Team Bald Travels: Day 21: History Lesson

Today we had an irregular school day. Amelia's regular teacher was out and we were taught by Herr Schwarzkopf. He's pretty hilarious and entertaining and dramatic.

He taught us important things like how to conjugate the word "scheißen" (A Tabu word and the equivalent of "shit").

At the coffee break some of our friends had gone to a nearby bakery for snacks. Strawberries are everywhere around here.

After the coffee break, the upper classes (B1 and up) were invited to hear a short performance by this man who is a singer/storyteller/musician/actor. Amelia's class was invited as the highest level A2.2 class, assuming we might know enough German to understand what was going on.

He played a very small guitar (beautifully) and in between he told fantastic stories such as "How the Elephant got it's long nose" and so forth. He made sound effects and acted out many funny things.

After that, Herr Schwarzkopf took Amelia's class on a historical tour of the old city. He is a history buff and also the former director of a local art gallery. So he was full of interesting stories, facts and dates. For example, Neue Straße (New Street) was new in 1728...

He also told us all about the local farming which is mostly focused on pigs and cows. The (free range!) pigs from this area (Hohenlöhe) are famously delicious. The best restaurants in Paris and Berlin buy all their pork from here.

He then took us to the Wednesday farmer's market on the Marktplatz (city square) and explained lots of things to us about the products (natural, no chemicals, etc.) and the producers of them.

This vendor sells eggs, egg noodles, and pasta.

He was very entertaining.

Herr Schwarzkopf did some grocery shopping!

Here he's buying Serbian mushrooms (?) and some other vegetables.

Here are some classmates (Michael from Connecticut and Terry from Hawaii and Bakky from India) in front of a tiny road and a store. This store (now a bookstore) used to be the Gasstube (pub?) for the local priests and such, long long ago.

Ab ether view of this building, the bookstore advertises "Tea, Books, and Wine." This is right beside St. Michael's church.

In front of the next house are these stumble stones, memorializing three Jews who lived here until the 1940s who were deported and killed by the Nazis.

This building was the original high school (for boys because girls didn't get educated back then).

This is one of the many towers around the city that was part of the city walls (the walls are mostly gone, removed for streets and things to be added).

Here lived the reformer Johannes Brenz who was a contemporary of Martin Luther and who lead reform efforts in this area for the church and also for the modernization (in the 1500s...) of the schools.

These old chains near the Marktplatz were used to settled disputes and for entertainment (tug of war?).

Here's a sidewise view of the church. It was a pretty day!

These bright colored buildings are to the south of the city hall. When the city hall and much of the old city burned in 1728, these houses were spared. They date from the early medieval period but have been given Renaissance facades. They house city government offices. To the left is Löwen Apoteke (apothecary), which has been in business since the middle ages. It's the oldest apothecary (pharmacy) in this part of Germany.

Herr Schwarzkopf explained that the fire of 1728 took out the building on the left (which is just northeast of the city hall which can't be seen to the left of this photo) but left the structure to the right (Hotel Golderner Adler) undamaged. The building on the right dates from 1315.

Here's a late afternoon view of our street, Gelbinger Gasse which is a very old street, not destroyed by the fire of 1728. Note all the restaurants and cafes have tables and chairs out on the street during the nice weather.

This is an over exposed photo of our house. We live in the basement which is underground from this side. Andy's classmate, Sum Ho from Korea, is waving from the second floor up.