Germany: Part 1 - Frankfurt & Surrounding Towns

…and so our European vacation begins.

We landed in Frankfurt after 15 hours of travel, only to discover that our backpacks didn’t make it with us. We were told that they didn’t make it from our (2.5 hour) connection in Dublin. Our German family friend Uli (father) said that “Urgent” in Ireland meant “There’s time for one more Guiness”.

We are staying with Uli, his wife Cornelia, daughter Eva, and son Julian in a village called Goldbach, which is a suburb of Aschaffenburg (pop. 70k), which is about 30 minutes east of Frankfurt. Every morning they prepare a wonderful breakfast of cakes, breads, fresh fruits, cheeses, meats, cereals, juices, tea and coffee. At some point during the day, we usually meet with one of their many relatives, that all live nearby. There is a very nice sense of family here.

Brevity is not Vince’s strong suit, Megan promises she will create shorter blog entries in the future.

Aschaffenburg

Aschaffenburg is famous for being a summer residence of a powerful Archbishop. It has a lot of character with an interesting mix of old and modern buildings. Below are some of the highlights:

This is Schloss Johannisburg situated above the Main River, and was the site of a Middle Ages castle, which was destroyed except for its main tower that remains to this day. It was later built, into pretty much as it is today, as a summer residence for the Archbishop of the region. During WWII, it was badly damaged, but was later restored. We toured the interior of the castle and also had lunch on the patio of the castle restaurant.

Inside, there was an exhibit of cork models of Roman structures made by a father and son duo during the late 19^th Century. This model of the coliseum is about 6 feet across and highly detailed. There was also an exhibit of Celtic artifacts that were found in modern day Germany as early as the 6^th Century BC.

A ten minute walk through a nice park is this house built in the 18^th century that was modeled after a Roman house in Pompeii. Inside are detailed tiled floors, Roman styled painted walls, an impressive atrium, and Roman and Greek artifacts.

There is also a large and lush park in Aschaffenburg that includes meadows, rivers, lakes sports fields, bike paths, a maze of bushes (that Vince completed), and pavilions, as well as this building called Schloss Schonbusch that was used as an entertainment hall for guests of the Archbishop. From here there is an intentionally direct view of Schloss Johannisburg.

This is a night view of a square in front of a Church (to the right) that Cornelia’s brother Martin is the pastor of (Catholic priest). It was originally built in the 11^th century and its interior incorporates romantic, renaissance, and baroque architecture. We got a behind the scenes tour, which included a 300 foot climb up a narrow winding stairway to the top of the church tower (us pictured at the top with Schloss Johannisburg in back).