Würzburg, Heidelberg and Frankfurt
I slept well in Würzburg and after breakfast (Thursday) checked out of the hotel and walked to an Internet Café where a very pleasant young man helped connect my computer and corrected my German email to Suzanne. I found my car in the huge underground garage under the main market square; found the Autobahn easily and was off to Heidelberg. I don’t think there are toll roads in Germany; I wonder if they have toll bridges.
Driving on the Autobahn is also an experience; there really is no speed limit and while I was doing about 70 miles per hour others were passing me as if I was standing still! However that will eventually change, the daily paper carried stories indicating that, for the sake of the environment, speed limits would eventually be imposed and automobile advertisements would carry warning statements, like cigarette ads, about speed leading to death and the damage caused to the environment by auto emissions.
I stopped for a bite on the road and arrived at the Heidelberg Main Railway Station and Tourist Office around 4 o’clock. Once again Google Maps estimated Würzburg to Heidelberg at about 165kms and 3½ hours and it actually took more than twice as long. The lady in the Tourist Office was very nice and told me that there were several conferences in town and hotel rooms were in very short supply. Nevertheless she found me a hotel room for 3 nights, right in the Alt Stadt (old town) The Hotel Zum Pfalzgrafen (The Hotel of the Duchess of Pfalz) is something else; it’s a bit rundown with small pokey rooms but there is an elevator. I was greeted by Frau Schneider, the owner, a very spry little old lady, who helped me unload my luggage then jumped in the car to direct me to the hotel garage a couple of blocks away. Room #5 on the second floor is definitely small with two twin beds that I can hardly walk around. I strolled down to the Hauptstrass (Main Street) and had dinner at ‘Das Gasthaus zum Weissen Schwanen’ (The White Swans) a lovely old, old restaurant and had Jaeger-Schnitzel (breaded pork cutlet with a mushroom sauce) that was ‘lecker’ the German word for tasty or maybe yummy! I remember this was one of Marita’s favorite words.
In spite of the pokey room I slept like a log and spent the morning in Heidelberg looking for an Internet connection. I walked all over town; tried two different Internet Cafés, where their cable would not fit my laptop. Eventually I found a café with Wifi and managed to pick up and send a few emails. I also did some major shopping. I bought a very cute Crocodile backpack for my Granddaughter, Araceli, socks for Suzanne and Lysa and a few other odds and ends. I had dinner at ‘Schafheutle Conditorei und Café’, served by a lovely grandmotherly type. I had potato soup and ‘Rinderroulade’ (a rolled beef filled with mustard and pickles) I remember my Mother making these as a great treat. She used to tie them with string, which had to be carefully removed before serving. Here they were kept closed with a large toothpick, also carefully removed before serving. This time I ordered dessert from the bakery, an apple cake, not strudel, that was delicious. I was told that the original Herr Schafheutle was pastry chef to Queen Victoria in London and sometimes Buckingham Palace still orders special cakes from here!
Next day, Saturday I tried to take it easy. I walked around Alt Stadt and found a gift for Eliane. I had a very nice conversation with the shop owner; I asked her if people in Germany, the former Western part, are basically happy, She said, “Yes but underneath there is unhappiness. Unemployment is manageable, there is very little crime and there will not be another war in Europe, however prices keep going up and retirement benefits are going down” I asked her how many times her shop had been broken into and she said “twice in the last fifteen years”. I also went back to the watch-seller, where I had seen a very nice gold dress watch last Spring. He said that he no longer carried that model and showed me a few others that I did not particularly like. I did have him replace the strap on my old ‘Timex’. I also asked him the same question that I had asked the woman in the jewelry store and he said very much the same thing.
Later in the afternoon, Lothar and his girlfriend Nelly picked me up at the hotel. We piled into his little Fiat and drove up to the castle ruins that overlook the town and walked round a bit. The place was crowded being a Saturday afternoon. The weather was chilly and there was no sun. We drove round some more and Lothar showed me the location of the old Jewish cemetery and the new Heidelberg synagogue after which we went out for dinner. Lothar picked a nice quiet Italian restaurant where we each had a pizza, which was delicious. Lothar speaks very good English, however we spoke mostly in German for Nelly’s benefit. Afterwards they dropped me back at the hotel. In the evening I walked down to the Hauptstrasse for an after-dinner drink and so to bed. Tonight the clocks go back in most of Europe and we get an extra hour’s sleep.
Next morning, Sunday I packed and said ‘aufwedersehen’ to Frau Schneider after she walked me to the garage and hopped into the car to drive back for my luggage. The drive to Frankfurt was a snap; I dropped the luggage at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel and returned the car. I had driven 1,372kms (about 850 miles) and there was no problem with the slight scrape to the front bumper where I had a minor argument with a concrete post in the Eisenach hotel garage. From the airport I took a train to the Hauptbahnhof and walked around downtown Frankfurt for a while. The weather was quite cold, so after a bit I took train and shuttle back to the hotel. Dinner that night in the “Unterschweinstiege Restaurant” was great. The restaurant is named for a nearby forest where the locals allowed their pigs to forage for acorns and such. I had roast leg of veal covered with about half-a-pound of wild mushrooms plus more potato dumplings. Since it was my last night I also had dessert ‘palachinken’ (butter crepes) with sugar, cinnamon and applesauce. I talked to the two couples at the next table, retired schoolteachers from Colorado Springs. They said that their parents were German born and they had been back to see their roots.
Next day, Monday I took the shuttle to the airport and caught Lufthansa flight 454 back home to San Francisco.
Lothar Aunmueller is self-employed as a consultant having to do with management practices, team training and registration of trademarks. He is probably in his middle forties and is a volunteer in the Jewish community and works with the City program for inviting former residents; Nelly is very pretty, middle to late thirties and from the Crimea region of the former Soviet Union. She is in hotel-management, speaks very little German or English and has visa problems. She has to return to the Crimea to apply for a new visa and that may take 3 to 6 months.
I met Lothar through Henry Baer; Lothar was his guide when Henry and his sister recently came here at the invitation of the Burgermeister.
Photos
Heidelberg #039
Nelly and Lothar #062
Heidelberg #044
New Heidelberg Synagogue #047
I slept well in Würzburg and after breakfast (Thursday) checked out of the hotel and walked to an Internet Café where a very pleasant young man helped connect my computer and corrected my German email to Suzanne. I found my car in the huge underground garage under the main market square; found the Autobahn easily and was off to Heidelberg. I don’t think there are toll roads in Germany; I wonder if they have toll bridges.
Driving on the Autobahn is also an experience; there really is no speed limit and while I was doing about 70 miles per hour others were passing me as if I was standing still! However that will eventually change, the daily paper carried stories indicating that, for the sake of the environment, speed limits would eventually be imposed and automobile advertisements would carry warning statements, like cigarette ads, about speed leading to death and the damage caused to the environment by auto emissions.
I stopped for a bite on the road and arrived at the Heidelberg Main Railway Station and Tourist Office around 4 o’clock. Once again Google Maps estimated Würzburg to Heidelberg at about 165kms and 3½ hours and it actually took more than twice as long. The lady in the Tourist Office was very nice and told me that there were several conferences in town and hotel rooms were in very short supply. Nevertheless she found me a hotel room for 3 nights, right in the Alt Stadt (old town) The Hotel Zum Pfalzgrafen (The Hotel of the Duchess of Pfalz) is something else; it’s a bit rundown with small pokey rooms but there is an elevator. I was greeted by Frau Schneider, the owner, a very spry little old lady, who helped me unload my luggage then jumped in the car to direct me to the hotel garage a couple of blocks away. Room #5 on the second floor is definitely small with two twin beds that I can hardly walk around. I strolled down to the Hauptstrass (Main Street) and had dinner at ‘Das Gasthaus zum Weissen Schwanen’ (The White Swans) a lovely old, old restaurant and had Jaeger-Schnitzel (breaded pork cutlet with a mushroom sauce) that was ‘lecker’ the German word for tasty or maybe yummy! I remember this was one of Marita’s favorite words.
In spite of the pokey room I slept like a log and spent the morning in Heidelberg looking for an Internet connection. I walked all over town; tried two different Internet Cafés, where their cable would not fit my laptop. Eventually I found a café with Wifi and managed to pick up and send a few emails. I also did some major shopping. I bought a very cute Crocodile backpack for my Granddaughter, Araceli, socks for Suzanne and Lysa and a few other odds and ends. I had dinner at ‘Schafheutle Conditorei und Café’, served by a lovely grandmotherly type. I had potato soup and ‘Rinderroulade’ (a rolled beef filled with mustard and pickles) I remember my Mother making these as a great treat. She used to tie them with string, which had to be carefully removed before serving. Here they were kept closed with a large toothpick, also carefully removed before serving. This time I ordered dessert from the bakery, an apple cake, not strudel, that was delicious. I was told that the original Herr Schafheutle was pastry chef to Queen Victoria in London and sometimes Buckingham Palace still orders special cakes from here!
Next day, Saturday I tried to take it easy. I walked around Alt Stadt and found a gift for Eliane. I had a very nice conversation with the shop owner; I asked her if people in Germany, the former Western part, are basically happy, She said, “Yes but underneath there is unhappiness. Unemployment is manageable, there is very little crime and there will not be another war in Europe, however prices keep going up and retirement benefits are going down” I asked her how many times her shop had been broken into and she said “twice in the last fifteen years”. I also went back to the watch-seller, where I had seen a very nice gold dress watch last Spring. He said that he no longer carried that model and showed me a few others that I did not particularly like. I did have him replace the strap on my old ‘Timex’. I also asked him the same question that I had asked the woman in the jewelry store and he said very much the same thing.
Later in the afternoon, Lothar and his girlfriend Nelly picked me up at the hotel. We piled into his little Fiat and drove up to the castle ruins that overlook the town and walked round a bit. The place was crowded being a Saturday afternoon. The weather was chilly and there was no sun. We drove round some more and Lothar showed me the location of the old Jewish cemetery and the new Heidelberg synagogue after which we went out for dinner. Lothar picked a nice quiet Italian restaurant where we each had a pizza, which was delicious. Lothar speaks very good English, however we spoke mostly in German for Nelly’s benefit. Afterwards they dropped me back at the hotel. In the evening I walked down to the Hauptstrasse for an after-dinner drink and so to bed. Tonight the clocks go back in most of Europe and we get an extra hour’s sleep.
Next morning, Sunday I packed and said ‘aufwedersehen’ to Frau Schneider after she walked me to the garage and hopped into the car to drive back for my luggage. The drive to Frankfurt was a snap; I dropped the luggage at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel and returned the car. I had driven 1,372kms (about 850 miles) and there was no problem with the slight scrape to the front bumper where I had a minor argument with a concrete post in the Eisenach hotel garage. From the airport I took a train to the Hauptbahnhof and walked around downtown Frankfurt for a while. The weather was quite cold, so after a bit I took train and shuttle back to the hotel. Dinner that night in the “Unterschweinstiege Restaurant” was great. The restaurant is named for a nearby forest where the locals allowed their pigs to forage for acorns and such. I had roast leg of veal covered with about half-a-pound of wild mushrooms plus more potato dumplings. Since it was my last night I also had dessert ‘palachinken’ (butter crepes) with sugar, cinnamon and applesauce. I talked to the two couples at the next table, retired schoolteachers from Colorado Springs. They said that their parents were German born and they had been back to see their roots.
Next day, Monday I took the shuttle to the airport and caught Lufthansa flight 454 back home to San Francisco.
Lothar Aunmueller is self-employed as a consultant having to do with management practices, team training and registration of trademarks. He is probably in his middle forties and is a volunteer in the Jewish community and works with the City program for inviting former residents; Nelly is very pretty, middle to late thirties and from the Crimea region of the former Soviet Union. She is in hotel-management, speaks very little German or English and has visa problems. She has to return to the Crimea to apply for a new visa and that may take 3 to 6 months.
I met Lothar through Henry Baer; Lothar was his guide when Henry and his sister recently came here at the invitation of the Burgermeister.
Photos
Heidelberg #039
Nelly and Lothar #062
Heidelberg #044
New Heidelberg Synagogue #047
No comments:
Post a Comment