Germany by rail. Destination #3 - Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
Location of photos
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1. We took a very-late-night train from Offenburg and arrived at Karlsruhe a short while later.
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2. After renting our car, the first place we toured was the famous castle.
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3. Then we had lunch at a downtown cafe.
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4. We visited a museum.
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5. And drove through a university.
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6. We then continued to tour some of the older parts of the city. Karlsruhe was founded only in 1715, so it doesn't have the quaint Medieval center that many German cities do, so "old" is a relative term.
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7. More older sections. We sat in this little park for a bit and watched the women walk by.
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8. Then drove around through some more quaint, old, inner city areas.
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9. The geometric patterns of some streets were wonderful!
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10. But all this driving around still made us hot - the heat wave continued! We went for a quick swim at another local pool, located in the shadow of a power plant.
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11. Afterward, I implored Hans and Frans to drive me through some of the industrial districts so I could get my fix. Reluctantly, they agreed. We drove by the port and saw kayakers kayaking amid the giant freight ships!
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12. Afterwards we drove around and saw some more industrial-commerical areas.
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13. And some more residential areas.
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14. I learned that Karlsruhe contained Germany's largest oil refinery - I soooo badly wanted to see it to get my industrial fix! Hans and Franz laughed, but drove me there anyway. Such complex brutality! I love it!
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15. They were tired of my industrial fixes, so afterwards we drove through some quaint neighborhods.
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16. And another one.
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17. We also drove through some forests surrounding the city.
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18. And back in the city, we saw some apartment blocks which almost appeared to be set amid a forest!
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19. Towards the end of the day we passed through some more areas where fields directly abutted the town.
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20. As did the industrial areas.
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21. We had an early dinner at the sidewalk cafe at the top of this shot.
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22. And retreated back to the center of town, where our hotel was. We went to a pub that night and got real drunk (again)!
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23. The next morning we drove through some outskirts of town. Unfortunately we didn't find the hills with vineyards we found in Offenburg.
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24. So we headed back toward town.
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25. I wasn't sure what this strange building was - a castle? Some old government building?
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26. At any rate, it was still hot so we decided to get some drinks at Wal-Mart.
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27. And got some gas.
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28. We drove past a university.
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29. And some more modern housing.
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30. The next day was Sunday, so we went to church here.
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31. Afterward I insisted on seeing some more industrial areas.
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32. But Hans and Franz wanted to head back to town.
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33. We passed through some residential areas.
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34. And saw some fairly large Schrebergarten.
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35. However, some of the apartment and townhouse blocks did have their own, English-style gardens in their backyards.
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36. And some of the Schrebergarten abutted much bigger "gardens!"
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37. This was a newer development which also had their own gardens as well as a nice, formal layout.
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38. But of course, back in the center of town, most people don't have a garden at all.
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39. I couldn't think of a good caption for this picture.
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40. But I got more of my big-industrial building fix with this picture!
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41. And this one, too!
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42. Late in the afternoon we took one last drive through some neighborhoods and had sauerkraut and bratwurst at a neighborhood restaurant.
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But early the next morning our time was up. Once again we need to move on. Next stop is Mannheim. All aboard!
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