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5 April: Alsace, France
After leaving the cafe, I went to the Casino across from the parking lot and got some toothpaste, soap, bottled water, tissues, and some bread for dinner. I then drove out to the Formula One and slept. Whilst there, I figured out that the Etap hotel chains were probably a better deal. For about 30% more they include CNN, and a shower/WC inside the room. And 30% more than $19 is not enough to worry about. Read the Michelin Green Guide to Burgundy and fell asleep.
I stopped in town and got some gas at a InterMarche, and then headed out on the autoroute. About 3 hours from Beaune to Colmar. Pleasant drive, one where I learned that going 73mph gets me an extra 4.5 mpg. So I slowed down a bit. I arrived in Colmar and eschewed the free parking lot and entered into the large underground garage (cheap, though). With all the money I'm saving so far I can splurge on the little things, and the big things like the hotel in Munich. Walked across town and got some traditional Alsacian food. Tarte a l'ognion and Saurkraut and Sausage. The Onion Pie was unbelievably good; like a quiche, but better. The Sauerkraut was filling, very filling, but I felt the need to keep eating. No dinner for me tonight.
Then off to the Unterlinden Museum. Top notch museum. The centerpiece is the Isenheim Altarpiece. A c. 1500 series of two folding paintings in front of a exquisitly carved centerpiece (of the apostles and a few assorted saints). I would have taken a picture, but they separated it to the point where I'd have to take half a roll just to get the whole thing in. I'll place a link to it once I get to Munich (and internet access is cheap). The rest of the museum is an assorted hodgepodge with few English descriptions and far too random to go along with the altarpiece (which I mistakenly used to start the tour). If I come back, I'm definately going to purchase some sort of guide book.
On the way out of the internet cafe, I found myself in front of the highly recommended Dominican Cathedral. Only 8F, so I stopped in. Had yet another altairpiece, done by the same guy that did the paintings in the Isenheim. It seemed very out of place in this quite austere cathedral, and that's because it was housed in the more ornate Franciscan cathedral down the street until 1971. That's when it was stolen for a year. The Dominican cathedral being in disuse and much more secure was now the storage place.
Then a short drive to Strasbourg and collapse in the Etap. Interesting design. The same shower and WC as F1, but in an elevated corner of the room. The only difference is the shower has a place to hold your soap, instead of a dispenser. Still no curtain, so the spray of the shower gets all over the place. And the toilet has no lid. But you get what you pay for. Ate across the street at the Ibis. Think of an IHOP but with a little more charm. The food quality was a little worse than mediocre, and I didn't eat that much. It was fine because the coupon provided made it cheap and after the alsacian meal, I just needed a little something. Fell asleep watching BBC World.
6 April: Munich, Germany
In the morning, I slept in. Was woken up by the cleaning lady who evidently didn't see or understand the large "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on my door. It was only 10:00 am. Got in my car for the 3 hour drive to Munich. Uneventful drive. Hit some relatively major traffic around the hotel (the overpriced one). Parked in a relatively tight parking spot, went upstairs, and checked in. The previous room I had must have been a fluke. This was just one room (still with a Kitchenette and Iron and whatnot...). Oh well, they have CNN on the TV so I rested for a bit. Then off to the BMW dealership next door. They had the part, I installed it; just snap it in. It's just a relatively deep hole, I guess to hold CDs. Then off on the U-Bahn to the easyEverything near the main train station, to make sure Stacey's flight is on time...
OK, so as I got a beer at the airport, Stacey showed up through the glass at the passport control section. Quite a welcome sight. After some hugs and pleasantries (and me showing off the car), we drove back to the hotel and got some required rest.
7 April: Muenchen, Germany
So we got up a little late getting used to the jet lag and the strange layout of the room. We repacked half our things into the car to make room for the extra baggage. The trunk is big enough for two people's things, but no more. I hope that it will hold my golf clubs. In any case, we went out to downtown. We couldn't find a place to eat anywhere that was relatively German due to the influx of rain and tourists, so we ended up at the Planet Hollywood. Stacey's first PH, and it was everything we thought it would be. The British waitress made the trip quite anglophone. Oh well, as we walked around we entered the gigantic 500-year old Church of Our Lady. Impressive for the first european cathedral she'd seen in years.
Then we went to the Centre of Unusual Museums or the Zentrum fuer Aussergewoehnliche Museen. This was the strangest place I'd been to in a while. A collection (by one guy, Manfred Klaude, who recently passed on and who had a predeliction to be in the Guiness Book) of Pedal Cars, Padlocks, Chamberpots, Bourdalou (don't even ask), Easter Bunny, Perfume, and Sisi the aforementioned empress Elisabeth of Austria. Freaky with a capital K. Very much worth the paltry 8DM. Evidently the rest of this guy's collection is housed in another museum of more stuff in Kreuth, so we may have to stop by. That one includes a collection of stuffed freakish animals (Wolpertinger). Imagine a gigantic collection of jackelopes. The jet lag started getting to Stacey so we went back to the hotel and crashed, yet again.
8 April: Muenchen, Germany
In the morning we checked out of the really, really expensive hotel and drove back to the castles. I vowed to see Linderhof whilst the fountains were going, so we saw that first. Wow. It was the most opulent castle I'd ever seen. It's small, only two floors with four main rooms [about 300 m^2 on each floor]. But it was furnished in a way to pretty much defy description. Everything was ivory, wood-carving gilded in gold, gold, marble, and one room was done all in silver. One painting had a 3-D effect where the foot was extending out of the room. One room, the room of mirrors, had a gigantic chandelier that weighed 400kg. Each part of every room looked like it was furnished by Trump. The fountain outside erupted on the hour with about a 100ft+ spray of water. However, the coolest thing by far was the Moorish Kiosk on the east side of the grounds. Every window is blue and red with a lot of moorish geometric designs inside. Opulent to the nth degree. We'll post a picture soon enough.
Then it was back to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. The tour guides were better than last time, but due to the lateness of the hour the tour of Neuschwanstein was cut a little short. We went back to the hotel I stayed at in Hopfen-am-See and the hotelier remembered me from a month ago. Got a great deal (300DM) on a suite. This was 40% less than the room yesterday, but it included two rooms, a jacuzzi tub, 2.5 baths, and a wraparound view of the lake that I dreamed I had the previous time. Plus the lack of snow on the ground (but remaining on the alps), made the Alpenblick (meaning View of the Alps) wonderful.
9 April: Hopfen-am-See, Germany
In the morning after a restful sleep we drove back to Munich and saw the Deutches Museum. I finally rode on the S-bahn in Munich (better cars, like the grey cars on the red line in Boston). We toured the Deutches Museum all day. And we saw maybe 20% of the 46000 ft^2. The pharmacy exhibit was quite cool and a sundial garden whilst the sun was shining. Then the clouds came.... ugh. Then we drove back to Hopfensee because the room was far too cool to pass up.
10 April: Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Germany
After regretfully checking out, we got on the Romantische Strasse with Rothenburg as our destination. After getting a little lost finding it, and then getting gas, we headed out. Our first stop was Donauwoerth, a quite forgettable town on the Danube. Our next stop was Dinkelsbuehl, a quaint town that was less forgettable, but still didn't warrant that much of a stop. Although driving through a Medieval town wall is always cool.
Our destination was Rothenburg. The quite-touristy, but king of medieval towns on the Romantische Strasse. We parked outside the wall and walked around a bit. We found the hotel we tried to stay at but didn't see anyone around, and it had far too much kitsch for me to be comfortable. While on this side of town we stopped in St. Jacob's Church. This church was spectacular. It had three, count-em, three exquisite altarpieces. One in the front, is a carving showing Twelve Apostles. Behind it is about 100 ft worth of stained glass detailing most of the aspects of the bible. In the days without literacy, they did this to help illustrate the bible; however these were also the days without binoculars.
The one on the side is a carving showing the Virgin Mary. However the coolest one was upstairs. A wood carving of Jesus giving Judas the piece of bread marking him as the traitor. Two paintings on the sides. It's the Altar of the Holy Blood because it contains a piece of rock crystal containing a drop of the holy blood. Quite cool. Lots of pictures (especially panoramic ones). To get back to our car we could either walk on the street, or go up and walk on the medieval town wall. Of course we did the latter. It's a bit short, and I found myself ducking more than once. However it had a great view of the town with it's red roofs.
We drove around to the south side of town, and drove through a quite narrow arch through the town wall. So narrow that we had to back out as another set of cars came through the same way. We parked on the side of the street (illegally for 5 minutes), and went into a hotel. Most of the hotels around here are more like restaurants with a few rooms upstairs. This was more of a hotel, but we still checked-in at the restaurant. Then I did quite an interesting parking job on the alley between the town wall and the hotel. Stacey was quite impressed with my skill. Then we tried to find a place to eat, but many of the eateries close on Tuesday night (presumably the only day there aren't tourists?). Found an italian place which was quite good.
11 April: Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Germany
In the morning we went to the Kriminalmuseum of Rothenburg. This was mentioned in my Wierd Europe book as the "Medieval Torture Museum" and it was that and so much more. All over the place were these hand-violins (which bind the hands to the neck), double-neck-violins (which bind two quarelling women together), leg irons, chains with dice and cards on it for cheaters, shame masks of all sorts, pillories, thumbscrews, a rack, and, of course, an iron maiden. But the cooler things were the descriptions of law in the 13-16th centuries. Until 1300 in Germany, the state had no role in meeting out justice on behalf of itself. There was only victimless crime. After that, along with the catholic church's influence (which was unexpected), torture became a regular part of jurisprudence. There was an old saxon book of law from the 1200s, whose name escapes me, which was considered the law of the land throughout parts of Germany until the early 1900s. Strange thing was that is seemed reasonable. This museum wasn't that big, but was one of the denses I've been too. And the english descriptions were great. After two hours (the last part rather hurried), we thought the museum was over, but there was a whole other floor. Ugh. Very much worth the trip.
After some lunch, we walked around the town and avoided the over-the-top toy museum. Stacey and I went to relive part of her childhood in the Kaethe Wohlfahrt Christmas Shoppe (of course a requirement for a Jew during Passover). More chintz than a Fridays. There was a museum, that was also avoided. As it got closer to the weekend, the number of tourists in the city increased dramatically, and this store was no different. We passed an American couple, where the woman said "I bet they sell a lot more around Christmas time." Grrr....
Then we went to the Reichstaadtmuseum. We already bought tickets, but it wasn't really that interesting, with certain exceptions. They had a completely reproduced grocery store from the 50s. The Judaica section about the 800-year-old presence of Jews in Rothenburg was interesting. There was a horrible pogrom in 1298, a memorial to which we saw in the Castle Garden.
On to Week 6
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