Travelog for: Galo

Rainy days with thunder and lightning in Bruchsal

















So we sat together in Petra's bedroom and read her current favorite book

Another thunderstorm

Today we saw a beautiful rainbow

Finally the weather is better again, so we went outside to take some photos of the beautiful flowers in Petra's garden.

My host family drove to Heidelberg, because their son begins with work experience at a medical laboratory tomorrow. So they thought, if would be a good idea to look where this laboratory is and then go to see the castle. But it was so crowded at the castle, that we turned around and decided to go there sometime later. So we only had been able to take a photo of the bridge.

When Petra read the newspaper today, she saw a photo on the first page with a large poppies field. She asked us and her son, if we want to come with her to take a look, if we could find this beautiful field and get some photos taken there. So we drove to Büchenau, which is one of Bruchsal's suburbs. It is a small town with about 2200 inhabitants. Just enjoy the photos.

It's raining again.

On our way home from Heidelberg - we drive this way each day now, because Fabian is there - we stopped by at the chapel on top of Letzenberg. It is really beautiful. It was built in 1902. They say, that there already was a pilgrimage chapel around 1300.
You have a great view to the Rhine valley and Kraichgau.

Then we drove to Münzesheim to visit the Japanese Garden, which belongs to the therapy centre against alcohol and other dependencies.





















There is a round room with many many blue bottles as roof.

Petra and her family visited Ralf's aunt and uncle in Koblenz today. They also invited Ralf's parents to join them - and us, of course.

Koblenz is a city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) and its monument (Emperor William I on horseback) are situated.





It is the third largest city in Rhineland-Palatinate, with a population of c. 106,000 (2006).



Here you see the confluence of Rhine (right side) and Moselle (left side).




Ehrenbreitstein Fortress
(German: Festung Ehrenbreitstein) is a fortress on the mountain of the same name on the east bank of the Rhine opposite the town of Koblenz.

It was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system, Festung Koblenz, by Prussia between 1817 and 1832 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area that had been invaded by French troops repeatedly before. The fortress was never attacked.

We are really really busy now, that my hosts are on holiday. Today we drove again about 3 hours until we arrived at our destination. At first I saw many high buildings, mostly belonging to banks.



(Ok, you're right, this isn't the highest building I've seen.)

We visited Luxembourg City today. The casemates are Unesco World Heritage.





We saw the casemates there, very impressive. The first casemates of Luxembourg had been built in 1644, during spanish rule. They were about 23 kilometers long (since 1867 only 17 km) and reach about 40 meters into the deep. Because of this fortress Luxembourg got the byname "Gilbraltar of the north".









We also visited the cathedral Notre Dame.










Then we went to see the other part of casemates, but this time we didn't go inside.

On our way home we has to refuel and because it is much cheaper in Luxembourg than in Germany, we did it there. We also bought some coffee and chocolate, but this time we waited in the car for our hosts to come back.




Then we drove back to Germany. You see the signs over the bridge.

We had a short stop at Igel to take a photo with the Igel Column, also Unesco World Heritage. The brothers Lucius Secundinius Aventinus and Lucius Secundinius Securus built it around 250 for them and deceased relatives. It shows scenes of daily life of cloth merchants and of mythology.

Then Petra had the idea to show us a great view over one of her favorite cities: Trier. Because it was early evening and we wanted to take photos, they decided to drive to St. Mary's Column on the Pulsberg. It was built from 1859-1866 in neo-Gothic style.



You have a wonderful view over the Moselle valley and Trier.








Because Petra's camera is rather good, she zoomed in, so I can show you some more Unesco World Heritage places. It was too late to go closer, I'm sorry.


Portra Nigra



Cathedral of Trier



Constantine Basilica



Kaiserthermen







St. Matthias' Abbey



Römerbrücke

Today we drove to Heidelberg.
Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg. About 140 000 people live in the city's area. It lies on the river Neckar at the point, where it leaves its narrow, steep valley in the Odenwald to flow into the Rhine valley. The river Neckar joins the river Rhine at Mannheim.

Approximately 1 000 000 years ago the "Heidelberg Man", whose jaw-bone was discovered in 1907, the earliest evidence of human life in Europe, died at nearby Mauer.

Our hosts love to take photos of the castle and the view to the Neckar. Every now and then they go there - just for some photos. They are crazy, but to tell the truth: I love Heidelberg. I lost my heart in Heidelberg - like many others before.