Advertisement
Published: December 9th 2007
Erwin Rommel
The hill where Rommel died....on the 14th of October, 1944, General Field marshal Erwin Rommel sat under a tree, drank some poison, and died.
And all I got was this lousy photo...
Friday, was a very windy day here. Warren and I had planned to climb the Muenster tower, but my shoes have been seriously hurting my foot and my ankle felt like someone was poking a knife into it, so I wussed out and chose not to climb the 700 steps. Not yet anyway. It probably would have been too windy anyway... (that's right wuss... make your excuses)
Instead we drove up to Michaelsburg to this old fort that the army owns (a few guys hiding out under a table surrounded by mattresses and pillows... you know what I'm talking about) that is kinda built into the side of the hill... like you'll be driving past this grassy knoll and all of a sudden there's a wall 'in' the hill - it's pretty cool. They have this watch tower up there (only 70 steps) which offers a pretty good view of Ulm.
We climbed up to the top, and it was pretty windy, BUT... you could see the Alps. Like
Looking down
Up on the watch tower, looking down on the fort. way in the distance, clear as a bell, you could see all the mountains (that are like 2 hours' drive away... it was like being in Tully and seeing a shopping centre in Cairns... and yes - that is the worst analogy ever, maybe like 1 person who reads this will even understand what I mean by that... maybe there is only one person who reads this - hi mum! and if that's the case then I've explained it to 100% of my readership - yay!) Warren pointed out the very two mountains that he had gone skiing on last weekend - it was pretty gorgeous.
We then went on a drive around the local Ulm area, through lots of little towns that surround the Ulm valley. It's funny, like I'm from Innisfail - but if I'm talking to someone who wouldn't know the area well, I would say I am from near Cairns. Here, if someone is from Herrlingen (like 10 minutes from Ulm) they're from Herrlingen.
And that is where Erwin Rommel was from. He was one of Hitler's Generals, read more about him here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel). He has this awesome history of all these battles and
Blurry steps
Climbing the tower leading offenses all over the world, though when he was found to be linked to the bomb plot that was supposed to kill Hitler, he was kinda made the scapegoat for the whole thing it would seem. Hitler's henchmen gave him poison and told him to kill himself, of they would kill every member of his family.
So, he went to his village, climbed the hill, sat under the tree and died. Warren and I were driving up this hill on this dirt track whilst Warren was telling me about this German war dude, and all of a sudden we pull up at this rock and Warren was like - here's where he died. It was cool.
Later we drove out to Sofflingen, which is so nice! One of the nicest things about this area (I think) is that the Blau river runs all over the place. It's this tiny super fast river, and in lots of town there are mills set up and canals built for it... always ducks hanging out on it (the ducks here are so cute!) and the same goes for Sofflingen. There's an old walled monastery there which has been kinda turned into
The tower
ummm... the tower... the town square, and there are rows of houses like built into the wall and it's just gorgeous!
Oh! and we went to Burger King! Which was awesome! They have this burger that they call the Big King, and it's totally a rip off of the Big Mac (it's a double Whopper with Big Mac sauce - it's awesome!) and their fries are great over here - they like have this coating or something, anyway, Patty - you would love it... we would live there, build a little house under a table, and never leave.
Is there something wrong with me that a trip to Burger King would be that exciting?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0616s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
brucelee
Eddie and Valerie Shaw
From Mum!
Wow I did not know about Erwin Rommel... sad... Hope your foot is soon better Susan ...it sounds nasty. Perhaps you had better think about a second pair of boots?? Keep up the blog entries, they are awsome!