Stuttgart

Our last major destination was Stuttgart in the State of Baden-Württemberg. We had a wonderful time visiting this modern city. Pictured to the left is Schloss Platz in Stuttgart. It was very crowded on that Sunday.

Stuttgart is the most modern town that we visited on our trip. This being the case we mostly shopped.


Another stop we made while in Stuttgart was the royal residence in Ludwigsburg. The residence is just 15 min. north by train from Stuttgart. We toured 60 of the 452 rooms that made up the impressive Baroque building. It took us about two hours to complete. Below is a picture of part of the grounds surrounding the palace. The place was built by Duke Eberhard Ludwig between 1704 and 1733. it was considered the Baden-Württemberg Versailles. not to be confused with the Bavarian Versailles Herrenchiemsee which was built by Ludwig II king of Bavaria. Originally it was meant to be a hunting lodge but the Duke liked the area so much he had more rooms added on. Pretty soon a courtyard formed and he decided to make it his new residence, but just before the interior could be finished in the new wing the Duke died. His Cousin happily took over the royal estate and title seeing as the Duke could not produce anymore living offspring.

In the parking lot we spotted this interesting car (you may want to zoom in on the back windshield and the back passenger side window):

I hope our Australian Friend is keeping up with us. ;)

After visiting the schloss we went out for a Döner. A Döner is turkey cooked on a spit horizontally (pictured below) and is served in pita bread with a special sauce, lettuce and tomato. They shave the meat off of the large pillar of turkey as it slowly roasts on the turning spit. The Döner originated in Turkey and most of the shops are owned by immigrant Turks.

See you soon,

Jeremy

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Hello from Rothenburg. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our trip to Deutschland! I have been very busy and there hasn't been internet connectivity where I have been traveling. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is one of the few mid-evil cities left in Europe. It was spared large scale bombing due to an arrangement with U.S. and German military leaders to save the city. Today the cities walls have been rebuilt along with the cathedrals and towers all for the pleasure of its tourists.

We have enjoyed the many picturesque buildings and gates. The picture below is of the most photographed gate in the world. Down to the right is one of my favorite wells in Rothenburg. It depicts St. George killing the dragon. St. George is the patron saint of Bavaria and he is found just about everywhere.
We mostly wandered about the city shopping and went sightseeing.


See you all soon,
Jeremy

The Countryside

Hello from the Bavarian Countryside! I have been having lots of fun with panorama shots. We had a small change in our plans. previously we thought we would spend a total of four days in Nürnberg but instead we spent three days and went to Altmanstein and Mindlestetten, staying with our German friends. We went with them visiting Kelheim, Weltenburg, Limes (limis) and the Befreiungshalle.
We have been having lots of fun. Below is a panorama view of Kelheim from the top of the Befreiungshalle.

On our second day and our first trip out of Mindlestetten Dad and I were taken by our host family to Limes the old Roman wall. It was the northern boundary of the Roman empire and served as a limit as it were to how far the "barbarians" could come. The wall stretched from the Donau in the east and it ran all the way to the Rhine in the east. (To the right is a picture of a replica of a tower that might have been along the wall.) Along this border the Romans built massive fortifications. We also visited one of these forts built over 2000 years ago! Today all you can see are the foundations of the buildings.

The third day of our stay took us down the Donau river (Danube in English) to the monastery Weltenburg. Our German friends went with us. The monastery or cathedral was done in the Rococo style and is pictured above to the right.
The next picture you see here is a of the ceiling depicting heaven. The room was based on redirecting light so there is little to no windows in the sanctuary itself creating a glow about the room.

After lunch in Kelheim we visited the Befreiungshalle which is pictured on the left. It was built after the Napoleonic wars by Ludwig I King of Bavaria. It was built in honor of the defeat of Napoleon and the freedom that was achieved by the people of Bavaria and the rest of the German peoples.

When we went inside we were greeted by angels that surrounded the room (pictured below) all joining hands. after gazing around the dazzling hall we proceeded to climb up narrow spiral staircases to the top where we received a spectacular showcase of the world far below.
We are having lots of fun visiting these places.

See you all soon,
Jeremy

Nürnberg

Boy what a trip!!
It's been almost three weeks and we have so much yet to see!
We stayed in Nürnberg for three days taking our time strolling the avenues and byways.
We visited numerous Cathedrals. they were aw inspiring, some of them are at least 500 years old!
most of the churches you had to pay to enter which was rather unusual.
During World War II the city Nürnberg was bombed like most of the large cities in Germany so most of the buildings you see hear had to be rebuilt. The Cathedrals here are the largest buildings in the city. They made laws early on to keep buildings shorter so as not to change the sky line. We also visited Nürnberg Castle which was a fun sight to see.


See you soon,
Jeremy