Travelog for: wolletje

Today our hosts invited us to a open air theatre in Ötigheim. They love to go there each year. This year they watched the play. Ronja Räubertochter
We had luck, because it wasn't too hot weather.



sorry, this one is without me, because we had to zoom

When we were back at home, we decided to go to have dinner outside at a so called beer garden. The restaurant isn't far from our home, so we only had to walk a few minutes. We passed by at the baroque church St. Peter, which was beautiful in the evening sun. I will tell you more about this church soon. My host walked home and fetched her camera to take some photos with us.




After we had a really tasty meal, we walked home again. We saw this interesting car in front of the church then and my host decided to take photos with me.

Today we visited Bretten. Like Bruchsal this town is in the state of Baden-Württemberg and located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route. There live about 28,ooo people.

The centre of Bretten consists of many old half-timbered houses around a lively marketplace.Bretten was first mentioned as "villa breteheim" in the "Lorsch codex" in 767. Since 1148 Bretten had the right to mint and issue coins. In 1254 Bretten received city rights. In 1492 Bretten was granted to hold four fairs by Pfalzgraf Philipp. Philipp Melanchthon was born in Bretten in 1497.(wikipedia)


the Melanchthon house




marketplace






a red half-timbered house with red car





Stiftskirche, evangelic church




Next to the church we saw this half timbered house with the flags of the states which participated at the world championship in South Africa.




Statue of Philipp Melanchthon




a fountain and some pink houses




some shops

This evening we were invited to join our hosts, when they visited the light show at the palace of Bruchsal. It was the first time, that this event happened there and they and we were really curious. There were many people out there and we enjoyed the lights. I'm sorry, but we only took this one photo, it just was too dark to take more. And there is one photo without me. I thought, that you maybe like to see the backside of the palace like this, too.

Today we went on a sightseeing tour through Bruchsal. The weather still isn't too nice, but at least there is a bit sun every now and then.


The palace of Bruchsal was residence of the prince bishop of Speyer. It was built on request of prince bishop Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn-Buchheim from 1720 on in baroque stile. It was destoyed on 1rst March 1945, when about 80% of Bruchsal was destroyed and many people lost their lives. It was reconstructed in the years around 1970, but the church part was created in modern stile

There are several interesting museums in the palace: City Museum, Stone Age Museum and the     
German Museum of Musical Automata


We started at the backside of the palace.





When we turned around the next corner, we saw this sundial.





Now we see the front of the palace. My hosts go to service at this church every Sunday morning. It's about one hour, that they are there to pray and sing.




We're still standing at the same place, but just turned around to see the Damian Gate.






You see, that the palace area is really big.




Here we are in front of the county court. There is the Amalienbrunnen, fountain, with its funny snails - the so called snail fountain

I will read, what's written on the sign: This fountain was built in memory of Marchioness Amalie von Baden (1754 - 1832), spouse of margrave Karl Ludwig von Baden. She found her place in history as "mother-in-law of Europe", because she managed to marry five of her six daughters off to the most powerful prince's palaces of Europe. When she was widowedshe made Schloss Bruchsal one of her homes in the year 1806. She died there in 1832.
The fountain was planned by Prof. Dr. Fritz Hirsch (1871 - 1938) in 1912. He was in charge of the redecoration of the Schloss Bruchsal in the early days of the 20th century.








Here you see a map of the whole palace area. We marked the places of things we took photos of.





Here's the main entrance. The sun didn't shine, so the photo isn't that brilliant.




We're now standing next to the church entrance and take a look back to places we took photos a few minutes ago.




We went into the church and saw photos of the palace and church after they were destroyed on 1rst March 1945. About 80% of buildings in Bruchsal were destroyed that day.





The church wasn't rebuilt like it was before. We saw photos of the church when it was baroque inside.








Don't ask, which station of the way of the cross this shows. This way of the cross is a bit weird, even my hosts have to think about it until they know, what it means.




Now we are on our way back to the palace garden and will take more photos there. Turning around we see the church and church tower again.





There are many chestnut trees. This is an old big one.




My host told me, that she visited this pond really often, when her kids were much younger.




In the main way of the palace garden you find many statues. This one shows the element fire






and here is water.






There are also the elements air and earth.


Here is a photo of the rose garden, but we didn't take a photo of the playground, because too many kids played there and we didn't want to take photos of them.




After we've seen the four elements we're now at the statues of the four seasons spring, summer, autumn and winter.




We'll have a closer look at two of them. Here's autum



and here summer- not sure, why we took the photo without head.




Here's the chestnut alley with old big trees. There is also an alley on the opposite site with younger trees.




Maybe you remember, that we saw a small small part of the roof of the prison tower, when we were standing next to the church entrance. Here is the prison. It is called cafe octagon - Cafe Achteck - in Bruchsal, because of the way it is built.




Only a few meters from the prison is the hospital of Bruchsal. There is the old part with the nice tower and a big part of the newer hospital. We're still standing at the same parking place only moved a bit.





Then we drove to the Stadtgarten, because we wanted to see the Belverdere -  a former hunting lodge.





When you walk out of the Stadtgarten you see that small house on top of the stairs. We took a photo of the sign. The house was supposed to protect its owner from the rain, when he worked on his vineyard.



We walked down the stairs and have a few on the house from there.






Standing next to the little house you have a wonderful view over Bruchsal.











Then we walked back to the Stadtgarten again and took some more photos there. Here is the Ferdinand Keller fountain.




My host loves this lime tree and I do too.




The house behind the fountain is called Schönborn Gymnasium. This school is more than 250 years old.






The last picture today we took at the street, which leads along the St. Paulusheim, another grammar school. You have a nice view on St. Peter from there.

It's my host's birthday. We helped to prepare things for the guests, which came to have breakfast with us, but we toyvoyagers were allowed to eat first before the guests arrived.

For lunch we had some Italian kind of soup and this interesting bread rolls.

Today we drove to Münzesheim to visit the Japanese Garden, which belongs to the therapy centre against alcohol and other dependencies. All buildings and works of art are made by patients of the therapy center based on antique models. The garden is about 5.000 m² large, it is open for patients and visitors. You will see a roof made of blue bottles, put into the concrete with there bottom to the outside - it's an interesting room, fascinating. Wall and floor are covered with blue tiles. Just enjoy the photos.

Today we visited my families aunt and uncle in Mannheim. It is a beautiful city, but we haven't seen a lot of the sightseeings. We were at the garden of aunt and uncle and ate some cake and enjoyed the lovely flowers.

In the early evening we enjoyed the lights of the sunset.

Today we have lovely weather. So my host decided to show me some nice places in Bruchsal. Some other toyvoyager friends joined us.

At first we walked through the Bürgerpark - citizens park- , which was created at the end of the 1980s. It is home to three monuments, which are dedicated to Bruchsal's twin towns and to victims of the Second World War and the Nazi regime.






Here you see the medival keep of the old castle. It's the only building of this time in Bruchsal.




Then we walked to the "new" palace of Bruchsal.
Schloss Bruchsal is one of the most beautiful Baroque palaces in Germany and the only episcopal Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine. The foundation stone was laid in 1722 by Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn, Prince Bishop of Speyer, who made the palace the centre of his absolutist dominion. Read more here: Schloss Bruchsal.

Here you see the tower of the church St. Damian and Hugo, where my hosts usually go to service on Sundays.




The left building is the church, so you see the the tower is at another place. The church inside was also baroque, but the most part of the palace and so the church were destroyed during the Second World War. The rebuilt it in the 1970s, but not the church inside. It is modern style now - to disappointment to most visiters.




The palace garden: Today, the palace garden continues to provide an atmospheric setting for open-air concerts and the Bruchsal Summer Festival of Music and Drama.

At first we went to the pond, where usually are many ducks. Today it was so crowdy, that we stayed away a bit just to take nicer photos.





Here is the rose garden. It was a bit difficult to take photos here, because of the sun





This is a chestnut avenue with really old trees. It was also such an old avenue on the other side of the park, but they say, that the trees were too old. So the planted new trees, which are still a lot smaller.



I collected some chestnuts for a nice photo. I hope you like it.




Here is a photo of the back side of the palace main building.




This is the front side of the palace main building. This building houses the the magnificent dome, Marble Hall and Prince's Hall. The staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann is considered to be an architectural tour-de-force and has been described as the "finest staircase in the world". There also is the German Museum of Musical Automata, which thanks to its acquisition of more than 100 valuable instruments from the Carlson collection of Königslutter, is now among the largest such collections in the world.




I read a long long text about the palace, much too long for writing it here.




That's the left wing of the main building. There is the chamber music hall.




We walked to the Damian Gate now. Today, the local art society "Das Damianstor" stages various exhibitions of contemporary art in the sections of the building directly above the gate arch.




We took a look at the long Schönborn street, which leads through a part of the palace area.




We walked to the Amalienbrunnen, so called Schneckenbrunnen (snail fountain), which is in front of the county court. To be true, I didn't read the whole text here.



Here you see me with one snail.




Next to the fountain we took a look back to the main building and the wing with the chamber music hall.




Now we had to walk some stairs up and a street up to come to the Stadtgarten - city garden. It's the third large park besides the Bürgerpark and palace garden.




I saw a nice old house. I'm sorry, but the light was a bit difficult for taking photos.




I love this lime tree




This fountain is called Ferdinand Keller Brunnen. It was built in 1912 and is dedicated to the Bruchsal innkeeper Ferdinand Keller. The building behind it belongs to a grammar school.




The Belvedere is on the edge of the Stadtgarten. It was built by Leonhard Stahl in 1756 as a hunting lodge for Prince Bishop Franz Christoph von Hutten. The location was chosen so that the lodge would command an unspoiled view of the palace, town and Rhine rift valley beyond. Today the Belvedere is used as a venue for concerts and theatre productions.






Next to the Stadtgarten is a place, from which we had a wonderful view over Bruchsal. Do you see the church with the two towers? It is a baroque church St. Peter, which is close to the place where I live right now.




The place were we stood was next to that Wingerthäusle - vineyard house. We tried to take a photo of the sign with me, but it was too dark to read it. So we just took a photo with hand and camera, but nevertheless you will see the house as white dot above the stairs of the Andreasstaffel







Here you can read about the stairway, if you want to.




The Huttenstraße is one of those streets with really old buildings. Many many buildings were destroyed during Second World War, so you don't see many old buildings in Bruchsal.




Behind my back you see a part of the older people's house and the building with the little tower belongs to another grammar school, the Paulusheim.




After a long walk I'm nearly back home again. Here are some other older houses and the baroque church St. Peter.

I visited the school were my host teaches pupils of grade 3. She didn't want to take photos while the kids were there, so you only can see the chairs and tables and a pumpkin decoration for the window.



On the table you see the worksheets for a plan for the week.

Yesterday was my hosts son's 20th birthday and today we had a big cake for afternoon coffee. This cake is called "Schaffeltorte", which means something like washtub cake, because it has so many different colours like the colours of mixed laundry and white foam on the top.

Today we packed bags and sat in the car to drive to a place called St. Peter in the south part of the Black Forest. Partly we drove on the autobahn and partly on roads, which led us through towns.

Finally we arrived at our holiday flat. It is really nice with kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. At first we all fell in the bed to have a rest. Do you know, who had no place for a rest? Yes, was our host, because we were in her bed



Sankt Peter is a town in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. There is a beautiful cloister church, which we wanted to see at first.




Then we walked through the town and found this funny fountain.




Back at the flat again we enjoyed the wonderful view out of our bedroom.

Today we drove to the highest mountain of Baden-Württemberg and also our Germany outside the Alps, the Feldberg. The Feldberg has an elevation of 1,493 metres. For the most part the Feldberg area contents a nature reserve due to its subalpine vegetation. This reserve is the oldest and biggest one in Baden-Württemberg and is in charge of a full-time ranger since 1989. Since 2001 it's the responsibility of the Conservation Centre Südschwarzwald to look after the reserve. Within the Haus der Natur ("House of Nature") there's a permanent exhibition of nature conservation. It offers an extensive program with events in the reserve. Since 2005 there's also a new nature trail.














The Feldberg offers one of the most extensive panoramas of Germany - especially in winter at weather situations of inversion. In the west, on the other side of the Upper Rhine Graben you can see the entire Vosges Mountains from the Ballon d'Alsace up to Mont Donon and Mont Sainte-Odile. Beyond that you can also look up to the southern Palatinate Forest occasionally. In the north one can see the Hornisgrinde; in the north-east there's the entire range of the Swabian Alb including the Lemberg mountain, up to the left there's the Hegau volcano region.

In the south one can see the Alps from Alpspitze and Zugspitze in the east up to the Allgäu Alps, Verwall Alps, Silvretta, Säntis, Glarus Alps, Urner Alps, Bernese Alps and Mont Blanc in the west. Besides there are the Jura Mountains on the right next to the Alps.






There is a deep valley in north-eastern direction which contains the Feldsee, a lake of glacial origin at about 1,000 m altitude.




This is the Bismarck-Denkmal, an old monument in honour of the famous 19th century chancellor of the German Empire.




At the top of the mountain (where the weather has been measured since 1915) is a weather observatory that has been in operation since 1937 and carried on by the German meteorological service (WMO code number: 10908). Next to the observatory there is a weather radar.