One of our travel books described the cute little BnB we stayed at as “Lord of the Rings” esque.

Where are the drinking hobbits? The dark strangers in cloaks smoking pipes?

Well, like the hobbits in Bree, we didn’t find our wizard. We did, however, leave this morning with a quest: to explore inside the walls of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. 

Most of the streets in Rothenburg look like this, or are even narrower. 

Every building is cuter than the next, and they are all squished together in endless rows of pure old-town adorable. It is slightly frightening that cars drive through here, though.

This is the main town plaza, the most open space in the whole town inside the wall. 

You may be able to see spires peeking above the rooftops in that last picture. That’s the Lutheran Church of Saint Jakob’s, which we went to near the end of our stroll. 

A view towards the front of the church. 

I believe it was Aldous Huxley who wrote of the high vaulted ceilings and shimmering stained glass in churches as having ‘transporting’ effects. Even if one isn’t religious, the views alone can be breathtaking. According to Huxley, the ethereal nature of the design transports the viewer into another realm entirely.

This impressive wood relief stood opposite the organ on the second floor. The detail can hardly be captured in photo. 

Before long, it was time to say goodbye to the walled city, and we were on our way to Heidelberg. 

SO MANY TRAINS. 

Our destination in Heidelberg was yet another castle, Heidelberg Castle. Part of this castle was incredibly well-preserved; other pieces were crumbling. In a way, I found this endearing. And everyone knows ruins are way more fun to explore. 

The juxtaposition of preservation and crumble.

The real reason this was a destination for us geeks was the museum it housed, a museum about the history of German pharmacy. 

Super excited! 

I read every English word in the place. There is little more fascinating to me than the history of the  pharmaceutical industry. I typically get the American perspective, of course, where the events of the last few decades are the most interesting. Here I got to delve further back in time. 

You can’t not think this distillation apparatus is cool. 

They had various versions of a pharmacy set ups, each one evolving slightly with time.

This was the first display. Each one had just as many mysterious jars and trinkets as the last. The two statues are Asclepius and his daughter Hygieia, both important symbols of healing. The exhibit was fascinating. They even had an entire room dedicated to the raw materials – plant, animal, and mineral – that went into the creation of various remedies. The history started before common era and brought us all the way to modern pharmacueticals. 

Dad more or less dragged me away, and we waved goodbye to the castle. 

One last silly castle picture! 

We were gifted with some fantastic views on the Philosopher’s Walk, where we kept looking around for statues of old dead dudes. It turns out to be a walk less dedicated to history and more to nature, but you can still stroke your beard as you walk along if you have one. 

And…. Oh yeah. The walk was actually closed due to construction. 

That wasn’t about to stop us.

A view of the castle from across the river. 

At one of many view points. 

We wandered back into town as the sun was setting.

And, unless you count the train I’m currently sitting on (I do), that was the end of our day. Cheers! 

Our morning was spent at Wartburg castle, a short hike away from Eisenach. It is a truly jaw dropping building. The architecture in and of itself is eclectic, clearly arising from a range of centuries and styles. The foundations were laid in the 11th century, and has had a huge variety of reconstructions and add-ons since.

Here is the entrance to the castle.

The castle’s history is humbling: it was the site of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and the inspiration for The Minstrels. It was here that Martin Luther hid away to translate the New Testament into German, providing monumental steps for both Lutheranism and the German language. 

I wish we had gotten to poke around more. All over there were mysterious, old doors with locks that we simply were not allowed beyond. It certainly makes one wonder! We did look through the museum there, peering into rooms both incredibly simplistic and insanely lavish. 

One place we were permitted to explore was this tower:

Oh boy!

Here we are at the top! 

And here’s s view back at (some of) the castle. 

After exploring Wartburg, we hiked back to town and boarded a series of trains to take us to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is one of the most adorable places I’ve ever been. Just inside the wall of the “old town,” we were greeted by a bubble-blowing teddy bear. 

This is just in case you thought I was kidding. Ha.

We went straight to our hotel, more like a bed and breakfast, with a candlelit bar downstairs hosting very little empty wall space, a piano, and a friendly atmosphere. It is from here, eating a bratwurst, that I write to you.

And here is our room for the night! Good night from Germany (most likely good afternoon for you).

After arriving in Bremen, we walked to our hotel on the Weser River. Then we walked around the Schnoor area where the roads are extremely narrow and the buildings date from the Middle Ages. After a snack and a Beck’s beer (brewed in Bremen) at the Ratskellar, we joined three others at Osteria for a multi-course Italian dinner hosted by Thermo Fisher. Plenty of wine and grappa were consumed!

On Wednesday morning, we got up late and had a tour of the Thermo Fisher mass spectrometer factory before lunch. We are currently on the ICE train from Bremen to Gottingen, via Hanover. Our goal is Wartburg Castle near Eisenach, which will require at least two more trains.

Narrow streets in the Schnoor.

Bremen is famous for its four animal musicians.

Rathaus (city hall).

The grave of the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss in Gottingen. Almost missed our train connection because of the stroll to see this.

Checkers’ post from last night was rather short as it was late and we were both tired. However, I will now add some additional Berlin pictures. It is Tuesday afternoon and we are traveling by train from Berlin to Hanover (on our way to Bremen). This morning, we visited Checkpoint Charlie at the site of the former Berlin Wall, and then went to the Topography of Terror museum nearby. But here are some sights from yesterday.

First, one must not cross when the man has his arms outstretched.

The green, walking man indicates what you should do. These signs date from the Cold War time and are different from the more typical ones in the west. Therefore, they were kept as a kind of nostalgic relic; we saw a whole souvenir shop dedicated to selling anything with these icons.

These mirrors in the dome on top of the Reichstag reflect sunlight down into the parliament chamber below.

Here is the view down into parliament through windows underneath the mirrors in the dome.

Finally, after walking west from the Reichstag through Tiergarten Park, we found the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, left as a bombed-out ruin as a reminder of the destruction from World War II.

Replica of sign from the time of the wall.

Replica of Checkpoint Charlie between the Russian and American sectors of Berlin.