Advertisement
Published: July 15th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Seeschloss (Lake castle) Monrepos
Duke Eberhard Ludwig von Württemberg built this little lake palace in Ludwigsburg in 1764. He liked building castles so much, i.e. he had money and power, that he had three built all within the Ludwigsburg area. This past Fourth of July weekend Kate and I decided to see another area of Germany that we had not seen before and at the same time check out another spa. Germany has lots of spas! We decided to head south toward the area of Stuttgart. I found a great hotel, Schlosshotel Monrepos, just north of Stuttgart in the town of Ludwigsburg. According to the website, it gave us the impression that the SeeSchloss (lake castle) Monrepos was the hotel. It wasn’t. The hotel was in another building just down from the SeeSchloss. Although it was a little bait and switch, the hotel was very nicely appointed and the breakfast the next morning, although a little expensive at 13 Euros each, was served in a beautiful sunlight room and patio. The SeeSchloss Monrepos built by Duke Eberhard Ludwig von Württemberg is more of a large mansion than a castle. We rented bikes and rode around the lake and the surrounding area. The lake is fairly small as lakes go but it does have an island and on the island is a church. We couldn’t check it out, as we had to leave for our next destination, Bad Dürrheim.
Bad Dürrheim, SeeSchloss Monrepos Statue
One of the many statues that are found around the castle. about 60 miles south of Stuttgart is a nice little town. It is not as picturesque as many other towns in Germany. The only thing I could find about Bad Dürrheim was that in 2001 Jan Ullrich, the famous German bike rider, won a 216 km bike race that ended in Bad Dürrheim. I don’t mean to put the town down but I just couldn’t find much about it. While we were there the town was having a city fest with lots of good food and entertainment. Bad Dürrheim does have a nice salt-water spa, Solemar. Except for the Caracalla spa in Baden Baden, I like this spa the best of all the other spas we have visited so far. The warm salt-water pools were great to just lay back, float and close your eyes. I took a very relaxing nap floating on my back in the 95-degree salt-water pool. The other feature I liked about this spa was that along one wall of both the large indoor and outdoor pool were these water jets. There are 7 or 8 jets spaced about 6 feet apart. As you move from jet to jet, the jets increase in height so that
Watching the Kids Play
This reminded me of when our kids were little and we would watch them play. a different part of your body is massaged at each station. Starting at ankle height and progressing all the way up to someone’s middle or upper back. In order to be fair a strobe light flashes each minute indicating that one should move to the next jet. I must have gone through the stations about 4 times. What a great water massage!
Since Kate had to work on Monday, July 3rd, we left Bad Dürrheim and enroute back home we decided to stop at Schwäbisch Hall. (I was really looking for another town but got lost, or as we put it, we decided to sightsee Germany). Schwäbisch Hall is truly a gem of German towns. It has been populated as early as the 5th century BC. The name, Schwäbisch Hall, literally translated means fountain of salt. The salty water of the areas was distilled to produce salt. The town, along the Kocher River, as you can see is a beautiful combination of both fachwerke (half-timbered) and delightfully colored and distinctively designed buildings. We ate lunch at a very nice outdoor café on the town square. Adjacent to where we were eating was St. Michael’s Church, built in the 15th
SeeSchloss Monrepos Lake View
This beautiful lake compliments the castle grounds. century. On the steps of the church they were practicing for an outdoor opera that was going to be held on those same steps that evening. The opera singer, wearing this huge plastic hoop skirt, tripped on the skirt while she was rehearsing and almost tumbled down the steps. Fortunately, she caught herself in time, as there were easily 50 or more steps she could have fallen down.
In a church on a hill on the other side of the river in Schwäbisch Hall we came across an interesting memorial to the Germans killed in both World War I and II. It was a book listing all the names of those who had died or were missing in the wars. What interested us was the German writing over the crypt in which the book was kept, “ER TRUG UNSERE KRANKEITAUF DASS WIR FRIEDEN HÄTTEN”. The writing above literally translates: He carries our illness on that we enclose would have. I’ve talked to a couple of Germans and they say it could possibly loosely translate as: Christ carries the burden of this illness (Germany's transgressions) and this illness cost Germany the lost of both wars and also these young men.
Kate & Charley
We rented bicycles and had a very enjoyable time riding aroung the lake and the surrounding area. Charley thought it was great as he got to enjoy the ride in comfort. This was the price of peace. If anyone has a better translation I would appreciate you sending it to me.
Kate had to work on Monday so we spent it at home in Ansbach. The next day, July 4th, we decided to try another spa town, this time - Bad Mergentheim. The spa in Bad Mergentheim was not very good. It was more like a couple of warm water swimming pools. The waters of the spa are supposed to be the strongest sodium-sulfate water in all of Europe, especially good for the treatment of digestive disorders. We didn’t notice much difference in the water.
The town however was another story. Bad Mergentheim, founded early in the 11th century, claim to fame is that it was the headquarters of the Teutonic Knights for this area of Germany. On the secularization of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in 1525, Mergentheim’s Deutschordenschloss, the Teutonic Knights Castle, became the residence of the grand master, and remained so until the final dissolution of the order in 1809 by Napoleon. The castle and the old town section of Bad Mergentheim are beautiful. The Germans really take pride in their towns as you can see
Another Lake Monrepos Statue
Although somewhat damaged over the years it is still a beautiful statue. from the bright colors of their buildings.
On our way out of Bad Mergentheim, we stopped at a little parish church in the village of Stuppach. Here in this little church, in a relatively little village, we found this beautiful painting of the Madonna by Matthias Grünewald. Matthias Grünewald, c.1475-1528, remained relatively unknown until the 20th century; only about 13 of his paintings and some drawings survive. The painting of the Madonna was part of a larger altarpiece of Our Lady of the Snow in the Abbey Church at Aschaffenburg, near Bad Mergentheim. After the Teutonic knights were disbanded in 1809, a priest, thought to be a Teutonic knight, took the panel to his little parish church in Stuppach.
Until our next trip, auf Wiedersehen!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0294s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb