From the first red wine produced along the Mosel River during Roman rule to the sweet Riesling for which the country is renowned, German wine is woven into the country’s culture and history.
Many member cities of the Historic Highlights of Germany are inviting travelers to experience this firsthand this fall with a series of wine-themed events, activities and offers.
In Mainz, more than 50 wine growers from throughout the region assemble during the first weekend in September for the annual Mainz Wine Market (photo at left). The event has craft stalls, rides, music and fireworks and, of course, dozens of wine stands. Wine-making goes back nearly 2,000 years in Trier, where several two-night packages feature special themes such as wine cultivation during Roman rule and a combination of World Heritage site visits and wine culture.
In Heidelberg, packages include the Heidelberg Wine and Chocolate Tasting with five wines from regional vineyards and five fine chocolates. Wine has long been central to life in Koblenz, located at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers, where the “Wine Village” welcomes visitors to enjoy a glass of wine in the quiet setting of half-timbered houses.
Würzburg, situated on the Main River, is home to several wine estates, where visitors can enjoy tours and wine-tastings—including the Juliusspital, whose 400-year old, 800-foot long wine cellar makes it one of the oldest and largest German wineries.
Historic Highlights of Germany suggests two “Dream Routes” that focus on wine. Click on “Dream Routes” on our site at: www.historicgermany.com
As I usually do, before making reservations for any European trip, I study a map to see where I’d like to go. Sometimes I am not aware of towns or attractions near where I’m traveling to, so a map can help identify those in short order.
The European map came in handy again recently when I booked a flight between Chicago and Munich, the first of what was to be a two-part air journey between Chicago and Budapest. When I discovered the Munich to Budapest air fare would be about as much as the Chicago to Munich fare ($746.00), I quickly gave second thoughts to how I would travel there. And who wouldn’t.
I didn’t want to drive through three countries (Germany-Austria-Hungary) because of gas prices, and my unfamiliarity with the laws and the roads. A bus would take too long, but a train, despite a journey of some seven hours, 22 minutes, would be economical and fun. And I had not ridden those rails before. In fact, Hungary was an altogether new adventure for me.
Munich’s Hauptbahnhof
RAIL COST WAS NOMINAL A check at www.raileurope.com‘s new website quickly showed that a one-way trip to Budapest’s Keleti Station would cost only $171 U.S. dollars 2nd class ($269.00 first class), and once on board I could sleep or relax from my Atlantic crossing. With the new Rail Europe website, all I had to do was key in my departure and arrival cities, and up popped the cost for the date I wished to travel.
I would arrive Munich via Lufthansa at 5:55 a.m. and have plenty of time to travel on the S Bahn (covered by my Rail Europe ticket) from Munich Airport to the main Munich train station (Hauptbahnhof) to catch Train #63 at 9:27 a.m. to Budapest.
The flight over was uneventful, and the plane landed a few minutes early. Not having been in Germany since the spring, I was craving a croissant made the way the Germans make it, so I waited at an airport restaurant, indulging in coffee and croissants, until 7 a.m. and a Deutsche Bahn office opened to have my train ticket validated (you must validate tickets purchased in the U.S. prior to boarding a train in Europe).
I made a small deposit to reserve an assigned seat in first-class just to be sure. If the agent tells you the route can become crowded with passengers, paying a little extra for a reserved first-class seat can save you from transferring to second class if all the first class seats are taken.
LARGE MUNICH STATION DEPARTURE BOARD The large train departure board in Munich’s station is fascinating to watch, as new train numbers with boarding tracks pop up every few minutes, and people rush to that platform to board. My train’s notice appears on the board, I see my train roll into the station, and I board car #262 and settle into a comfortable, high-backed leather seat. The train, headed by an electric locomotive, the locomotive of choice in Europe, grabbed onto our string of passenger cars and eased us out of the station on time. Nothing new there—Europe’s trains are almost always on time.
Outside of Munich proper, I look out the window and guess we’re traveling between 95 and 100 miles per hour. I’m likely accurate on this, as European trains can move. A short time later the conductor confirms the train speed at 160 kilometers or 100 miles an hour. One reason trains can travel so fast is that the European track system is much stronger and can hold up much better at high speed. European rail lines have been investing heavily in their train tracks and facilities for years and years, and this is the payoff.
After a while, I note that the heat in the car is a bit excessive, but the conductor enters the car soon enough and announces the heat will be adjusted; it was. By 10 a.m. a porter with a trolley of beer, sandwiches, candy, rolls and chips arrives in the car to ward off any hunger pangs of the passengers.
As we near Salzburg, I can start seeing the snowed-covered Alps that I’ve come to be fond of; I see the Festung on the top of the hill in Salzburg, but only for a moment as the train rolls on. We’ve changed conductors since entering Austria. By the time we arrive at Linz the train is 8 minutes late, and continues to be behind schedule for a while.
Dining in the Speisewagen
TRAIN IS NEARLY FULL Looking around at the seats and the various cars, I found that 90% of the train was full, and all but about 10 first-class seats had been reserved. If the seat is reserved in the first-class section, a small stub will be attached to the seat with the person’s name on it as well as their boarding and departure stations.
Walking up through the train to the Bord Restaurant, I found it not crowded, and serving Hungarian-style food, including goulash and Hungarian beers. The service was fast and the price was very reasonable.
We roll through St. Polten 10 minutes late, and by Vienna we are 17 minutes late and running into fog. I don’t remember if we arrived late in Budapest, but we were nearly on time nevertheless. The Budapest train station was massive, with a large arching trainshed, similar to many large city trainsheds in Europe.
The trip was as advertised, it allowed me to catch up on my sleep from the flight over, and it allowed me to get into the “European mood” for my travels for the next two weeks. I also saved a lot of money. And in this current rough economy, that’s a good thing.
Travelers who like continental lake districts should set their sights on Mecklenburg-Lower Pomerania, Germany’s least densely populated federal state.
More than 1,000 lakes and ponds speckle the countryside terrain. Seven of those are right inside Schwerin’s municipal confines—plenty enough to give this Landeshaupstadt state capital (population 97,100) the appeal of curving shoreline pathways, footbridges, causeways, pleasure-boat docks and south-side Zippendorf’s sandy beach. To reach the city, take an InterCity Deutsche Bahn train from Hamburg, a 57-minute trip (check www.raileurope.com).
Get acquainted with the Schweriner See (biggest of the inner-city lakes) by way of a short Weisse Flotte cruise to Kaninchenwerder and Ziegelwerder, a pair of woodsy nature sanctuaries frequented by 100 species of birds. Even more central, crisscrossed by ferryboats, the oval-shaped Pfaffenteich features spouting fountains and a terrace café.
If this local water world doesn’t satisfy outdoor enthusiasts, you can hike-bike-paddle through the beechwood-forested Warnotal valley, 43 miles northbound toward coastal Rostock-Warnemünde via hidden-away riverside villages.
First though, one of Europe’s most flamboyantly spectacular castles, inspired by Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II, fairly shouts for attention. Its pentagonal bulk stands on a lake (the Burgsee), consciously imitating Château de Chambord in France’s Loire Valley. Rising from medieval fortress foundations on a mini-island accessed by ornamental bridges, ongoing construction and impulsive add-ons produced the neo-Renaissance, gilded-domed Schweriner Schloss, finally completed in 1857. End result, amidst terra-cotta trimmings: a splurge of pinnacles, belfries and 15 turrets. For dramatic impact, floodlights illuminate the ensemble during nighttime hours. Surely an extravagant setup for the state’s Landtag parliamentary offices.
PORTRAITS, PORCELAINS AND OLD MASTERS PAINTINGS For visitors touring the premises, however, bureaucratic doings play second fiddle to the castle’s cultural finery. Not to be missed: galleries devoted to portraits covering 600 years of ancestral dukedom, plus important Mecklenburg landscape paintings. Also here: a lavish oak-paneled banquet hall, chapel and big-windowed orangerie. Inlaid-wood floor patterns and silk brocade wall hangings embellish the ducal throne room.
Watch for the Schloss museum’s displays of furniture, jewelry and weaponry, but especially its sizeable porcelain collection (Meissen, Sèvres, Fürstenberg). Relax in the rococo tea salon or stroll through the flowery Schlossgarten, accentuated by allegorical statues (www.schloss-schwerin.de).
Thanks to past acquisitions made by Mecklenburg Duke Christian Ludwig II and his son Friedrich, the state’s Staatliches Museum Kunstsammlung ranks high as an outstanding fine arts repository. Surrounded by linden groves on Werderstrasse’s northern edge of lakeside Alter Garten greenery, this cultural gem (built 1877-82) resembles a Grecian temple. Gallery-goers ponder Dutch-Flemish “Golden Age” materpieces (Rubens-Rembrandt-Hals-Breugel), but influential German works (Cranach the Elder-Caspar David Friedrich-Max Liebermann-Lovis Corinth) shouldn’t be ignored. Also prominent: Thomas Gainsborough’s full-length, 18th-century Queen Charlotte rendition and (surprise!) a comprehensive French array of dadaist-surrealist Marcel Duchamp canvases.
The Beaux-Arts Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater, another Alter Garten edifice, stages operatic-ballet-theatrical performances—and is “home hall” of the Mecklenburg Court Orchestra, established 448 years ago for eminence as Germany’s third-oldest symphony orchestra, after Dresden’s Staatskapelle and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus.
PANORAMIC VIEWS FROM THE CATHEDRAL TOWER Schwerin’s cityscape emerged in remakably good shape from the economically skimpy GDR decades. So take in the architectural mix. Dom St. Maria und St. Johannes (on Bischofstrasse) exemplifies soaring early-Gothic north-German brick cathedrals. Climbing 219 spiral stairs to the tower rewards sightseers with terrific panoramics from a 320 foot altitude. Evocative tidbit: the 15th century golden cross crowning the steeple was salvaged from Wismar’s war-damaged (and, in 1990, GDR-dynamited) Marienkirche.
On the Marktplatz, you’ll see an unusual kind of Rathaus—basically Gothic but scrunched behind an English mock-Tudor façade. It stands near Schwerin’s 18th century Säulengebäude market hall, fronted by a dozen white Doric columns.
(right) Monument commemorating Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, founding father of Schwerin.
In 1707, a planned Schwerin Neustadt community named Schelfstadt came into existence. Narrow streets, clustered half-timbered Fachwerk houses, Baroque Nikolai Church and tidy kitchen gardens comprise a worthwhile visitor attraction. Same for this lakeside setting’s Freilichtmuseum Schwerin-Muess, recalling 18th-19th century rural folkways.
WHERE TO EAT, WHERE TO SLEEP The Sorat organization converted a 1936 wheat warehouse into Speicher am Ziegelsee, where spacious guest rooms complement a 55-seat restaurant (www.speicher-hotel.de). Another Ziegelsee choice, Best Western’s Seehotel Frankenhorst, has boat dock, swimming pool and whirlpool-sauna amenities (www.seehotel.bestwestern.de).
Tops in town for deluxe ambience and Pffanteich vistas, Niederländischer Hof includes a wood-paneled library and mirrored restaurant (www.niederlaendischer-hof.de). Centrally situated Alt Schweriner Schankstuben is a budget category 16-room Gasthaus (www.alt-schweriner-schankstuben.de).
Among recommendable in-town dining options are upscale Weinhaus Uhle (www.weinhaus-uhle.de), beer-pouring Zum Stadtkrug Alstadt Brauhaus (www.altstadtbrauhaus.de), sophisticated Friedrichs, occupying a circa-1801 neoclassical mansion (www.restaurant-friedrichs.com) and ever popular Wallenstein, on a Schweriner See embankment, where patrons seated on the open-air pavilion are treated to views of the castle (www.restaurant-wallenstein.de). For a coffeehouse break, find elegant Café Prag, with sidewalk tables overlooking Schusterstrasse, and Röntgen on the Markplatz.
PLANNING YOUR TRIP Tourist Information Schwerin (www.schwerin.com) is located longside the Rathaus. Or, go to the German National Tourist Office for answers (www.cometogermany.com).
One of my favorite things to do when planning a European trip by rail is to pull out my European rail route guide and investigate the towns and topography of the area through which I’ll be traveling.
Thus, when I recently organized a trip to Oberammergau, Germany from the Black Forest village of Villingen-Schwenningen, to visit the Passion Play theater and interview some of the play’s directors, I was delighted to see that I’d be changing trains at Pasing, a suburb of Munich, then heading south into the Alps. Pasing station is undergoing a major remodeling around the platform area, and it needs it. Hopefully by now the station is done and the passengers can more easily maneuver on the platform.
The schedule called for me to arrive Pasing at 11:20 a.m. on an Intercity Express from Ulm. Then a Regionalbahn train left at 11:39 a.m. for Murnau, which was slightly under an hour trip. At Murnau, I took the last leg of the trip to Oberammergau. End of story? Not quite, because the fun in travel is actually traveling, not going just from point A to point B.
WHAT THE FUN IS The fun is waiting for the train, watching the other passengers and seeing what pulls up at the station when its your train. The fun is checking out the cars and seating arrangements, finding the diner and having a meal, or watching the scenery go by. And that’s where my research came in. I knew that the fun part of this trip—any train trip in Europe–is watching the scenery, and I was in for some spectacular scenery.
Not far out of Pasing I could tell the tracks were heading southwest, and towards the Alps. Actually, on a very clear day, you can see the Alps from Munich itself, but I hadn’t been able to see them when I flew in until the very last moment before we touched down. Now, however, it was a beautiful clear day, but it wasn’t until about Murnau that I could see the landscape starting to suggest something big was going to happen.
At Murnau the track split, with one line going to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and then onto Innsbruck: that would have been an awesome route to follow. The other line made a large loop, ending up in Oberammergau. Had the line been straight, the schedule for that segment of the trip would have been much less than the allotted 40 minutes. After Murnau, and a quick on-board lunch that I had packed, the track started to conform to the undulating hills.
Oberammergau Mayor Arno Nunn is in charge of the world-famous Passion Play 2010.Sit back and relax with a cold beer under a tavern umbrella.
MOUNTAINS LOOM LARGER We rolled further south, and there finally the mountains appeared and were growing bigger at every turn in the tracks. Our regional train, with a loud squeak for a horn, signaled for road crossings and little dirt paths that wound up into the foothills. Colorful mountain flowers along the way were welcoming enticements to follow the increasingly curvy path to my destination.
Small, interesting German villages, rich green forests, rolling meadows and the looming Alps were all reasons to continue the journey and discover what Oberammergau had in store. A word of caution: don’t step off at “Unterammergau” when you want to get off at Oberammergau. The town names, when you aren’t German and the conductor speaks fast, can be very similar!
At Obergrammergau the track abruptly ends at the station–there’s one track in–and it’s the same track out of the station. From there, you can walk into the center of town, or get a bus or cab. This little city, where the world-famous Passion Play is held every 10 years, is usually very active and touristy. But you feel like you’re in a “real” German town when you’re finally relaxing with a cold beer at a small tavern under the shade of an umbrella, and the Alps rise majestically above you. That’s living, that’s Germany, and trains will take you there. Next time, try the “small rail routes.”
By Don Heimburger Photos by the author, Marilyn Heimburger and courtesy Pre-History Museum in Halle
Millions of visitors are expected to visit Wittenberg, Germany between now and 2017, when the 500th anniversary of the nailing of the 95 Theses by Martin Luther occurred.
The German state of Saxony-Anhalt is launching a giant campaign to publicize the anniversary and show off its Luther treasures to the world.
The kick-off event starts October 31 when the State Museum of Pre-History in Halle on the Saale River showcases numerous Luther archaeological artifacts that have recently been uncovered, mostly in Mansfeld, Luther’s childhood home, and Wittenberg at Luther House, where Luther taught.
Luther House in Wittenberg
Entitled “Finding Luther—Archaeologists on the Reformer’s Trail,” the 4,000-square foot exhibit will be shown in the newly-restored Pre-History Museum.
“Except for his writings, the bulk of the reformer’s possessions got lost,” says Dr. Michael Schefzik, curator of the Museum. “On the other hand, the archaeological excavations in 2003 yielded hundreds of objects which certainly had belonged to the Luther family.”
LUTHER’S LIFE COMES INTO FOCUS
Only in the last several years, after research by various archaeologists, was it feasible to draw a picture of the life of the Luther family, especially in Mansfeld where the Luther family moved to in 1484, shortly after Luther was born.
“Historical truth and legends (about Luther) are almost inseparably intermingled with each other,” says Dr. Schefzik. Now, more is known and will be explained in this new exhibit.
Dr. Schlenker indicates where first Luther artifacts were located in a parking area near Luther’s home
Some of the Luther exhibits visitors to the museum will find include:
Luther’s childhood marbles? Archaeologists believe they found them—made of clay and probably heated over an open fire in the Lutherhaus in Mansfield.
Luther’s mother’s thimble (?) has been preserved and is beautifully made.
Heating stove tiles of several colors from Luther House in Wittenberg with pictures of Adam and Eve on them, as well as possibly Frederick the Wise, who befriended Luther.
Iron keys, padlocks, nails, large headdress pins, knives, belt buckles, chards of pottery, beads, garment accessories, jewelry, a beer tap, coins, fish and wild fowl bones and much more.
SURPRISES YET TO COME
In addition, the museum has a few exhibit surprises that only visitors there will get to see. Many more Luther objects, such as goblets and beakers, are on loan from other museums and estates that will be shown in the exhibit. Luther received the vessels from wealthy patrons and gave them to selected friends.
Don and Marilyn Heimburger with Wittenberg Mayor Eckhard Naumann
The new Luther finds have attracted National Geographic, which plans a comprehensive report on the news, as well as many German newspapers and other news agencies.
While in Wittenberg (Home of the Reformation), which you could make your home base for a few days as you tour the various surrounding Luther sights, you’ll want to see the Town and Castle churches, the Luther House, a UNESCO World Cultural heritage site, the Philipp Melanchthon house, the Market Square with the town hall built between 1523 and 1535, the Lucas Cranach houses (he owned several), and some of the town’s museums. The town, first documented in 1180, has a great many historical buildings.
The Castle Church, with an 288-foot-high tower, was once the magnificent castle of the electors of Saxony, built between 1489 and 1525 for Frederick the Wise. It also became the university church, and it was here that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door. Today a black bronze door (installed in 1858) has replaced the original one. The door commemorates October 31, 1517 when Luther nailed his theses “on the power of indulgences” to the door.
Medieval ladies add to Wittenberg’s FestivalMeat sizzles on an open fire at Wittenberg town festivalMusicians at Wittenberg festival
OLDEST CHURCH WORTH A VISIT
Wittenberg’s oldest church is the Town Church, the Town and Parish Church of St. Mary, set in the central square. The pulpit, at which Luther preached, can actually be found now at the Luther House. If you go, note the series of epitaphs by Lucas Cranach the Younger around the altar. They are from around 1560.
Other Wittenberg highlights include:
The multi-colored turreted high school designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser
The Piesteritz residential housing complex on the west part of town, with some housing built as early as 1916, used to house factory workers
Museum of Town History, a collection of thousands of old historic Wittenberg documents and artifacts
For fun, visit the historical printing workshop in town and see how printing used to be done at the time Luther translated the Bible into German. You can even purchase a few humorous Luther quotes which have been printed at the shop.
WITTENBERG FESTIVALS
Hundertwasser School
Every year on the second weekend in June, thousands gather in the streets of this town for Luther’s Wedding, a town festival that includes medieval merrymaking with processions, strolling musicians and entertainers.
July and August brings the Wittenberg Summer of Culture which includes theater shows, courtyard concerts, a wine festival and “ErlebnisNacht” which features unexpected happenings at unexpected times in unexpected places in the old quarter.
A newer hotel, across the Elbe River, is the Bruckenkopf Hotel, owned by the Schult family. Renate and Gehard Schult have invested heavily in the renovation of this sprawling military complex once used by the Kaiser’s Army and Napolean’s Army. There are 24 rooms in the brick fortress portion of the complex. The staff is friendly, and there is no noise except an occasional duck splashing in the nearby pond. The complex also provides rooms and cabins for boaters and bikers, tenters and motorhomes (www.marina-camp-elbe.de).
If you like good German food, a number of restaurants downtown can accommodate you. Nearly all hotels offer good food in their restaurants, but a favorite of the locals is the Schwarzer Baer, which is connected to a hotel (naturally) and Luther used to come in there to eat and drink, and it’s said he even slept there.
Wittenberg is best reached from Berlin’s Tegel Airport, and frequent ICE, ICE night and IC and EC trains stops in Wittenberg. For more Wittenberg information, go to www.wittenberg.de (e-mail: info@wittenberg-information.de). For individual town tours, contact English-speaking guides Bettina Brett at bettina.brett@arcor.de or Astrid Muehlmann at astrid.muehlmann@web.de. Both are veteran guides and are well-known locally.
Reverend Scott Moore in the pulpit at Eisleben Church, where Luther was baptized.Luther Museum in Eisleben.
OTHER NEARBY CITIES
If you’re in Wittenberg, you really should take the time to visit some other nearby Luther sights and towns. They include the town of Eisleben, nestled in the hill country of the Mansfeld basin. It’s here that Luther was born (November 10, 1483) and baptized the next day in the Church of St. Peter and Paul. His home has been turned into a very interesting museum that documents his early childhood and youth and gives an insight into the spiritual environment in which Luther was raised.
On the hill overlooking Mansfeld, you can visit the Mansfeld Castle where Luther preached. In town is his parent’s large home, where they are now uncovering many Luther family artifacts.
In Torgau, the political center of the Reformation, you can visit the Hartenfels Palace Chapel, consecrated by Luther on October 5, 1544. It is regarded as the first church to be built as a Protestant church.
Luther studied theology and sciences in Erfurt between 1501-1505. In 1505 he requested acceptance into the Erfurt monastery, home to the Augustinian monks, an order known for its scholarship. In 1507 Luther was ordained as a priest
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