Scenic Tours - German detour

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Bielefeld.

We stayed at Hotel Zur Spitz in a pleasant corner room that allowed some cross-flow of air; with temperatures at about 34 to 36C this was most welcome. The management and staff were most pleasant and helpful. The meals in the beer garden were good and reasonably priced.

Our friends, Rolf and Frieda, took us to historic sites including a large statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, a museum in Wiedensahl the home town of writer William Busch, and Externsteine Rocks where monks had carved caves in the rock. Perhaps the site that impressed us most were the 26.5 m high statue of Arminius (also known as Hermann) and, a short distance away, the probable site where in three days of fighting his Germanic army totally defeated 3 Roman Legions, in 9 AD. Arminius was a Gaul who had trained with the Roman army and led the Roman legions into a cleverly arranged trap between a mountain and a swamp. After the defeat the Romans decided not to try and capture Arminius' territory.

Finally Rolf and Frieda took us for a drive past the Claas farm machinery factory, that seemed to go on forever, to look at old and new farm houses, drainage channels into the river Ems, crops of maize, potato, asparagus and a variety of grains. It was interesting that as a family grew new extensions were added onto the original house. Some houses were still thatched.

We visited a disused quarry where the footprints of large herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs had been exposed. 150 million years ago it was a level muddy area that has since covered, hardened into stone and tilted about 50 degrees.

We were impressed by the huge solar photovoltaic cell installations on the farmhouse roofs. Usually one half of the house roof was covered with the panels, but in some cases the farm sheds and even on some special buildings just to hold the panels. This is government sponsored and we were told that in some parts of Germany (at least) it is compulsory for a new house to be energy self sufficient. Adding to these solar panels there were many wind turbines scattered across the countryside. Germany is much more advance than Australia in renewable energy.

This area of Germany is also far ahead of Australia in maintaining forested areas.

Rolf drove us back to Amsterdam to meet our tour group.

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Comments

[Juicy Couture]

good
Very interesting post. Thanks again.. Please Keep it Up!!Ed hardy bags

[Esther]

It just makes you wonder why we can't do it, too! That shed roof is very impressive.