Don't mention the 'B' word.....
Don't mention the 'B' word.....
Franconia
Don't mention the 'B' word.....
Don't mention the 'B' word.....
Franconia
At 11.30 p.m. on 21st June, twenty Friends of the Whitworth returned to Manchester Airport having had a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening visit to Bavaria accompanied by the indefatigable and fount-of-all-knowledge, Dr Birgitta Hoffmann.
When we had set off seven days earlier we had not expected a heatwave, but that was the news with which Birgitta greeted us on our arrival at Frankfurt. Without delay she imparted to us - along with a bottle of water each and a pretzel (for the salt) - words of wisdom as to how to cope with temperatures over 30⁰. We were to fill our bottles each morning and bring them with us every day and at the end of the trip the driver would collect the empties …. as there’s a deposit on plastic bottles in Germany.
We spent our first night at Aschaffenburg in the delightful Hotel Dalberg. Our arrival coincided with the festival of Corpus Christie, the only evidence of this which we observed were a large, noisy, hugely popular funfairwith big wheel and other dare-devil rides –fortunately on the opposite side of the River Main to where we were. The noise did not detract from our walk through the park to the Pompejanum – a replica of the Castor and Pollux Villa in Pompei.
We enjoyed the first dinner (and sampled the local wine and beer) of the tour that evening and those of us who were still awake saw the celebratory fireworks.
The following day, after a visit to Johannisburg Castle and its fine chapel, we were driven to Würzburg via “the northern terminus of the Romantic Road which links the River Main and the Bavarian Alps by way of peaceful valleys and rolling countryside”. The Hotel Strauss was our base for the remaining five nights. We were told that visitors to Würzburg need not go anywhere twice because there are so many places of interest, not to mention the annual music festival.
Our own visit included a guided tour of the magnificent Bishop’s Palace – known as the Residenz (a UNESCO World Heritage site) - in the company of Pieter, a charming, young man – slim as a pin and seven foot if-he-was-an-inch, who had quickly established a rapport with the group and kept us entertained and informed throughout. Tongue-in-cheek he reminded us, that though the former principality of Würzburg is in Franconia, it is administratively part of Bavaria, about which native Franconians harbour resentment. “Do not mention the B word” Pieter told us! We already knew about this sensitive issue because each of our guides, including Birgitta, had told us that the Franconians did not think of themselves as Bavarians – after all, the change had occurred a mere 200 years ago and had resulted from the fall of the Holy Roman Empire.
Our late homeward flight enabled us to have a few hours in Darmstadt where we had a tour round Mathildenhöhe -– an artists’ colony founded in 1899 by the last Grand Duke of Hesse, Ernst Ludwig – a patron of Jugendstil, the German/Austrian art nouveau movement. Of the seven founding members, the best known were the Austrian architect, Joseph Maria Olbrich and the pioneering modernist Peter Behrens. The goal of this exhibition and residential complex was to be the development of modern and forward-looking forms of construction and living. We were fortunate enough to be taken into two of these which were unlived in at the moment.
This visit contrasted greatly with the quaint old towns with cobbled streets which we had visited over the previous six days: Bamburg (a World Heritage Site) and Rothenburg ob der Tauber or the older part of Aschaffenburg where we had visited a number of Baroque and Rococco churches.
At 11.30 p.m. on 21st June, twenty Friends of the Whitworth returned to Manchester Airport having had a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening visit to Bavaria accompanied by the indefatigable and fount-of-all-knowledge, Dr Birgitta Hoffmann.
When we had set off seven days earlier we had not expected a heatwave, but that was the news with which Birgitta greeted us on our arrival at Frankfurt. Without delay she imparted to us - along with a bottle of water each and a pretzel (for the salt) - words of wisdom as to how to cope with temperatures over 30⁰. We were to fill our bottles each morning and bring them with us every day and at the end of the trip the driver would collect the empties …. as there’s a deposit on plastic bottles in Germany.
We spent our first night at Aschaffenburg in the delightful Hotel Dalberg. Our arrival coincided with the festival of Corpus Christie, the only evidence of this which we observed were a large, noisy, hugely popular funfairwith big wheel and other dare-devil rides –fortunately on the opposite side of the River Main to where we were. The noise did not detract from our walk through the park to the Pompejanum – a replica of the Castor and Pollux Villa in Pompei.
We enjoyed the first dinner (and sampled the local wine and beer) of the tour that evening and those of us who were still awake saw the celebratory fireworks.
The following day, after a visit to Johannisburg Castle and its fine chapel, we were driven to Würzburg via “the northern terminus of the Romantic Road which links the River Main and the Bavarian Alps by way of peaceful valleys and rolling countryside”. The Hotel Strauss was our base for the remaining five nights. We were told that visitors to Würzburg need not go anywhere twice because there are so many places of interest, not to mention the annual music festival.
Our own visit included a guided tour of the magnificent Bishop’s Palace – known as the Residenz (a UNESCO World Heritage site) - in the company of Pieter, a charming, young man – slim as a pin and seven foot if-he-was-an-inch, who had quickly established a rapport with the group and kept us entertained and informed throughout. Tongue-in-cheek he reminded us, that though the former principality of Würzburg is in Franconia, it is administratively part of Bavaria, about which native Franconians harbour resentment. “Do not mention the B word” Pieter told us! We already knew about this sensitive issue because each of our guides, including Birgitta, had told us that the Franconians did not think of themselves as Bavarians – after all, the change had occurred a mere 200 years ago and had resulted from the fall of the Holy Roman Empire.
Our late homeward flight enabled us to have a few hours in Darmstadt where we had a tour round Mathildenhöhe -– an artists’ colony founded in 1899 by the last Grand Duke of Hesse, Ernst Ludwig – a patron of Jugendstil, the German/Austrian art nouveau movement. Of the seven founding members, the best known were the Austrian architect, Joseph Maria Olbrich and the pioneering modernist Peter Behrens. The goal of this exhibition and residential complex was to be the development of modern and forward-looking forms of construction and living. We were fortunate enough to be taken into two of these which were unlived in at the moment.
This visit contrasted greatly with the quaint old towns with cobbled streets which we had visited over the previous six days: Bamburg (a World Heritage Site) and Rothenburg ob der Tauber or the older part of Aschaffenburg where we had visited a number of Baroque and Rococco churches.
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