We knew that before leaving Europe we needed to visit Caryl's German relatives. Caryl's maternal great-grandparents met while learning English in Fort Wayne after immigrating to America. Thankfully, the relatives in the US and those in Germany have stayed in touch, so we rented a car and drove to Wallhausen to visit Inge, Hans-Otto, Willi, and Heidrun, and then to Holzheim to visit Herbert and Marlena (next blog post).
Inge showed us around town, and took us to see an old castle in Kirchberg an der Jagst (Church mountain on the Jagst River):
Hans-Otto took us to the Summer Solstice Wallhausen beer festival:
Willi was kind enough to give us a private tour of his sawmill. It was very interesting to see how wood is processed and made into usable products (like an episode of How It's Made!):
Heidrun's horse, dressed like a zebra to confuse mosquitoes:
The highlight of the trip (other than meeting family, of course) was seeing Rothenburg, a well preserved medieval town where it's always Christmas. Apparently, model train sets of snowy German villages are modeled after Rothenburg. I was very impressed by the town; it felt surreal and a little like Disney World:
Interesting castle-tower (old fortified vacation home):
Same castle from a distance:
St. Jacob's Cathedral in Rothenburg:
Altar of the Holy Blood, carved between 1499 and 1505:
Awesome organs:
Hard to get a good picture without a tourist getting in the way :)
We left Rothenburg through the old fortifications:
On our way back we checked out and had an impromptu tour of one of the new, huge wind turbines. We had a lot of these in Wisconsin, and it was very cool to actually be inside (though they wouldn't let us take the elevator to the top):
And of course, the tiniest family member, Flora!!!
Inge showed us around town, and took us to see an old castle in Kirchberg an der Jagst (Church mountain on the Jagst River):
Hans-Otto took us to the Summer Solstice Wallhausen beer festival:
Willi was kind enough to give us a private tour of his sawmill. It was very interesting to see how wood is processed and made into usable products (like an episode of How It's Made!):
Heidrun's horse, dressed like a zebra to confuse mosquitoes:
The highlight of the trip (other than meeting family, of course) was seeing Rothenburg, a well preserved medieval town where it's always Christmas. Apparently, model train sets of snowy German villages are modeled after Rothenburg. I was very impressed by the town; it felt surreal and a little like Disney World:
Interesting castle-tower (old fortified vacation home):
Same castle from a distance:
St. Jacob's Cathedral in Rothenburg:
Altar of the Holy Blood, carved between 1499 and 1505:
Awesome organs:
Hard to get a good picture without a tourist getting in the way :)
We left Rothenburg through the old fortifications:
On our way back we checked out and had an impromptu tour of one of the new, huge wind turbines. We had a lot of these in Wisconsin, and it was very cool to actually be inside (though they wouldn't let us take the elevator to the top):
And of course, the tiniest family member, Flora!!!
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