Blogs from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Europe - page 88

Rivers Rhine, Danube and Neckar flow through Baden-Wuerttemberg state. But other rivers origin or pass through Baden-Wuerttemberg as well. One of them is river Rems. Among the towns river Rems flows through is Waiblingen, located about 15 Kilometers north of Stuttgart. First settlements existed here about 5,000 BC already (Chalcolithic time age). Allamanic and Roman settlements were created a lot later. In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, the town was almost completely destroyed. Its reconstruction took almost 150 years! Today Waiblingen is a town with a mediaeval townscape. Three touristic routes meet here: The Wuerttemberg Wine Route, the Rems Valley Route, and the German Framework Route. Especially the area around the market square is worth visiting. The historic buildings here form a beautiful ensemble. Among the most striking buildings is the old town hall with ... read more

061805 My riding partner for the flight was delightful Brigitte. She lives in CLT with her husband. Both moved from Germany awhile ago. They've lived in Charlotte for four years, but return to their house near Ramstein often. Brigitte has worked in environmental sciences, and her husband is an engineer working in coal scubbing technologies. Brigitte is currently starting up a business on German produced furniture based in Charlotte. Arrived in Frankfurt after a trip of seven hours. It felt shorter than I expected and I got little sleep. Took me too long to figure out to ask the Information booth staff where the neaest Deusche Bank ATM was located. Five hundred euro was the max, so loaded up, I found my way to the DB () station and found the office to validate my SelectPass. ... read more

Today Drea and I visited the spa resort town of Baden Baden, near the Schwartzwald (Black Forest). We indulged ourselves in the full treatment at the famous Friedrichsbad, also known as the Roman-Irish Baths. Let me just say there's nothing legal you can do for 29€ that feels so good, and possibly nothing illegal either. The spa treatment consists of 16 steps, all helpfully outlined on large numbered signs in German, French and English. Squeamish Americans beware: all 16 are performed completely naked (two days a week, the mixed-gender pools are closed off for women only, but this was not one of those days). Step 1 is a soapy shower, followed by steps 2 and 3, increasingly extremely hot dry sauna rooms. I'm guessing this is to get rid of impurities. After a quick rinse (step ... read more

I have traveled to Freiburg, on the edge of the black forest. It was a very cozy town. The streets are lined with a running water way where children have taken off their shoes and wade in it and bikes appear to be a major mode of transportation. I arrived on what was apperently market day and to my delight I was able to aquire good bread, sausage, cheese, honey and fruit. The market was just like the Farmers market back home with one notable exception, this one took place just outside the Freiburg Münster, a towering late-Gothic cathedral with stunning stain glass windows. I took the cable car trip to the top of the Schauinsland peak and hiked all over the area. It was beautiful scenery, especially when you could see a town in the ... read more

The town of Calw, located in the Nagold Valley in the Northern Black Forest area was for the first time mentioned in a document in 1075. The name 'Calw' is derived from the word 'chalo' which roughly means the 'bare spot'. During the Middle Ages the citizens of Calw made their living trading with leather, sheep-breeding, textile manufacturing (weaving, dyeing and cloth-making) and tanning. In 1634 the then Protestant town was completely destroyed by Imperial troops under Jan van Werth. It was quickly rebuilt - and guess what? - it was completely destroyed again in 1692 during the War of the Successsion in the Palatinate (also called the Nine Years War). Calw was largely unharmed by the destructive effects of WW II. Thus walking around the historic town center one can still appreciate many half-timbered buildings. ... read more