabant
This was the East Germans' dream car back during the Cold War. People would wait years to get delivery of this simple, cheap, unsafe little beast. Parts were made of wood and cardboard and they had no a/c or radio. They were seen throughout the Communist world.