Freiburg

Most German cities have their city emblem on their manhole covers & unfortunately, I have not had the tools with me to do rubbings - unlike someone else I know!!!!

The Market house - quite ornate.

The cathedral - the spire is being renovated & has scaffolding all around it.  Something HofM found entirely fascinating. We also saw a stone mason working on a piece - painstakingly.

Market Day - flowers, vegetables, fruit, bread, wurst (so much wurst!) & lost of other bits & pieces for sale.

Golf (the ultimate sacrifice)

I let him have a game of golf - this course is on an island in the middle of the Rhine! It is in France & it was lovely.

I found some mushrooms to photograph - HofM wasn't impressed.

There he is waiting for fellow golfer, Kurt, to play his stroke. This is the 18th hole - very picturesque.

Driving through the Black Forest.

Strasbourg

We found our way to Strasbourg - we were staying only a few kilometers from the French border & popped over for a look.

Just lovely - enjoyed the architecture & we had lunch at a really nice restaurant - this trip seems to be a lot about food - who's worrying - all my clothes have elastic waistbands!!!

Just the two of us!

The shop was closed but it looked interesting.

Auggen & Mulheim

Forgive me - if I ramble during this blog - a couple glasses of white wine & no food since breakfast means anything can happen!  We spent 5 nights in Auggen - wine district near the Black Forest - went walking in to the next village, Mullheim, & found a Flea Market raising funds for the local Rabbit Assn (OK - Rabbit Breeders - we think!)

There were some really pretty buildings - this one was particularly nice with all the vines.

Look - blue skies -this was taken at around 6.00pm!

Mullheim - there is a creek (they may call it a river) runs through the town - the towns/villages are just lovely.

Seiffen - home of Christmas.

OK - this one is nothing to do with Christmas.  This sign is left over from WW2 - it gives the directions to a "Luft Shelter" - an air raid shelter.  It was actually inside this house - no, we didn't ask to see it!

Here we are - Christmas - Seiffen is a village in the mountains on the border of the Czech Republic & they make these wood Christmas thinngys here.  There are Christmas decoration everywhere - every shop sells them & the factory is lovely to look through.  This is where Nutcrackers are made - the ones like Prussian soldiers.

I had Ronnefeldt tea here - this name is sooooo close to my maiden name, I am claiming it as our families! The tea was delicious too.

 Everywhere - or, rather here, - it is Christmas all year round.

Thanks for taking the time to read all these posts - can't manage it day by day as I thought I would - so do a marathon every week or so - you'll need this beer once you've got through this last lot.  HofM recommends this Weissebier!

Konigstein - A castle worth a visit

View from the castle walls - the village of Konigstein. 

The castle.

A dungeon - there is no evidence that it was ever used - there are no stairs inside either - so I guess once in................ 

This was a castle within a castle - used for elegant dinners - what a view they had.

An imposing front door - this is probably one of the best castles we've visited & there are so many more -not enough time left in our lives to visit them all.

Coldtiz & Birthday BBQ

This car - it is registered, driven by a tattooed gentleman that we didn't speak to - was parked in the Market Square in Coldtiz.  Maybe it was a getaway car!

Inside Colditz Castle - on going through the museum, we were overwhelmed by the ingenuity of the prisoners in their bids to excape.  The Germans photographed & documented most escapes, successful or not.

View out of one of the windows of Colditz.  It was a long way down.

We were free to leave.

HofM celebrated a birthday & this was some of the lovely food we had at the BBQ - not quite Aussie style but delicious.

Night out in Neustadt, Dresden

Don't ask me what this was all about - it was in German - but lampshades & lights had something to do with it.  The shows come from all around & we saw a strange one from Israel - still not sure what it was all about & a musical group from Czech Republic - they were good!

The night lights.

Biggest fairy floss you ever saw!

Don' t think this graffiti would have been appreciated a couple of decades ago here in East Germany!



Bautzen

Bautzen is a delighful village - this is what's left of a monastery - cemetries in Germany are very well kept with flowers & shrubs. 

One of the characters we met on our travels.

Such wonderful streets of cobblestones, old stone walls & old, old houses.

This tower is leaning - it's not too far from the Stadtmuseum where the original 1776 Quilt is housed.  Went through the museum in the hope of seeing the original quilt - the gentleman on the front counter didn't understand what I was on about - so I paid my money & went to look.  A couple of interesting textile pieces but no quilt.  On getting back to Dresden, got on the Internet to see what I could find out.  Friends of Pam Holland had been to the museum 2 weeks before us, they got to see the quilt before it was shipped off to an exhibition - we were not so lucky.  At least I was in the right place.

Dresden & surrounds

First night in Dresden - dinner in a Bier Garten on the banks of the Elbe watching three balloons inflate & rise off in to the sky. They put on the show just for us - of course.

Meissen - beautiful castle & village - food, beer & porcelain pretty good too.  The icecream was great!

Moritzburg - castle in the middle of a lake - can't you imagine the carriages making their way up this road.  What an entrance!

We are over road-works on the Autobahn - on one of our road trips, the traffic hold up & detour added an hour to the trip - traffic just doesn't move.

Farewell Prague & Czech Republic - till next time

Our hotel in Prague - it was absolutely delightful - found on the Internet & it lived up to its blurb. We were all so thrilled with our stay here.

Our host, Miroslav, hugging Norwegian friends.  The restaurant in the Hotel (Miroslav is the chef) is ranked second in all Czech Republic - so we dined well.

On the way to Dresden by a scenic route - wonder if this is someone's home - no signs to tell us what it was.

Some of the forest we drove through.

Beyond Prague

Visited Terezin - a 19th Century fortress that was used in WW2 to imprison Jews while they awaited transportation to concentration camps. So many died here - not necessarily through execution but through starvation & ill health.

There were three executions.

Our view from the restaurant in Petrovice - these stalls are eveywhere close to the German border & all seem to be manned by Asians - where else in the world can you get hub-caps & gnomes in the same place - OK - Bunnings!

This girl & a couple others were the parking attendants in Hluboka. They kept an eye on the main street & made sure you parked safely & took your parking money. They rode their bicycles up & down the street. We thought it was quite novel & much better than having to put your money into a machine. 

The Royal Castle at Hluboka - we did a tour with a guide - an 'English-speaking' guide.  It was her first tour & she did OK - our best 'misspeak' for the tour was that she told us this particular four-poster bed was much bigger than it looked - an 'optical inclusion'.  Loved it.

View from the long walk & steep hill up to the castle.  Why did all these kings & royal personages have to build on high hills?????

A sculpture in the town of Hluboka - it was outside a butchers so we think it was advertising white & black sausage!  Art is everywhere!