AMS to IST

First Female's Fourth [UPDATED 10.06]

So... to pick up from Paul, after Nürnberg we took a local train to Würzburg. (A one-hour trip, easy everything—including huge locker spaces to store our bags in Nürnberg's train station while we went to see art: mainly Dürer, his associates, and Cranach.)

Had a nice hotel in W-burg and a fun meal in a Weinstube, drinking the season's young Federweiss wine (hmmm...) and eating Franconian specialties (better). Our Greek waiter was so happy to hear we'd been to Greece that he brought us a map of his home island and photos of his girlfriend there. Older dining couples smiled at us—and in fact we had entered because (as with seemingly all older German people) someone on the street assumed I was German and recommended the place. Cozy, "sehr gemütlich."

In the morning our German friends Vera and Daniel picked us up and gave us a thorough tour of Würzburg, where they'd studied, before driving us to our mutual friend Doris's house in Bessenbach. We liked Würzburg a lot: see the photos.

THEN... Three nights of being utterly spoiled by Doris, her friends, and our liebe Lisa, who happens to be Doris's daughter. Everyone seemed dedicated to our seeing the best of our surroundings: in their opinion, historical sites, cities, churches... but what we liked best was just being with Germans and experiencing their daily customs. Everyone was so kind: Doris's friends Christine and Adolf showed us Frankfurt, her brother Peter treated us to a private tour of a little-known local castle, and Lisa laid out the highlights of her homesite of Aschaffensburg, not far from Doris's Bessenbach. We had a brief but very warm visit with the family of Carlos, brother to Irma of Hacienda Alemana in Vallarta. There we had a chance to speak Spanish and photograph Paul on Pinche Miguel's big BMW bike.

It makes SUCH a difference to have friends in foreign places! We look forward to returning the favor.

Doris's home was so perfect, her garden huge and amazing. I wish we had photos of the interior, but Paul did take exterior shots. And the food... am Besten in Deutschland! Doris wouldn't let us do anything for ourselves. She washed and dried our dirty clothes and practically ironed our undies... we were babes in her hands. Her breakfasts convinced us to gobble. She is nearly my age but has three times the energy. What a treat!

Just a few comments about the advantages of German homes (some of which we're seeing in the US):

• Many homes' roofs are covered with solar panels. They are not considered ugly.
• Switches for the main lights are generally outside of a room, so it's light when you enter. Stairs and hallways often turn on and off automatically when you enter/leave.
• Tidy small urinals perch on walls for men so they don't contaminate our seats! (And no one would leave a seat propped up.) Toilets are often in separate small rooms from the rest of the bathroom. And bidets are not unusual.
• The house gutters guide rainwater into various reservoirs for gardening uses.
• Surfaces are all easy to clean. Stovetops are covered with glass cutting boards to do double duty.
• Odd bits of space are used: for instance, kick-spaces under kitchen cabinets have pull-out drawers.
• Windows and many doors open sideways but also tilt open at the top for airflow with security.
• Beds are easy to make, with tight-fitting covers over duvets (which are no longer made of feathers).
• Energy-saving halogen, CFL, or LED lighting is the norm.

We'll show you photos of Aschaffensburg and Frankfurt in a follow-up photo dump, OK?

[MALE PHOTOS:]

Sneak peek @ Casa Doris i Bessenbach - more later

German tree, on the grounds of the Wurzburg Palace

German hedge. Perfect, naturally.

Our wonderful hosts, Daniel and Vera, who studied in Wurzburg.

Dom interior

Permanent Menorah - unusual in a Catholic church

Big confessional, for Big Sins

On the sidewalk just outside our hotel. Yeah, they killed them in Wurzburg too.

Wanted to include photos of their WW2 museum. Wurzburg was destroyed in 4 hours on March 16, 1945 - the second worst fire-bombing of the war behind Dresden, and it mostly killed women and children. Makes a body think about the meaning of 'terrorism.'

95% of the city was flattened

300,000!!! incendiary bombs were dropped in 4 hours. Think, napalm.

p.s.

Once again, insufficient documentation of a very interesting city. Nice walking along the Main ("mine") River, lots of interesting sights, students, and good joints to hang out.

200-yr. old crane along the Main River - that boat is now a pub.

Some other Wurzburg photos just in from a recalcitrant SIM card:

Market Sq., Wurzburg

More of same

pps. I was instructed to include famous photographs of medieval people like Dürer, from the Nuremburg National Museum, but the technology did not catch up. Fkg SIM cards. Perhaps a later post...

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