Today was a perfect day. In fact, it was the sort of day we dreamed of having in Germany some day. Well, except for missing breakfast...
Our hotel is old, as we have mentioned before. This building was first built in 1315. Eight hundred years ago is a long time! Of course, it's been added on to and altered over 800 years and hasn't been a hotel the entire time (but perhaps most?). So, here are some photos to show how funky the interior is. The rooms are very modern, of course, but the stairs and hallways are showing their age and design quite nicely. Here we are looking down the stairs from our first floor hall way (one up from the ground floor).
My father would have wondered why the builders couldn't build things square!
This is the first landing down from our floor (I think we have four landings on this stair case). The ledge used as a book shelf really does lean as much as you see here.
Here you can look down the middle of the staircase. Lots of funny angles and slopes.
In the middle of the hotel is a courtyard which probably was created originally to provide light to the interior halls and rooms. This is the upper floor view.
Here, the year 1250 is mentioned as well as Kaiser Karl the fifth living here a bit in the sixteenth century.
More sloping landings...
The hotel has lots of historical markers in out of the way places.
Having missed breakfast by sleeping too late, we decided to go for a stroll and see a bit of the city before finding a restaurant or cafe. Who says glass houses are dangerous? This is the city library which is a funky glass house. Despite the age of many of the structures in Schwäbisch Hall (it was more or less left undamaged by the world wars) some buildings are über modern (we haven't managed to get to the famous museum yet, but we will!).
The library is on Neue Straße (New Street) which leads more or less from our hotel to the river. It is a pedestrian zone (mostly). I stopped at McPaper to buy some postcards and stamps. McPaper? Doesn't sound very German, does it? It made me giggle. The store to the right is called Freitag (Friday) and we happened to take this photo on a Friday.
The next corner has an interesting chocolate shop (we haven't gone inside yet!).
Amelia tried to take a panorama of this corner, starring with the chocolate shop. She didn't quite make it to the fourth corner though. She is still learning how to do this panoramic thing with the iPhone.
Between the chocolate store (far left) and the next corner (half timbered house) you can see a man in blue standing with his back to you. That's Andy. He's looking at a bronze tableau of the whole city. Sort of a three dimensional map. It was handy to help us get a good idea of the whole layout of the inner-city. Much better than a flat map!
We wandered the streets which are full of the sort of stores you expect in any city, but with a much higher concentration of cafes, bakeries, and restaurants. Here you see an Asian cafe next to a bakery. The city has food from all over the world. Turkish and Italian are especially common.
We walked down to the river and onto one of the many covered wooden bridges, where we could look upriver at some lovely buildings. On the left is the edge of a tower you'll see more of below.
We decided to eat at this Italian restaurant, Como Prime was the name, perhaps? Here is Amelia's view taken with the panoramic setting. The tower is directly behind Andy and you can see the dark point of the top of the wooden bridge peeking out from behind the right side of it.
Andy ordered a calzone, which was fantastic. Better than Mellow Mushroom! Everyone knows we LOVE Mellow Mushroom. We had still Italian water (the best bottled water we've had so far - most restaurants do not serve tap water and prefer to serve mineral water (which we don't much like, generally) so it was very nice to get bottled water that wasn't mineral tasting or bubbly. Yea! We also both had small Cokes. For those who haven't travelled outside of the USA. Drinks do not come with refills here (and on most of the planet) so we tend to drink loads of water (like we do back home) and have a small Coke, mainly just in case we hate the taste of the (mineral) water.
Amelia had gnocchi with fresh mozzarella in a fresh tomato sauce. Yes, she ate a vegetarian dish. Don't faint.
We sat there having a late lunch in an almost empty outdoor cafe doing some interesting people (and dog) watching. Our favorites were these two little girls (the littler one is beyond the dad in the green shirt) who were cycling and wearing helmets that were dinosaurs and such. Very cute! We see loads of people cycling here, of all ages, on all sorts of bicycles (although road bikes (Rennrad) are rarest, so far).
We wandered through some other streets going back to the hotel and saw this lovely vintage Soviet motorcycle and killer sidecar. We know it is Soviet because we looked at the serial plate! CCCP!
The roads are typically narrower than in the USA, and some are pedestrian only or pedestrian/bike only zones. Here we have a typical street, with a mix of typical architecture for this city, and a BMW to complete the German tableau!
Some streets are even more narrow.
This one is beside (left) the Loewen Apoteke (Lion Pharmacy) and we want to explore this street later because it looks so interesting.
Here is one of the lions above the door. Our UAFS friends will like all the lions.
On the Markt Platz (analogous to a town square, sort of) are many interesting buildings (St. Michael's church, the city hall, etc.). There is a row of three very brightly colored buildings that appear to be city government offices. Two of them have very fancy entrances.
Here is your required daily photo of St. Michael's church. Notice the blue sky! Perfect weather!
And, we are back to our hotel. Hotel Adler.
Where we are greeted by the hotel guard.
So we changed and got organized for our first serious bike ride. Andy had to work out some details for our Garmin GPSs and such. The white bike is Amelia's and the black one is Andy's. Amelia's is a sort of women's mountain bike. Andy's is a sort of cross bike. Neither are what we expected to buy, but these were the best fit for each of us, given our preferences, our budget, and what was available.
We biked off through the town down Neue Straße to the river and found a bike path (we'd scoped it out via Google maps but are trying not to use Google maps all the time on the phone lest we go broke with the data charges!). We biked through some convoluted paths on either side of the river, crossing the river several times, most on wooden covered bridges. At one point we came to a spot where the path was just gone, as in blocked by a large construction project, but we found our way around it.
Once back over the river a third time, we found road that led to the countryside bike path. We rode about 6.33 miles out, passing through meadows, fields, farms, small towns, etc. and going back and forth over the river at intervals. These bike paths are incredible. It is obvious how Germany earns its rank as one of the top ten countries for cycling.
We stopped at this ruin, which was just in the middle of fields and forests (must read the plaque!) and took a selfie using our hand free remote and propping the phone against a spare tire tube we were carrying.
Later we came to another covered bridge which we did not cross but stopped to enjoy the view.
This is a panorama of about half of the view (so not 360 degrees, but probably more than 180). Note the handsome man standing by the bridge and the cool white bike.
Every time we came to a crossroads, we had to decide which way to go. We tried to keep going north-ish and to follow the river when possible. Here we had the choice of turning left and going straight and kept going straight. A cute little town was on the hill if we had chosen to go left. We might check that town out another time.
In the end we biked to Enslingen. This is just outside the town, in a area of fields, pastures, meadows, woods, and at the lower point the brighter green grass are soccer fields, some of which were in use by some teams of children and their coaches.
You can see the same building in this panoramic photo of the path leading to Enslingen. Notice the happy cows to Andy's right.
In Enslingen we decided to turn around and head back. It had lots of typical architecture for the region but it was getting very cloudy so we thought we would save looking around for another time.
This nice house with flowers everywhere, was our turnaround point.
We returned just over six mile back to the hotel. This portion of the ride has no photos because the rain did start, mostly lightly, though, until we got back to the city area and got drenched on the last mile. The phone was safely ensconced in a ziplock bag, of course. We were met by the deep thinking hotel guard dog.
After storing the bikes (the hotel is nice enough to let us put them in a back room on the ground floor just beyond the front desk) we showered and did a bit of sink laundry and headed downstairs to dinner. Andy ordered the Swabian soured beef with bread dumplings. It was served in a delicious sauce that might have been port wine or some sort of red wine sauce. Mmmm... Amelia had the roast pork in a dark beer sauce with Swabian noodles (Spätzle). Yes, we know you are ALL dying to live vicariously through our meal reports...
For desert, Andy had the chocolate soufflé with an orange something center. Amelia had vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and some sort of wafer. Both were garnished with a fruit we did not recognize (little round orange thing with tan leaves or husk) and we had to ask the waiter about it. He had to write down the word (which is not German) and said it grows in Brazil, perhaps. It is called physalis. It is a relative of the tomato, we think.
After dinner we took a short stroll. This famous fountain is two doors down from the hotel. We have no idea what its historical significance is, but we shall inquire. The orangish building to the right is the tourist information bureau. The building in the center is a cafe. To the right you can just glimpse our hotel.
Here is your required night view of St. Michael's where one of the acting troupes was just finishing a rehearsal. This group is performing a play called The Daughter of the Salt Boiler (which can't quite be the correct translation...!) at the end of June. The other group we've watched rehearsing is performing Don Juan in mid June. The plays take place entirely on the giant steps of the church. Chairs will be placed in the open area at the bottom for the audience. It's a shame we won't be in this hotel room at that time because our windows provide a perfect view.
We were headed to this little narrow street beside the Loewen Apoteke as previously planned. However, it started raining again, so we turned back.
The Apoteke is on the southeast corner of the Markt square. The colorful city government buildings and the city hall dominate the west side of the square. Our hotel and another hotel, a cafe, and the tourist information center are the north side of the square. St. Michael's Church is the west side of the square.
I am fascinated by the colorful buildings.
Two of them have fancy entrances.
The signs indicate these are part of the city finance department's office, perhaps.
And, we hurried back to the hotel to avoid being drenched again. The red and white chains are put out to keep folks away from the front of the church and steps while a rehearsal is going on. When they finish, they immediately remove the chains and poles so people can have access to the front of the landmark church.
Our hotel, like many others places, serves Haller Löwenbrau, which comes from a local private brewery. Perhaps we will try some eventually. When in Rome...
Here are some night views from our room.
No comments:
Post a Comment