Jack Maynard, Sara and John Fry
German Tour, April 21-29, 2007
.Saturday, April 21German Tour, April 21-29, 2007
We arrived at Frankfurt airport at 9:30 am. Our plan was to drive northwest to the Rhine and do a little sightseeing before checking in at the American Arms Hotel in Wiesbaden. We had beautiful, warm sunny weather as we did every day of our vacation. Our first stop was in Koblenz. The Rhine and Mosel Rivers meet here. We walked along the Mosel and spent some time watching kayaks and barges go through the locks.
Our next stop was Neiderwald where we had the first of many delicious German meals.
I know that doesn't look like much of a meal, but we were thirsty.We continued our beautiful drive with our first view of the vineyards and castles along the Rhine.
Sunday, April 22
Our first stop was Schloss (Castle) Johannisberger. Took a nice stroll around the vineyards and bought some wine.
Our next stop was Rudesheim with its famous narrow streets. We did a little window shopping then took the gondola to the Niederwald Monument.
A beautiful view of the Rhine from the Niederwald monument above Rudesheim.
The Niederwald monument was built between 1877-1883 to commemorate the Franco German war of 1870-71 and the re-establishment of the German Empire - the figure at the top is Germania. The smaller statues around the base show WilhelmI, Bismarck and other German generals. You get to the monument on a cable car.
Our next stop was Marksburg Castle, but we got there too late and couldn't get in. We were allowed to walk around the grounds.
Can't figure out how to turn this so you'll have to look sideways.
After our busy day we went back to Wiesbaden and went bowling.
Monday, April 23, John's 60th Birthday
We stopped at Schloss Heidleberg and then drove through Mannheim on the way to meet Sara's relatives in Donsieders.
This is a photo of Margit Rosenbaum and her sister Ursula. They have the same great, great grandfather as Sara - Heinrich Lattschar. They lived in a small village with 3 bakeries and an Italian restaurant. We had a great meal at the restaurant and stayed in a wonderful upstairs apartment recently vacated by Margit's daughter Yvonne. At Margit's house we met her Uncle Otto Wagner and his wife Lilo who took us to visit the Lattschar homestead. Margit was the only one who spoke English so she did her best to try to translate between Sara and Otto.
Tuesday, April 24
After a nice German breakfast at Margit's (cheese, meat, bread, honey,coffee), we met Otto and Lilo in Kaiserslatern. Otto led us to Kuhborncheshof where we were greeted by Herman Lattschar and his wife. Again, Margit was the only one who spoke English. Kuhborncheshof was settled in the 1700's by Sara's Mennonite ancestors who were persecuted in Switzerland. They were given land in the Palatinate area by the Germans as this was unsettled area ripe for farming. The Mennonites formed "hofs" which consisted of barns and a church in a small circle with fields radiating from them. The houses were part of the barns. The original house was torn down in the last 20 years and replaced, but the Lattschars still live in some of the original buildings. The Mennonites did not believe in dividing the land among their children so it was given to the eldest son. The other siblings had to find another place to live which is why so many Mennonites (including our relatives) ended up in Lancaster, Pa. We toured the Mennonite Church and family cemetary which is in Herman's back yard.
Otto Wagner, John and Sara Fry, Herman Wagner and his wife, Margit Rosenbaum and Lilo Wagner in front of Herman's house. You can see the barn door on the right.
The well in downtown Kuhborncheshof.
Margit left us in Kuhborncheshof and assured us that another relative that we would meet soon would speak English. We followed Otto and Lilo to Bad Denheim where we met Herman's brother Curt and his family. Curt's daughter Birgit spoke fluent English. We had a great time here, Birgit was very informative. Her website is www.birgit-lattschar.de for those relatives reading this who want to know more about her. As we learned in our travels, children leave home and establish their family and careers. Then they move back home when their parents retire. Birgit, her husband and baby were in the process of moving in. Her sister and family already live there. There "home" can best be described as a compound. Again, combination barn/houses in square around a courtyard. The stone wall behind the house was built in 700!!
Beyond the stone wall is a small vineyard and gardens. Across the road in the other direction is the large family vineyard which has been run by Curt Lattschar until his recent retirement. He is now leasing the property. It appears to be a successful winery and their wine was the best we had on our trip. Their label says" Silvaner Kabiner, Die Winzer com Sonnenberg eG Pfaltz"
After having coffee, we left with Otto and Lilo for lunch at the famous Durkheimer FASS, a restaurant built inside a Giant wine cask. We managed to get through lunch even though Otto and Lilo spoke no English. Otto and I agreed to get some translation software so we can talk to each other.
This restaurant was built to "outdo" the giant wine cask we had seen at Heidleburg Castle. However, this never was anything but a restaurant so we agreed that Heidleburg should hold the largest wine cask record since theirs actually held wine.Here we had a typical meal: John had liverwurst, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Sara had sausage and sauerkraut. Jack had "heaven and earth" which included blood sausage, he didn't like it. Otto gave us a bottle of wine and led us to the autobahn.
We then headed for the Black Forest. We stopped at the House of Black Forest Clocks in Hornberg- Neiderwasser. There was a gigantic clock outside that you could animate with a euro. www. house-of-black-forest-clocks.com. Jack bought two clocks here and they were the best quality and prices we saw throughout our trip. We then continued without a real plan, but Birgit advised us to just pick a town and find a place with a "zimmer frei" sign. We went to Triberg and stumbled upon a great place to stay for 25 euro per person. We had the place to ourselves. it was next to the highest waterfalls in Germany. We enjoyed some wine in our hotel and climbed the falls, then had a great dinner at the Pfaff restaurant. Sara had trout, John had venison and Jack had cordon bleu.
The owner of the "Cuckoos Nest" had a woodcarving shop downstairs. Many of his handmade items were on display in our rooms and lobby/dining room. We planned on visiting the store next morning but they didn't open til 10 and we decided to hit the road.
Wednesday, April 25:
As we found during our trip, we were ready to go around 7:30 or 8:00, but most stores and restaurants didn't open til 9 or 10. We stopped at a coffee shop as we left Triberg and had some coffee and croissants. Jack bought some spargel (asparagus) at a small stand outside the coffee shop which he planned to cook in our room that night in Garmische. We carried it around all week and finally threw it away on the 29th. I should mention that it was spargel season in Germany and all restaurants featured this delicious white asparagus. There were roadside stands everywhere, like hot dog or ice cream stands, selling spargel with hollandaise or butter sauce. We ate it almost every meal. On this day, we began to see the Alps. We also noticed little sheds/shacks scattered all over the fields. We found out that since the barns are in the towns, flammable things like wood and grain, are kept outside of town in these small buildings. One person would have several buildings, in case one catches fire, they only lose a part of their crop.
Storage shed with Alps in the background.Our next stop was Neuschwanstein, the famous castle of Mad Ludwig.
Overlooking Neuschwanstein after a nice hike up the mountain. The view of the lake where Ludwig's body was found - suicide or murder?
Our next stop was Garmische where Jack had made reservations at the Edelweiss Resort.
O
On the balcony at the Edelweiss with the Zugspitze in the background. Americans were warned not to wear clothes which might alert terrorists that they are from the U.S.
Thursday, April 26:
In the morning we played golf at the Alpental Golf Course which was in the process of being turned over to the Germans by the American military.
Hard to focus on your golf with this beautiful view in the background.
The afternoon was spent visiting the zugspitze, the highest Alp in Germany. We were able to walk to the train station from the hotel and made our way to the top on cogwheel train and gondola.
John got a little shaky on the cable car so we took the cogwheel train back down. Sara saw some wildlife on the way down, either giant rabbits or tiny goats.We took the train into Garmische and had another great dinner at Alpenhof. Jack had pork tenderloin with dark beer sauce, shredded cabbage and potato balls. John had venison goulash with noodles and brussel sprouts. Sara had pork with mushroom sauce and noodles.
Friday, April 27
We made a brief stop at the Ettal monastery and bought a few bottles of their beer.
We followed a tour group inside and walked around the main church. We lit some candles and headed off for Oberammergau where we walked around a little, but prices were high - a real tourist trap. We then drove through Munich, we couldn't find the old city, so we left and headed for Rothenburg. Traffic was very slow on the autobahn so we got off when we saw a big farmers market on a hill. We had a great lunch and spent some time looking at the goods for sale. We bought what we thought was "sharp" cheese, but it turned out to be "soft" cheese.
Again, we ate spargel and schnitzel. No one spoke English here, but we managed. We then headed to Rothenburg. We found a great hotel, the Hotel Reichskuechenmeister!!
This is a view of our room from the outdoor biergarten at our hotel. We had a light meal here before meeting the Night Watchman for our tour of Rothenburg. After the tour, we had drinks at a bar called Hell, which was opened in 980! Jack and Sara had more drinks in the hotel's weinkeller and then toured the ancient city wall. We ended up drinking beers and shots with the owners of a little bar near our hotel - didn't get to back to the hotel until 3:15 - our only drunken night.
This is the world famous view of Rothenburg, painted by many artists.
This guy is great. I have his DVD, so don't forget to ask to see it when you visit. He also has a website, www.nightwatchman.de.
Rothenburg is a walled city. Everyone had to store enough food and grain for one year so they could survive a seige. Night watchmen were needed 
to check for fires which would destroy the city. We also toured the torture museum here. Most torture victims were displayed here in this square.Saturday, April 28
After visiting the torture museum, we left Rothenburg and went to Ochsenfurd where Jack used to live. We then went to Kitzingen and saw a tower which leans because the concrete was supposedly made with wine which evaporated. Jack took us to his favorite restaurant in Reppendorf but it was closed so we went to Wurzberg and ate at an oriental food stand in a WalMart parking lot. We then drove back to the American Arms in Wiesbaden for our last night. We walked to Die Hutte for our final great German meal. Spargel and schnitzel. Jack pigged out on gravy.
Sunday, April 29
Jack and Dad in Frankfurt airport. We had a great flight home with lots of good movies to watch.
