Day 52: Bike shop, blueberries and other fun

Today we went to the bike shop and procured bike clothes/shoes for Andy and got Magnus interested in road bikes. Then, Magnus, Andy, and Amelia biked to the grocery store and brought home lots of goodies and we all cooked dinner (sausages on the grill, mashed potatoes, spinach salad, and carrots) which we ate on the deck in the garden. Afterwards, Magnus and Andy biked to Peter's to pick up Becky (who'd been there all day playing with Anna) and Anna-Maria and Amelia picked flowers for "lemonade" and climbed to the back of the yard and picked blueberries on top of the boulders.

Day 51: Cliff Diving!

OK, so we didn't go cliff diving. We did, however, bike to the swim area on the north of Korshamn harbor and Andy and Magnus did jump off the cliffs. :)

Photos and such to come later.

Day 50: Fun in Kullavik

[many photos to come later]

Today we had breakfast with Magnus's long time friend, Michael (whom Amelia last saw 18 years ago) and his Lotta, who were in town for a soccer tournament. In the middle of the day we (Nilselids except Rasmus and Team Bald) all biked over to the marina, stopping at the store to get snacks, and had a nice visit with Solveig and Gert on their sailboat in the harbor. In the evening, Andy and Magnus watched a bit of the Tour de France while Rasmus sold one of his mopeds. Later, a badger was seen in the back yard!

Day 49: First day in Sweden

[many photos to come later]

Today we hung around the house doing laundry, sleeping late, eating on the deck, watching the birds, and playing with the rabbit, Brownie. In the evening, Solveig and Gert (who'd sailed down from somewhere north) came to supper. It was so good to see them after 18 years!

Day 48: Vienna

[photos to come in due course]

Today we had a lazy morning breakfast, then a few of us had a swim in the hotel indoor pool, then we all wandered through the Stadtpark and then toward the center of town. We lunched in an Italian restaurant, and then split into two groups. One (Andy, Magnus, and Robin) went to the amusement park to ride roller coasters and the other (Amelia, Anna-Maria, Rebecca, and Rasmus) wandered through the Fußgangerzone (pedestrian shopping area) and visited St. Stephen's Cathedral and shopped. It rained a bit, but we weren't deterred. We all met back up again around 5pm at the hotel to get organized to head for the airport, which we did by walking to the S-bahn, and then taking the train to the airport. We flew AirBerlin from Vienna to Berlin (the smallest most basic airport in a major capital city!) and then to Göteborg, arriving around midnight. It was so nice to arrive in Sweden where the weather is nice and coolish and comfortable. After some unpacking and laundry beginnings, we all collapsed in bed.

Day 47: Schönbrunn and meeting friends

We slept a bit late then enjoyed the endless Marriott breakfast buffet. Half of us walked and half took the subway to Schönbrunn Park to meet Amelia's friend Eva for lunch near by. We had a lovely lunch, and then we all wandered through the park, admiring the castle and the grounds before heading to the world's oldest zoo (and perhaps the world' most modern zoo?). It was awesome.

Then we split up again so some could take bikes back (which failed miserably) and some of us walked and took the subway. In the evening we met Steffi, Bradley, and Hunter for supper and walked to an authentic Austrian restaurant. The food and fellowship were lovely!  Of course, we have to avoid so many police blocking some roads for the Iran nuke talks. Magnus wanted us to stage a protest demanding more nukes for everyone...

Day 46: Mountains and Ice Caves

This morning five of us (the teenaged boys kept sleeping) went up the Schmittenhohe mountain to enjoy the views and morning tea.  The 360 degree views of the Alps are breathtaking. We also saw people paragliding off the top of the mountain (not us!).

Then, we came back down and packed up our things in the van and headed towards Salzburg.  After the usual u-turn at one point we drove part way up the mountain to the Eisriesenwelt caves and stopped for lunch with a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains and the SchlossWerfen just across the valley.

Then, we drove to the parking area and hiked up the mountain, then rode the cable car, then biked farther up the mountain to the ice caves. The ice cave tour (in English) took just over an hour and involved nearly 800 steps up (and then down). It was very cold inside (below freezing in some areas) so we layered on more clothes at the cave entrance. It was fascinating.

Afterwards, we drove 3.5 hours to Vienna, arriving in the dark to the Marriott Vienna, which is a very good location across from the Stadtpark and only a few blocks from the old city center and St Stephen's Cathedral, etc. In fact, we were next door to Palais Coburg and the Iran nuke talks to the place was crawling with press and police.

We collapsed in our rooms after a very late dinner in Champs.

Day 45: Bike around Zeller See

Today (Saturday) the seven of us (Anna-Maria and Rasmus arrived last night) biked around the Zeller See and had lunch out at an outdoor restaurant on the north end of the lake. It was a warm day and many people were cycling or sunbathing or swimming or boating. It was also the big day of the Zell am See 140th festival so even more people than usual.

After cycling, Rebecca bought a traditional Austrian dress that is very pretty on her. In the evening we ate at Hirshen, the favorite restaurant of Amelia's friend Brigitte (whose husband is from Zell am See) and it was fantastic, especially the dessert!

Day 44: Alps!

<photos and more details to come>

Today we went to Kitzsteinhorn (mountain), picnicked, swam, and so forth. Photos and more to come later.

Day 43: Cycling and Sliding in Austria

<photos and more details to come>

Biked from Zell am See to Kaprun, did the alpine slide...

Day 42: Invading Austria

<photos and more details to come>

Today, we had a leisurely morning at the Marriott, mostly characterized by swimming in the indoor pool and relaxing in the jacuzzi. It was raining outside so we were in no hurry to go sightseeing or to drive anywhere. In the afternoon, the rain stopped, so we drove to the old city center and visited the Marienplatz which is the home of St Peter's Church (which was closed for cleaning), the old city hall, the new city hall, and nearby are Holy Spirit Church (which had a weird multimedia art installation) and the Frauenkirche (huge and fantastic!).

We lunched at a fantastic Italian restaurant a door or three down from the back side of the old city hall. The food was amazing.

Then, we drove south to Austria, into the Alps, to Zell am See, and found our holiday apartment, which is amazing.

We wandered around the village streets, which were full of open air restaurants and street performers (musicians, jugglers on unicycles, etc.) and temporary beer halls in tents. We had dinner in the street at a little Italian place and it was lovely. Almost every one had pasta of some sort. Mmmmm.

Day 41: The Romantic Road

<photos and more details to come>

Today was a travel day, again. Our plan was to drive from Rothenburg ob der Tauber to München (Münich).  But first, after breakfast, we sought out the local ropes course (Kletterwald) and spent several hours in the woods climbing, zip lining and so forth. Amelia did not climb, but rather served as photographer/videographer.  It's clear the Nilselids are very good at ropes courses and Andy got the hang of it very quickly (all that police training in the Air Force put to good use!).

We learned lots about the safety system used here, which was pretty fantastic, from the safety guy, Paul.

It was pretty hot, though, as the heatwave heated back up for the day. After some hours, we drove toward Munich, taking a huge detour because of road works, and stopping briefly to buy some groceries to eat in the car (fruit, bread, water, juice), and then stopping again to visit the village of Dinkelsbühl, where we saw a lovely church and ate ice cream.

Then, on to Münich, where we found the Marriott in the evening and had a late big steak supper to make up for the lack of normal lunch. Yum.

Day 40: Rothenburg ob der Tauber

<photos and more details to come>

Today, Monday, was a full day in Rothenburg. It was still pretty hot, though, so we didn't try to do too many things.  We visited the Franciscan Church which was practically next door, and wandered down the city walls to the Burggarten, which was lovely and shady with huge trees and grassy areas between the flower garden sections. The kids (meaning, everyone but Amelia) climbed a tree and we enjoyed the breeze under the shade since it was still pretty hot (although not so hot as it had been). We wandered around to see the views from the city walls and read the various memorials and such.

Then, we walked back up the hotel's street to the main market square which has an impressive Rathaus (city hall) building among others. We searched for and found an ice cream place and had some lovely gelato.

Then, we walked a couple of blocks over and visited the fascinating Mittelalterliches Kriminalmuseum.

After that we lunched in an Italian restaurant near the hotel. The pizza and pasta were pretty good!

After that we visited one of the main sites in the village, the St. Jakob Kirche (St. Jacob's Church) which is just stunning. Absolutely stunning.

Then, because it was pretty hot, we wandered back to the Burggarten to enjoy the shade. We stopped by the hotel first for towels to sit on and so forth (Amelia brought her Kindle, of course). We variously climbed trees, napped, read, listened to the park musician (an Irish man who plays German folk tunes on his guitar), and wandered around the park.

In the evening, we returned to the Hotel Reichs-Küchenmeister Restaurant for a second night. It was busy again but our waiter from the night before saw us and saved us a table when some folks were leaving.

Day 39: Travel Day: Bad Rodach to Rothenburg ob der Tauber

<Photos and more details to come>

Today was a big travel day involving trains and an auto. We traveled from Bad Rodach via the world's shortest train (one car is passenger space and engine) to Lichtenfels, where we changed trains in a small station after a 40 minute wait (we visited the small book store and enjoyed the a/c there) and traveled on a nice big train (with less than good a/c) to Nürnberg (Nuremberg).  There we were met, almost miraculous, the moment we walked out of the giant train station (with many halls so even coming out of the one hall they were driving towards was miraculous) by a large van of Swedes. The Swedes weren't so large or numerous (only 3) but the van is a 9 passenger van so we have plenty of room. We are short two Swedes because Magnus' wife, Anna-Marie, and eldest son, Rasmus, had to work another week. They'll join us later. So, we met Magnus, and his second son Robin, and daughter, Rebecca. We drove a little ways and found a parking spot and searched for lunch. Meanwhile the heatwave continued. It was so bloody hot!

After chicken burgers (yum) we drove through the countryside for a couple of hours to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a village with preserved medieval buildings and lovely churches and a fantastic intact city wall with 42 towers. Wow.

We stayed at the Hotel Gotisches Haus which was located about half a block from the main market square in one direction and half a block from the city wall and gate to the Burggarten (castle garden) in the other. Perfect hotel in a perfect location. This hotel is housed in a former patrician home built in the 13th century.

More about hotel...

Dinner out...

Day 38: Last Day of Bad Rodach Fun

Here is your useful pronunciation guide:

Bad = Bod
Rodach = ROW-dock (of course the 'ck' has that guttural German thing going, but you can ignore that for now).

There you go! Bad means bath or spring. Any town in Germany with Bad in the name has springs or natural baths and the town has met some legal requirements to have the right to use Bad in its name.

Today was our last full day in Bad Rodach. It was also a very hot day (100F/37C). This is not normal weather for this part of Germany, which is not a place with air conditioning! Think on that.

So, today we first had lovely breakfast in the hotel. Then, we loaded up a backpack with everything we wanted to ship home, including some bike gear.  We biked to Marco's bike shop, so we could remove our clipless pedals from the bikes and give the bikes to Marco (we'd discussed this with Marco some days ago).

Then, we walked to the post office and bought a box and boxed up all the bike gear (bike shoes, pedals, jerseys, etc.) and some books and papers and maps, and a few other things, and shipped it home. [Hey, Karin, another box coming your way...]. Next, we stopped at the little jewelry store at the address where grandfather Richard Baldes was born and bought Amelia another pair of small earrings (peace signs).

Then, we searched for lunch. We thought we'd try a new place, so we walked to Maxime's, a restaurant we'd seen on Coburger Straße a block from Andy's great-grandfather's former (second) address. But, it was closed. Apparently, it is only open in the evenings. We can't quite figure out how restaurants work in this little town. Some have two closed ("rest") days, some even have Friday as a closed day (in the restaurant business?), and some just don't open now and then on days they claim to be open normally (We are looking at you, Lucciolo...).  It's hard to predict. And, of course, lunch is only available between 11:30am and 2:00pm, if you are lucky. And dinner at some restaurants ends really early (6pm in one case!). We can't quite get the hang of how this works in this little village. It's been amusing.

So, there we are, having walked a few blocks in 100 degree F weather. Where to eat? So we went to the closest place, a little Döner Kebab Haus on the corner next to the address that used to be great-grandpa Albin Baldes' home. It's so tiny there's one table and a few stools inside, and one two person table outside. However, the food was good (and cheap!). Andy had a döner pizza and Amelia had Bratwurst. Yum.  They did not, however, have any still (non-carbonated) water.

So, after eating there, we walked to the Stadt Cafe (we didn't eat there today because we've eaten there so many times) to have some cold water. 

In this heat, we have tried very hard to stay hydrated. We had a little bet about the cost of the water and Amelia won because Andy said it couldn't cost more than 5 Euros (it was 6 Euros). Water is more expensive than beer! 

We drank about 2 liters together before we walked to the market square fountain to meet up with Frau Doktor Anja Augustin for the Dunkelgrafen tour. 

The "dark duchess" is a local mystery about a mysterious royal woman who lived in seclusion in a nearby small castle.

She is believed to have been Napolean's daughter. 

It is an interesting story, for sure.

We'd heard much of the history before, so it wasn't too confusing listening to it in German (the other 11 people on the tour were all German, of course). 

Anja showed us pictures and explained all sorts of history, mostly keeping us in the shade because of the heat. 

When the group went into the city museum, we turned off to walk back to the post office because the woman working the hotel that morning (Jenny) had promised us a ride home from the post office at 3:30. 

We stopped to have ice cream on the way.

This was such a nice offer we could not turn it down. Jenny's offer saved us walking a mile up the hill in 100F sunny heat.  She drove us back by different roads that we hadn't seen before, which was so cool because we were able to see some other parts of the village, including a large company that makes automobile air conditioners.

At the hotel, we decided (while standing in our hot hotel room) that the only thing to do next is put on swimsuits and walk over to the Thermalbad. So, we did. We spent three hours mostly floating (and for 20 minutes doing group wateraerobics, which was hilarious) in three of the pools.  It was so nice to cool off and relax without the oppressive heat.

In the evening, we walked back to the hotel, showered, and went to dinner. It was our last dinner in the hotel, which has spectacular food, so Andy had some special chicken dish of the day with pasta and Amelia has Wienerschnitzel with roasted potatoes. We both had desserts as well. Andy's was some funky orange jelly thing and Amelia had her favorite chocolate crepe with white chocolate ice cream. Mmmm.  We are going to get fat...

We ate outside and listened to a thunderstorm building up. The rain came just as we finished dessert so we spent some time watching the lightning from the front of the hotel, which has a nice view over the valley. It was a nice lightning show for Independence Day. We also chatted with a man from Munich (Pierre!) who was there on the front porch watching the storm with two small daughters. They are here visiting his father in the rehab hospital just over the hill from the hotel.

We are hoping the rain will cool things off faster than previous nights. It has been taking some hours at night for things to cool down, which makes it hard to go to sleep until very late, which is why this is being typed at 11:30pm.

Tomorrow we set off by train for Nürnberg to meet the Nilselids (our Swedish friends) and go traveling by car through southern Bavaria.  It's going to be fun, but we have to pack up and get organized yet again. We have no idea if we'll have wifi along the way so the posts might be a bit delayed in the coming week or so.

Day 37: Friday in Bad Rodach

Today we slept a bit late and had a late breakfast. 

Then we biked to the Rathaus (city hall) and inquired about the archives. The archivist wasn't working today but the lady we spoke with made a photocopy of the family tree info we'd gathered from the church archive and took our names and email. We will hear from them next week if they find any records relating to Andy's ancestors as listed on the sheet.

Then we walked over to the tourist information place (in the Jagd Schloss) to go to the painting exhibit on the second floor. We looked at all the paintings which are done by 16 regional artists and all were painting themes to do with Bad Rodach or the immediate area. Some were fantastic and all were really good. We decided to think over whether we'll buy one or not.

From there, we went to lunch. We biked to the train station to have the good pizza again, but the restaurant was closed for no apparent reason. The hours say they are open but no one was there. So we biked back to the market square and had lunch at the Stadt Cafe. We drank lots of water to help us deal with the heat.

Then, we went back to the Jagd Schloss and looked through the paintings again. We decided to buy two small ones in the bin in the corner (rather than a big one handing in the exhibit). These two are small studies done as part of the artist's preparation for a large painting that has a Rückert quote. He is a famous German poet with particular ties to Rodach.

The lady in the tourist information place helped us figure out how to package the little paintings up, as well. We also bought two small books about the history of Bad Rodach and the family of Max Röesler, who was the employer of Andy's great grandfather in the ceramic company.

We went straight to the post office and mailed the paintings home so we wouldn't have to worry about them getting messed up in our backpacks.

Then, we biked around the town a bit to see some places we hadn't seen and to take some photos near some of our favorite spots. 

Unfortunately, Andy had a little fall over on a gravel train and skinned his knee. So, then we went to the Drogerie or drug store (where you can't buy drugs) to get a bandaid, and to the Apotheke (apothecary/pharmacy which is not the same as the Drogerie) to get some hydrogen peroxide (because we can't be too careful about infection with him).  We discovered the Apotheke is air conditioned! Wow!

We stopped by the stork nest to take a photo with the telephoto lens to see if we could get a better view of the storks.

Then we biked back to the hotel to perform a bit of first aid and to take showers. Then, we had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Day 36: History, Old and New-ish

The first thing we did today, over breakfast, was to write out a neater record of everything we learned relating to the family via the church records.

Then, we decided to bike into Thurigia, another of Germany's (16) states, which is very near by. Thuringia was part of East Germany and it's only a few kilometers away. So, the folks in the Bad Rodach region had East German border guards staring at them for many years, and some Soviet observation posts on the nearby hills. It was pretty creepy for them back then.  Creepier still for their neighbors and friends who were stuck behind the big fence the communists built to keep the East Germans in.

Here's the sign for Thuringia. Each state has its own official shield (Wappen).

Looking back into Bavaria, we see the Coburg shield. Coburg is this part of northern Bavaria, analogous to a county, more or less. This area (Bad Rodach and Coburg) has been more closely tied with Thuringia (not Bavaria) for many centuries but in 1920, post WW1 during the great depression (which started much sooner here), the area voted to join Bavaria. This turned out to be a good idea long term as this kept them out of East Germany after WW2.

Here's a survey stone marking the exact border between Bavaria and Thuringia.

Of course, the East Germans (i.e. their Russian overlords) did not make their scary borders right on the border, but about 50 meters further on. All the way around the country there was a wide swath of no man's land with tracks for patrol vehicles to drive on directly, and fences and such. All the fences, guard towers, and other signs have been removed, but the patrol path remands (along side many a historical marker explaining what it looked like and so forth during the 1945-1989 period.

The tracks are a sort of waffle concrete. An adventurous person with a mountain bike could bike from the Baltic to the Czech Republic on the remaining paths.

Not 300 yards after the scary border is the village of Holzhausen. Beyond, the fortress at Heldburg can be seen (above the next town over).

We biked to the other side of the village (Heldburg Fortress in the distance) and then came back and wandered through the village looking for the church (We heard the bells toll the hour).

We found the little church atop the hill behind a few rows of mostly rundown houses. The church seems real well cared for and looks nice through the windows but it was locked up (unlike the churches in Bad Rodach which are open during the day time for anyone to come in).

On the outside wall was an inscription to Ferdinandus Leopoldus. We have no idea who he was, but we shall find out.

Just opposite that is a memorial to the WW1 dead, including, apparently, a local nun.

Here's a pano view of the church and the yard behind. It's too close to houses on the other side to get a good photo.

Here you can see the houses are in various states of repair, some look completely abandoned and some have nice gardens.  Clearly, most folks living here do not have a lot of money as the cars tend to be older and rustier than we normally see in Germany.

We understand that the E. German government didn't like villages to be this close to the border (for fear folks would escape) so they had a practice of showing up unannounced and driving people out of town to settled in far-flung locations.  Here's the main street through town, with lots of not pristine houses.

No doubt, this road that we biked on did not actually exist going north at the time of the GDR because no one was allowed to go north from here to Bad Rodach in West Germany.

This beautiful home was on the main street. We spoke to the owner through the window. It's from the 1700s and very well cared for (or restored) with a nice garden.

Here's the town sign on the north end. The street is Rodacher Straße because it's the road to Bad Rodach.

We took a selfie here because of the street name.

To get to this village we biked over a mountain. Here's a shot of one of the trails going off to the side of the road on the way back. The forest on the mountain is deep and cool. We have no idea where the trails go as we stuck to the road.

After a shower, we biked to town and had a quick pizza at the restaurant in the old train station. It was very good!

A train came while we were there. The typical two car train. Each car is an engine and a passenger car. This is the end of the line, of course, because no trains could go behind Bad Rodach into East Germany for all those years.

After lunch, we met Frau Doktor Anja Augustin, the local medieval history expert for a private tour of city history. We started in the Herzog Hunting Palace. It was sold to the town by the Herzog Duke a little over 100 years ago. It was used as a school for about a century and is now the tourist information bureau, the local museum, and some exhibition space.  This room is set up to be similar in style to the dining room the dukes would have had in the 1800s. It's not a replica but similar.

The next room has memorials to Freidrich Rükert, the poet with close ties to Rodach. Here's his head as a young man, and 

Here's his portrait as an old man.  He wrote a famous 308 line poem about Ideallic Rodach.

Next, we learned more information about Max Röesler, who was Andy's great-grandfather's employer.  He owned the local ceramic works.

Here's a bust of him made by his own workers.

The building houses many examples of Röesler ceramics.

After this we wandered to the city walls and sat in a shady spot learning more about the older, medieval history of Rodach from Anja.  This is Anja's specialty and she recently earned a PhD in medieval history.

We sat in the shade talking and being shown pictures and diagrams for some time. It was fascinating. Then we went to see inside some of the cool places. Anja has keys to everything or has keys to the places with the keys.  So, first we went inside this city wall tower.

It was pretty cool. It's missing it's wooden second floor now, but we could get the idea of what it was like inside.

This is a view from the tower looking south down the city walls. In the distance is the next tower and the timbered building is the old school (not to be confused with the old old school just out of view to the right) and the choir end of the church. The choir part of the church dates from the medieval period and was the second church built here (probably on top of the first church).

We learned some interesting tidbits about various fixtures inside. This was the medieval baptismal font. However, in the 1970s there was a move by the local pastor at the time to modernize and remove some of the old things and this was removed. The congregation insisted it be kept, though, so it sits off in a corner.

This is the pulpit. The nave part of the church (from the pulpit to the left) was built in the 1700s to replace the nave that had been blown up during the thirty years war. For a long time the nave was just a temporary wooden structure after this and was replaced in the baroque style at the behest of the Herzog Duke (Franz Josias) at the time.

We posted many photos of the inside of the church some days ago. Today's tour was more about history than the church's fixtures, of course.

We then climbed a bunch of stairs to the attic. Did we mention Anja has keys to everything?

The stairs get narrower as you climb in this part of the church (in the tower they get narrower as you descend because the bottom stairs are the oldest).

The attic is quite high (the nave has two levels of balconies so we are standing on the fourth floor, more or less. The attic is huge.

Just off the attic is a small door leading into the tower. This part (and below) are from the middle ages. Above this part is more modern (1700s) because it had to be rebuilt after a horrible lightning strike.

Small narrow areas!

Here is the old mechanism for the bells, back when the boys had to swing on the ropes to ring the bells.  It's all electric now, of course.

From here we had to ascend several flights of creepy stairs with huge cracks between them and only a skinny old handrail.

Amelia chickened out at the last one, though because it seemed much too flimsy.

And, looking down was scary.  But, Andy went to the top and saw the bells. We'll pull those photos of his phone and add them later.

At this middle level, we found a weird room in the stone. Either it's a place to hide things or to lock someone away. It was pretty creepy and 

Had a large empty wooden box in it. No one knows what it was there for or what used to be inside it. 

Andy was amused by the trinkets laying around.

Just across from this the stone medieval stairs go down.

At the bottom, we come out into the medieval choir of the church.

It has these beautiful stained glass windows which were paid for by Max Röesler (who owned the ceramic works) in about 1903 and designed by his artist wife.

Supposedly, the modernization movement in the 1970s wanted to do away with these as well, but the congregation rebelled.

Through a side window, the old school can be glimpsed.

This is the new-ish (1970s) altar which replaced a very old altar that no one knows where it landed.

We sat here discussing history of Rodach for some time. See the "new" modern baptismal font from the 1970s?  We can't explain that, either. Why is that better than the one from the middle ages?

Then we walked down through the market place to look at this interesting house which has a funky history. It was renovated in 1914 by a man named Fridolin Hoffman who made it look even older but also made every part different.

Here's a pano of the south view.

This house was built originally in the early 1600s just outside the town gate and was a tavern that housed and fed travelers who arrived too late to get into the gates in the evening.

Then we walked back to the Hunting Palace square via the Kupfertürm (tower) outside of which is this sculpture of four people hugging that commemorates the reunification of Germany.

Here's the tower. It is never open to the public because owls live inside and they are not to be disturbed.

Then, on to the city walls to hear the presentation of the city night watchmen.

He took us up in a small tower and explained the history of the watchmen (all in German so we didn't understand that much).

Then we followed him to join the others for the Thursday night event.

We walked around the city walls to the other side of the church to a nice grassy area inside the walls.

The church and city walls.

Here a group of guitarists were playing and singing and an audience had joined to listen.

At this point we'd been about 6 hours without a drink of water and we were hot and tired, so after a few songs we wondered off and bought two cold Cokes and sat down for a short drink, then we biked back to the hotel for dinner.