June 3rd, 2017 – Rossdorf and Miltenberg, Germany
Today, after we dropped off Trent and Carolyn off at the airport, Elisa and I decided to head out to a beautiful Rhine River town of Miltenberg. It is a very well preserved example of medieval German construction. The homes / buildings in this town date from 1339. The town square is so quaint, it has been featured in a number of different films. You can practically hear the “clip, clop” of horse hooves on the cobblestones streets. It takes us about an hour to get to Miltenberg from the airport. We zoom down the autobahn at what I think is a high rate of speed when I’m passed like I’m standing still by a number of Audi’s a Porsche and a few Benz’s. Oh well, our Ford Galaxy mini-van goes pretty well now that its only hauling around 2 pudgy Americans instead of 4 and not to mention we are not sans one Moby sized suitcase.
We pull into Miltenberg and once again Minerva is with us. A car pulls out of a space in a free parking area. For once we won’t have to pay to park. Elisa and I stroll along the banks of the Rhine, where we are met and entertained by a group of swans. They must assume we have something to feed them because one swan inparticular starts to make a fuss with the others to make sure he is at the front of the line should some bread crumbs or corn flakes suddenly appear. Unfortunately, we disappoint our floating friends and they quickly depart to the next set of people strolling along the river.
Miltenberg’s roots date back to pre-Roman civilizations around 150BC. Many items and artifacts dating from the bronze ages were discovered in and around the current city. Around 1BC to 12AD Romans would establish settlements near current Miltenberg. Roman baths and artifacts and coins have been discovered in the area. However the city would take on its current footprint starting around 1200. A large castle was built here and the town would spring up around it. Elisa has read that the town of Miltenberg was famous for making violins, but we see little evidence of that as we stroll through the streets and look in the shops. We take a break for lunch at a local eatery – the KostBar. They specialize in organic and home-made foods. We have a nice meal that is a little like breakfast and lunch combined.
After our lunch, we stroll over to the Miltenberg Museum that is situated at one end of the really lovely and well preserved town square. The Museum costs 4 euro for adults (no senior discount) but it is very nicely done and it is easy to spend a couple of hours looking at everything. Regretablly all the displays are only in German, but I’m able dust off my German language skills and make out the gist of the various displays. What I cant read and understand I simply make up and share it with Elisa – I hope she doesn’t read this blog. The displays in the museum share artifacts dating back from the early Bronze Age to the time of Roman settlement to the time as a city of the HOly Roman Empire, to the Middle Ages and into modern times. There are stones, sculptures and parts of bath houses that date to Roman times, there are coins from the same era. The museum is laid out inside of three old homes build between 1520 and 1720. As you make your way through the museum they have left parts of the buildings exposed so that you can learn about how the buildings were constructed. This is very interesting and something I haven’t seen at other museums.
It is heading toward 3:00 pm and we have an hour drive back to our apartment near Darmstadt. So we head home. Both Elisa and I are a bit wiped out. Neither of us slept well and we are a little bummed about losing our travel buddies. So, to show how bad we are without them, we promptly head home and take naps. We’ve only managed to get in 3-½ miles of walking in. We’ll have to get back on track. Later in the evening we head into the nearby town of Darmstadt and have dinner at Ban Thai, one of the areas best rated Thai restaurants. Our expectations were low, but they needn’t be, the food is excellent. Maybe, there’s an upside to Trent and CArolyn not being here – for once we order a reasonable amount of dinner and we don’t over eat. We even have left overs to bring home for dinner tomorrow night.
Well that’s all for tonight. Tomorrow we are visiting Heidelberg and catching up with an old friend of Elisa’s who she hasn’t seen in over 38 years. It should be fun.
Aufwiedersehn!
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