We just about fit! 

We were definitely not the biggest boat in the marinas around the world, but we seem supersized now compared to most of the “pleasure boats” that travel these rivers. 

Window Lady of Lohr  on our way to the old town for dinner

Snow White’s Castle?

German town brings Snow White to life

Fact or fiction? The Brothers Grimm fairytale ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ has captured the imagination of many, but history suggests that the children’s heroine was more than just a made-up character.

     Millions of people are familiar with the fairytale of Snow White: the beautiful princess whose escapes from her jealous stepmother and goes to live in the house of the Seven Dwarves. The evil stepmother tries to have her killed after her magic mirror tells her that Snow White is "the fairest of them all."

     Locals of the German town of Lohr am Main like to believe that this mirror really exists.  In fact, it is on display at the local Spessart Museum. That is because, according to some sources, the girl who inspired the fairytale lived in Lohr am Main.

     However, the true Snow White – Maria Sophia Margaretha Catharina von Erthal – was a bit different from the princess in the story. She was of noble heritage and was born in 1729 in Lohr’s castle, which today houses the Spessart Museum. She also had a domineering stepmother: Claudia Elisabeth Maria von Venningen.

     The rest of the story can also be followed in the museum, including the murder plot and Snow White’s escape through the mountains to the cottage of the Seven Dwarves. In reality, the dwarves were most likely miners – small and hunchbacked due to the terrible working conditions in the mine’s low tunnels – or children who were used as laborers.

     It is believed that Snow White’s escape route was the 35-kilometer (22-mile) hiking path through the Spessart mountain range, one of the largest deciduous forest areas in Germany. Signs along the route now give visitors the chance to learn more about the forest’s connection to fairytales.

   The tourist information office in Lohr am Main has special hiking programs on offer. It also provides information about local attractions, such as the old town with its black-and-white timber-frame houses, the historic Fishermen’s Quarter and the old town hall.

     Of course, the other must-see is the Lohr castle and the Spessart Museum, which houses a collection of mirrors from local glass manufacturers. Once upon a time, one of these mirrors may have spoken to Snow White’s stepmother.

http://www.dw.de/german-town-brings-snow-white-to-life/a-15854753

A fairy tale house; perhaps similar to the one out in the forest where the 7 dwarfs lived.

Statue of a fisherman : There is a section of Lohr called the Fisherman’s Quarter

Lovely lace decorates these windows.

Heading to the town center

Dinner with a dose of gruesome history….  But the food and wine were good.

“The half-timbered house was built at the beginning of the 17^th century…The builder was the wealthy merchant Hieronymus Wiedenweber;   also council man, and for a while, Mayor of the town.

Between 1626 and 1629 under the regency of the archbishop Georg Friedrichs von Greiffenklau  of Mainz, Lohr became the center of a wave of witch hunts.  During that time, the wealth and reputation of Hieronymus {Wiedenweber} caused much envy among the town folk who denounced him as a warlock.  In spite of the lack of prior convictions and despite his declaration of innocence — even while tortured— He was declared guilty and burned at the stake in 1627.”

His son or brother was the next owner, but after him the name Wiedenweber is not mentioned again in the history of the inn. 

Our Salem Witch Trials took place between 1692-1693

Several centuries ago, many practicing Christians, and those of other religions, had a strong belief that the Devil could give certain people known as witches the power to harm others in return for their loyalty. A "witchcraft craze" rippled through Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches—mostly women—were executed.”

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/

A smile made from human and horse shoes decorates the front of this shoe shop.

Lovely wrought iron icons as signboard for a wine seller and a bakery

Lots of ice cream shops all over Germany.  I even found some rhubarb lactose free ice cream in Miltenberg.  Once upon a time in my life I lived on broccoli, cheese, and ice cream.  But that was back in the days when I rode twice on the weekends and a couple times during the week.  Now I just mostly take a pass.  But  I like the trash can!

Helene Hanff books were displayed in Miltenberg; here in Lohr its Jojo Moyes

    Jojo Moyes is a British novelist and journalist. She is one of only a few authors to have twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association and has been translated into eleven different languages.

Sculptures in Aschaffenberg where we spent one night and walked into town for groceries and to stretch our legs.

Fun sculpture : Greeting the “Schiffer” by Martin Stein  

Stein in German means stone.    But I can’t find a translation for Schiffer.

On the river on our way to Miltenberg

This man was feeding the swans.  They are everywhere and quite lovely.  But when they take off to fly it’s the silliest thing to watch.  It’s like a jumbo jet flopping along.  They come up and beg for food and wag their tail feathers too.

Miltenberg Yacht Club where we spent one night.  We arrived at 1 pm so had time to tour the town.

Having a drink with the Harbor Master after our day in town.

We walked across the bridge to enter the  Altstadt  ‘old town.’

Zum Riesen

Gasthaus zum Riesen (center) is a beautifully restored inn that claims to be Germany’s oldest Inn. It dates from 1590, and a local historical document indicates that the owner at the time was granted the right to fell a hundred oak trees for its construction.

http://www.worldatlas.com/

The Six-Point Brewer’s Star

     For centuries, it was customary for brewers — particularly those in Europe and, later, in America — to brand or paint a six-point star on the ends of their beer kegs. And, indeed, many brewers of the 19th and early 20th centuries actually fashioned their logos to incorporate the six-point star — known as the "brewer’s star." So, what exactly does the star have to do with beer or brewing?

Of course, there has been much speculation that the brewer’s emblem was somehow descended from the Star of David — a curious match to the brewer’s star. It has even been suggested that King David himself was a brewer. But others assert that the emblem’s use by beer-makers originated independently of the Jewish Star, and has no historical connection thereto.

     The latter have some historical facts on their side. This geometric figure, which is technically called a hexagram, has existed throughout the world for several millennia, usually as a talisman. This includes the Middle East, Africa, and the Far East. The earliest appearance in a Jewish context is in the 13-16 centuries BCE, but long after that it continued in widespread use in other circumstances not associated with the Jewish faith.

     The first use of the term "Shield of David" was about 1300 CE when a Spanish practitioner of Jewish mysticism wrote a commentary on the central book of that mysticism, the Zohar. The first actual linkage of the hexagram to a Jewish community appears in the early 1300s on the flag of the Jewish community of Prague, which was designed with permission of Charles IV when he became king of Bohemia.  It is known that the star was the official insignia of the Brewer’s Guild as early as the 1500s, and that its association with beer and brewing can be traced as far back as the late 1300s.

     Whatever the case, it is clear that the brewer’s star was intended to symbolize purity; that is, a brewer who affixed the insignia to his product was thereby declaring his brew be completely pure of additives, adjuncts, etc. In fact, folklore has it that the six points of the star represented the six aspects of brewing most critical to purity: the water, the hops, the grain, the malt, the yeast, and the brewer.

(Thanks to Stroh archivist Peter Blum and Brews Brother Steve Frank.)

http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/brewerstar.shtml

Miltenberg is a major tourist town for Germans but most of the tourists I heard the Sunday we were there were from the US.  The horse and carriage reminded me of the months I worked in the stable of Lake Minnewaska  in New Paltz, New York.

Another “window lady.”

This book shop was closed so I couldn’t go in and ask about the display featuring Helen Hanff’s

84 Charing Cross Road.  It’s a wonderful book I read years ago and Randal and I visited the “address” while in London though it’s no longer a book shop.

“Miltenberg’s "Marktplatz" has several half-timbered houses, most dating to the 16th century. “

http://www.worldatlas.com/

and a small castle where we walked to see the view.

The view from Miltenberg Castle

Waiting for the green light to enter the lock.

The smaller barge on the left has just left the lock traveling down river.  The big barge on the right is waiting to enter the lock to continue up river.  There was enough room for us too so we drove into the lock after the large barge was secured.  Commercial traffic has priority over pleasure craft.  If we get to the lock first, we must wait for the commercial traffic to enter the lock and then hope there’s still room for us.  So far we’ve been mostly lucky with our timing at the locks.   One time,  when we were told it would be 20 minutes before we could enter the lock, Randal dropped the anchor to keep us in place while we waited.   Once inside the lock boats are supposed to be in neutral so as not to churn up the water with their propellars and disturb boats behind them.  But sometimes the large boats don’t tie up at all and use their engines to keep them  in position.  That makes it harder for the small boast like us to stay put even with our line secure and we dance around.   Sometimes, before we enter a lock,  Mary has to call the lock keeper on the radio to ask permission to make sure they’re aware we’re waiting to enter the lock.  Each lock and its procedure is mostly similar but also a bit different. 

The blue and white sign points “sport” boats away from the lock for commercial shipping to a small lock.  But we’re too big for the “sport” lock so we go in with the big boats. 

Depending on how many meters you must rise within the lock,  you either catch the lowest or middle cleat and work you way up until you’re tied on to the bollard on the top of the lock.

Mary, who has made this same passage several years ago, is the main rope handler.  My job is to hook our line to the lock cleat and then Mary pulls it tight.  In this photo we have one more cleat to catch before we catch the bollard on top.

Depending on the location of the yellow bollard on the top of the lock, we catch it one of three ways.  Here I have handed Randal the line and he caught the bollard and then handed the line back to Mary to tighten it on our cleat.   Or sometime I stand up on the lower rail of DoraMac and lasso the bollard.  Sometimes the bollard is too far back and out of reach so we tie up to the yellow ladder hand rail cemented into the lock.  You just have to wait until you get to the lock and start to rise up to see what needs to be done.  It is possible with a crew of just two, but much easier and safer with four.  With Mary and me working together it’s much easier to move the lines from cleat to cleat to bollard.

Eventually you rise to the correct level and the gates are opened so you can pull in the line and leave the lock.

Looking down between the boat and the walls of the lock.  To protect the boat and keep us from rubbing against the wall of the lock, Randal rigged up this board and fender device.  The board is getting beaten up and covered with green much but the hull of the boat stays safe.

When the line around the yellow bollard is just above the dock it means we’ve reached our final height.  The lock gates open, we get the green light to move ahead, Mary pulls in the line, and we move out of the lock.

Then the line needs to be recoiled and readied for the next lock. 

Cyclists waving hello at the lock

Museum Judengasse

“The exhibition is centered around the fundaments of 5 houses, 2 ritual baths, 2 wells and a part of the sewerage system of the former Judengasse.  The show documents the history of the street, its inhabitants and buildings of over 300 years.  Historical illustrations, written documents, visual and audio materials convey a picture of the ghetto from the Jewish perspective as well as the view of the Christian world outside.  A model with over 1,000 buildings gives an impression of the location of the Judengasse in the eastern part of the city.

  A database system can be used to get more detailed information on historical events like the “Fettmilch” revolt of 1614 or the burning of the Judengasse 1711, of religious institutions, the daily life and professions of the inhabitants or the development of the architecture.”

I didn’t tour the Museum Judengasse but did visit the Judisches Museum.

Judisches Museum

The Jewish Museum is accommodated in a building ranked as an historical monument the classical Rothschild Palace and its adjacent building at Untermainkai 14/15.  The building itself exemplifies the life style of the upper middle class Jewish family of the 19^th century.  In 1846 Mayer Carl von Rothschild purchased the building, which had been constructed in 1821, and enlarged.  After his death, the palace accommodated the Freiherrich Carl von Rothschild’sche Offentliche Bibliothek, a public library founded by the Rothschild family.

It was mid-afternoon but we were all pretty tired when we arrived at the museum.  I stayed to visit.  You could spend a day there but after a few hours I was exhausted so only saw bits.  But I did purchase a book about both museums which explains about the exhibits I didn’t take time to see.  

“The stairway with mirrors and coloured marble incrustations in the Renaissance style …”

Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main book

I had a handheld audio guide that told about some of the exhibits.  And some of the explanatory material was in English.  Unfortunately the video interviews with contemporary members of the Jewish community weren’t translated into English.  But the museum is aimed at the German community to teach and remind.

“At the same time as the Jews of Frankfurt were forced to move to the ghetto in the Judengasse, Jews were being driven out of most other southern German cities.  The displaced either settled in rural areas or moved to Poland.  Frankfurt was one of the few cities that did not expel its Jews.  The influx of Jews to Frankfurt from around 1550 onwards led to a considerable increase in the population of the Judengasse, making it the largest Jewish community in Germany.  ….A model of the Judengasse on a scale of 1:50 as it was after the great fire of 1711.  During this time 3,000 people lived in its cramped and unhealthy conditions in a Ghetto originally intended to house just 100.”

Jewish Museum booklet  

“The museum library is open to staff and visitors alike.  It is a reference library with more than 20,000 volumes on the subject of Judaism and the history of the Jews in Germany and Central Europe as well as films…. The archive collects works by Jewish and exiled artists from the period 1933-45.”

Jewish Museum book

The history of Jewish in Germany is as emotional as historical. Sometimes the story is told better through art than words.

The burned out Jewish homes are wrapped in the remains of a stone wall shaped as a Jewish Star. 

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/bak/intro.asp  has several pages about Bak as well as a biography including his family’s time in hiding and the nun who first encouraged his art work.

Wilhelm Wachtel (Lvov 1875-1942 USA) Painter, engraver and illustrator. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Leopold Loeffler and Leon Wyczolkowski and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (under N.Gysis). He lived in Lvov but traveled to Vienna, Paris and Palestine: 1924, 1929, and 1932. He settled in Palestine in 1936. His works of art were presented at the Society of the Friends of Fine Arts in Lvov (1900), in Cracow. He has individual exhibitions in 1935 at the Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw. Initially he painted symbolic Jewish scenes, portraits, and landscapes, later in postimpressionistic style.  http://www.farkash-gallery.com/91149/Wilhelm-Wachtel

The Judengasse on fire, 14 July, 1796

Contemporary drawing Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main.

  In the last third of the eighteenth century, the Jewish community and individual Jews wrote a number of letters to the Frankfurt city council and citizenry requesting an improvement of the living conditions in the Judengasse.  They pointed out the poor hygiene and the difficulty of educating their children to become “useful citizens.”  The council dismissed their requests.

   Military events brought unexpected change.  In the night of 13 to 14 July 1796, Frankfurt was bombarded and conquered by French troops.  The houses in the northern section of the Judengasse went up in flames.  140 houses were destroyed and 1,800 Jews made homeless.

     The fire put an end to the forced confinement in the Judengasse.  The subsequent public debate about rebuilding the houses and establishing a Jewish ghetto clearly indicate that although a few had changed their views of Jews in the course of the Enlightenment, there was no general consensus in favor of changing the socio-political situation.

     Unlike the rest of Frankfurt’s citizens, the Jews welcomed the government installed by Napoleon, expecting it to enforce equal rights for all in accordance with the regulations prevailing in France.  Instead of the anticipated introduction of equal rights, Karl Theodor von Dalberg, appointed governor of Frankfurt  by Napoleon, passed a new ordinance with 151 sections, which meant that the Jews of Frankfurt were still subject to special regulations and had to pay 22,000 guilders a year for protection.

   While all the other groups in Frankfurt approved the new regulations, the Jews railed against their enforcement with hitherto unparalleled vehemence.  In their ‘battle by pen’ they criticized the rivalry of craftsmen and merchants, the church’s fear that the foundation of the Christian state might be undermined, and the patrician classes’ interest in maintaining a social homogeneity based on lineage and wealth.

   At Napoleon’s intervention, the situation of the Jews did eventually improve.  In 1810, Napoleon established the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt and demanded the introduction of the French Civil Code, including the equality of all citizens.  After a long and difficult negotiations, a bill was passed at the end of 1811 recognizing the equality of Frankfurt’s  ‘Schutzjuden’  (protected Jews) before the law.

  In 1812, the Frankfurt Jews were finally  granted the equal rights fro which they had fought so land and at such great expense.  But by 1814, with the end of the French occupation following the defeat of Napoleon, they were revoked…… in 1864, the Jews were finally granted equal rights in Frankfurt, followed in 1869/71 by the rest of the German Reich.  A few administrative restrictions nevertheless remained in place, barring Jews from becoming military officers or professors, for example.”

Jewish Museum book

Life got better and life got worse…

In 1925 there were 30,000 Jews living in Frankfurt.  They accounted for 6.3% of the population.  Their political leanings, cultural interests, occupations and religious views were so diverse and individual that it is not possible to make generalizations about  Jews in the Weimar Republic.”

Some whose photos are shown here : Social worker and feminist Bertha Pappenheim, an Orthodox woman; the German nationalist Arthur von Weinberg; the painter Jakob Nussbaum; a class of girls at the Orthodox Samson Raphael Hirsch School; Alwin Kronacher, who was an influential figure in the arts and culture of Frankfurt, and the fencer Helene Meyer, who won a gold medal for Germany in at the 1936 Olympics.

I was particularly fascinated by this photo of Erna Pinner and photographers Nini and Carry Hess

I listened to the audio presentations about Pinner and the Hess sisters (no photo of the Hess sisters)  and had I time would have listened to all the stories which were fascinating and but mostly tragic.

The artist and writer Erna Pinner died on 5 March in London aged 97. She was born in Frankfurt, the daughter of a well known surgeon.  Lovis Corinth, a friend of Geheimrat Pinner, invited Erna. then 18, to study with him in Berlin.  Between 1911 and 1914 she completed her studies at the Academic Ransson in Paris under Maurice Denis. At the outbreak of war she returned and began her systematic study of animals and animal behaviour at the Frankfurt Zoo. In 1917 her life-long friendship with the expressionist writer Kasimir Edschmid began. Erna Pinner entered the circle of young expressionists of the Darmstddter Sezession. Her studio became the meeting place of the group, including the

poets Theodor Daubler and Else Lasker-Schuler,the writers Carlo Mierendorf and Rene Schickele,

also the philosopher Theodor Adorno.  In 192() she contracted polio, the after effects of which handicapped her for the rest of her life.

Determination and self-discipline became the source of her courage and great energy. She survived the turmoil of the inflation years through the creation of near life-size puppets, often

Portraits of her friends.  Some of these famous creations are illustrated in Das Puppenbuch (The

Book of Puppets) published in 1921

For the publisher Erich Reiss in Berlin she illustrated Das Blumenschiff (The Flower Boat)

by Klabund in 1921 and her own picture book Das Schweinebuch (The Book of Pigs) in 1922.

Particularly fruitful became her collaboration with the printer and typographer Pepy Wiirth of

Darmstadt with whom she produced from 1923 onwards ten books in limited editions.

During the 1920s and early ’30s Erna Pinner travelled with Edschmid around the world, to Africa and South America, Arabia, and several times to Greece, Spain and Italy. These years of travel and adventure are reflected in the books Edschmid and Pinner made together, richly illustrated with lithographs and etchings. Eine Dame in Griechenland (A Lady in Greece) 1927, and Ich reise um die Welt (I Travel Around the World) 1931, combine her lively texts with a wealth of illustrations. Here she developed a strong graphic style achieving the balance between naturalistic observation and linear

abstraction which gave her work precision and atmosphere. Annual exhibitions of her work were

held at the Flechtheim Gallery in Berlin and her articles and illustrations appeared in the magazines

Die Dame and Der Querschnitt.

This stream of creativity was interrupted by the Nazi persecution of the Jews.  In 1935, Erna

Pinner was able to settle in London. Her entire oeuvre which she had to leave behind was

destroyed.

At 45 she At 45 she started her second career. The Director of the London Zoo, Julian Huxley, who

knew and admired her German work, helped her to get commissions to write and illustrate books

on natural history. Meeting Henry Moore in 1936 gave her much needed artistic encouragement.

Her drawings changed towards a more naturalistic style, the animal figures acquired more

volume, detail and texture. Her wood cuts and lithographs of that period show the high degree of

her artistic and technical abilities. Her collaboration with the zoologist G. M. Vevers and the ornithologist Ludwig Koch led her towards more scientific work based on her own observations of animals in the wild and in  captivity. Two books summarizing that research

were published by Jonathan Cape, London – in  1951, Curious Creatures and, in 1955, Born Alive.

These works were again beautifully illustrated by Erna Pinner and translated into many languages.

Together with her friends in exile, among others Richard Friedenthal, Gabriele Tergit and Elias Canetti, she joined the PEN Club of German authors in exile. With them she was one of the first to reach across to Germany after 1945.  Her correspondence with Gottfried Benn at this

time bears witness of her great humanity and understanding.

Erna Pinner lived long enough to see the achievements of her generation reinstated and given a place of honour in German culture. In 1960 she received the Bundesverdienstkreuz.  She still continued working and writing until she was 90. Only her last seven years she called her ‘retirement’. Her great age was a gift not only for herself but to her friends as well.

http://www.ajr.org..uk/journalpdf/1987_may.pdf

The Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit) is officially called the Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany). It is Germany’s only general decoration. This Federal Order of Merit was created on 7 September 1951. Between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year in all classes. http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesverdienstkreuz

http://www..amazon.co.uk/  is the Erna Pinner page at Amazon

  “In the years between 1914 and 1933 numerous significant personalities in art, culture, politics, society and sport met in the photographic portraiture studio of Nini and Carry Hess. With their technical and aesthetic brilliance, the sisters were among the leading photographers in Germany of the time. In the 1920s their photographs essentially stamped the image of Woman. Their long collaboration with the Städtischen Bühnen Frankfurt (Frankfurt city theaters) resulted in the portraits of numerous actors, both in the roles they played and in their own person. These included Albert Bassermann (1867–1952), Elisabeth Bergner, Carl Ebert (1887–1980), Heinrich George (1893–1946), Paul Graetz (1890–1938), Gerda Müller (1895–1951), Leontine Sagan (1889–1974); the composers Paul Hindemith (1885–1963) and Leos Janacek (1854–1928), and the authors Thomas Mann (1875–1955), Fritz von Unruh (1885–1970) and Carl Zuckmayer (1896–1977)………

Like many of the artists working in the field of Frankfurt theater, Nini and Carry Hess were compelled to terminate their collaboration with the theaters in 1933. Carry’s attempt to develop a new professional life in Paris proved a failure. In the winter of 1938–1939, after the SA (the Nazi Sturmabteilung; Storm Troopers) destroyed the studio, including all its technical equipment and the archives of negatives on November 10, 1938, she fled to the South of France, where she survived the war in hiding. In 1942 Nini Hess was deported and murdered in Auschwitz. After World War II Carry Hess returned to Paris, but was unable to resume work because she was blind in one eye. In 1957 she received reparations and a pension from the authorities in Wiesbaden (Germany). She died in Chur on August 17, 1957, while on vacation in Switzerland. Only a few of the original photographs taken by Nini and Carry Hess survived the Nazi period in private collections, museums and archives. “

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hess-nini-and-carry-hess

A “memorial” with the names of nearly 11,000 German Jewish citizens  who have been deported from Frankfurt and murdered commemorates the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust.

A display about survivors and displaced persons camps, many who later emmigrated to what would become Israel, the USA, England, Australia, Argentina…

  “As early as the end of April 1945, a municipal facility was set up in Frankfurt for Jewish survivors, and with the return of the last community rabbi from Theresienstady in July of the same year, a synagogue community was established.  This community joined with the committee of Polish Jews set up by Eastern European refugees in Frankfurt, and in 1949 the Frankfurt Jewiish community that still exists today was founded.”

Jewish Museum book

Special temporary exhibit

Fritz Bauer – Der Staatsanwalt

10. April – 07. September 2014

“Fritz Bauer was born 1903 in Stuttgart. He emigrated from Germany to Scandinavia in 1936 after having been forced to resign from his work as a jurist and interned in a concentration camp.  In 1949, he returned to Germany to participate in building a democratic society. He was a pioneer in reforming penal law and the prisons system. He strove to enable young criminals to be resocialized, and he constantly reminded the judicial administration of its social responsibilities.

     In 1952, as district attorney in Brunswick, he defended the right of resistance against National Socialism. In 1959, after becoming Hessian State Attorney General, he had an essential part in the capture of Adolf Eichmann and set the stage for the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial which took place 1963-1965. This trial evoked for the first time in Germany a wide public response and a readiness previously lacking to confront recent German history.

     In 1968, in the midst of preparations for a further trial of the desk murderers among the National Socialist judicial administration, the bureaucrat  perpetrators responsible for euthanasia crimes, Fritz Bauer died. The trial never took place.

     The Fritz Bauer Institute is committed to the memory of Fritz Bauer, the democratic German legal reformer who initiated the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Fritz Bauer considered the Auschwitz Trial a way for German society to use the legal system as an opportunity for self reflection, to "put ourselves on trial and to learn about the dangerous factors in our history."

http://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/institut.html?&L=1

I have no idea but they’re cute….witches hats!

Same rice, different languages.

Mr Quick by Ottmar Horl 1999

Main train station Frankfurt

A coin operated  model train set

I remembered the name Willy Brandt but didn’t remember that he’d won the Novel Peace Prize in 1971    

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1971/brandt-facts.html

“The Altstadt (old town) is a city district of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the Ortsbezirk Innenstadt I.

     The Altstadt is located on the northern Main river bank. It is completely surrounded by the Innenstadt district, Frankfurt’s present-day city centre. On the opposite side of the Main is the district of Sachsenhausen.

     As the historical center of Frankfurt, the Altstadt has existed from Frankfurt’s beginnings, dating back to 794 (first mentioning of Frankfurt). It used to be part of the original Innenstadt area, which lay inside of the city walls, the Staufenmauer. Only very small sections of the Altstadt were rebuilt after World War II and so only a few old buildings are actually preserved. The Altstadt contains many of Frankfurt’s most important sights, including the Römerberg plaza with the famed Römer city hall and many other middle-age style buildings which are mostly actually reconstructions.  Nearby is the St. Bartholomäus Cathedral and the Paulskirche, the short-lived seat of the German National Assembly in 1848-49.

     The Dom-Römer Project is a current reconstruction project for the old town quarter between the Römer square and the Frankfurt Cathedral. “

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altstadt_(Frankfurt_am_Main)

I was really disappointed to find it mostly a reconstruction and am not sure how I feel about that.  I think I’d rather just see images in a museum than walk through what seems more like an “amusement park.”

The present-day Frankfurt Cathedral was originally a Carolingian chapel. Although called a cathedral since the 18th century, it never was an episcopal church in the true sense.

With the relocation of the coronation ceremonies for Holy Roman kings from Aachen to Frankfurt in 1562, the monastery received the honorary title of "cathedral", which has remained to this day.

On 14 August 1867 a fire ravaged much of the cathedral. Soon thereafter, the cathedral was comprehensively reconstructed in neo-Gothic style under the supervision of Franz Josef Denzinger.

Air raids at the end of Second World War once again badly damaged the cathedral. Reconstruction work lasted from 1950 to 1953.

http://www.frankfurt-tourismus.de/cms/tourismussuite/en/

Mary lighting a candle

The organ seemed quite amazing

An example of the art work

This was a fun shop of 20^th century “stuff.”

Interesting gallery window display.  I liked the “man woman” painting.  It’s a man with a beard and mustache facing forward / a woman in profile also sharing the eye on the right.

The bridges weren’t bike or baby carriage friendly but the walking/biking paths were lovely

A landmark just near the marina reminded me of the Gherkin in London.

Randal and Michael swapping stories

A pose with Dora Mac

Walking across the river to the festival of food and music!

Michael said the place was quite crowded earlier but perhaps the drizzle chased them away.  Or we were too early for the evening crowd.  The group sang American pop music.

We probably had enough food for 6 but it was all gone by the end.    I ate my share of the ribs for sure but not that whole plate.  Though I could have!  They tasted good and there’s not so much meat on them.  I’ve pretty much given up meat but who can resist ribs right off the grill.

Not the best evening for ice cream but Randal wanted a banana split and Michael knew just the place.  I helped Randal just a bit with his.  Just a bit.

A photo of a duck and a distant landscape?  That’s what it looked like to me until I looked at the next photo and saw it was a reflection of the dock.  The ducks eat the growth on the docks and on the boats.

DoraMac in Bingen

We spent one night in Bingen and met a lovely couple Frank and Hilde (short for Hildegard) who had come to the marina to look at a boat that was for sale.  (Not ours.)  They have a small fishing boat and a red corvette now but have decided to sell both to buy a bigger boat to travel the rivers with their two teenage children.  We have given them our email and who knows, maybe one day they will visit us in Virginia.  We also met a very lovely Danish FedX pilot in Cologne who spent an evening with us.  His wife and children live on the Fareo Islands as does he on his weeks off.   But he has a floating home that acts as his base when he is flying. One of the best parts of travel is meeting people along the way who are willing to share their hopes and dreams.

DoraMac is past the arrow up river so we did a bit of walking to get to town.

I’m including this for our pal Sharman and the memory of a very funny day in North Cyprus. 

We drank coffee in the plaza and watched the locals.

Images of Bingen

I think Bingen has a connection to carnival but we never could find out exactly what it was all about.

Several painted buildings.

Street art

We had to climb down the spiral stairway to get across the railroad tracks back to the river.

As we left St Goar we encountered these white bars

“In certain parts of the river Rhine, luminous white bars advise upstream vessels about the presence of downstream traffic ahead.” EUROREGS For Inland Waterways

  Depending whether the bars are horizontal or angled you know if or how to proceed. 

Bacharach was the centre of the Rhine wine trade in the later Middle Ages. Vines had been cultivated on the lower slopes since Roman times, and this expanded greatly from the 10th century onwards. Some 3000ha of vineyards were under cultivation by 1600, five times as much as at the present time. The Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) witnessed a substantial decline in viticulture, the land being converted partly into orchards and partly into coppice forest. The 14th-16th centuries were the golden age of art in the Middle Rhine, which saw the convergence of artistic influences from the Upper Rhine (Strasbourg) and the Lower Rhine (Cologne). Gothic masterpieces such as the Werner Chapel above Bacharach, the Church of Our Lady in Oberwesel, and the former collegiate church of St Goar date from this period.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1066

Small towns and castles along the Rhein or Rhine….

Backed up to the hillside

Dams to slow the flow of the river

The Alexandra came a bit too close for comfort

Generating electricity

Rows of homes are built along the river, below the mountainsides

You can cycle along the rivers all the way to Turkey…and at times go much faster than we do. 

http://www.bikemap.net/en/route/219964-amsterdam-to-istanbul/#gsc.tab=0

Not sure how this quarrying fits into the UNESCO Heritage Site

Workmen cleaning the red and green channel markers.  Green on our right and red on our left.

A gruesome example of a hanging cage and depending what you read people were either already dead and put in there for show or were put in there to die.  Yuck.