Beiträge von Bond James Bond

Germany by rail. Destination #14 - Jena

JENA

KingKrunch in SSP told me a couple things in this narrative aren't correct. Oh well, I don't feel like changing them.

Location of photos
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/6116/jenamapsx3.jpg

1. About a half-hour after we drove from Weimar we approached Jena.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/584/jena1iu5.jpg

2. Going toward the center city we passed through some residential neighborhoods.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2849/jena2pg6.jpg

3. And then we arrived downtown! There was an awesome skyscraper rising above the entire city!
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7162/jena3zp2.jpg

4. We stopped by our hotel and dropped our things off. We then began to wander around downtown. The old part of the city wasn't nearly as nice as some of the other cities we had seen, but it was pleasant nonetheless.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1237/jena4jr3.jpg

5. We wandered to the north part of downtown and ate at a cafe for lunch.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/6037/jena5kj9.jpg

6. We then went back to our car and drove east across the river.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4002/jena6dj5.jpg

7. There were some commie-blocks.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4513/jena7of6.jpg

8. And some nice, older flats and houses.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/1978/jena8rn5.jpg

9. We got to the far eastern edge of the city and decided to take a side road up a hillside. Neat, tidy houses hugged the roads.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2640/jena9op2.jpg

10. Afterwards, we headed even farther east but started to hit the countryside and some Shrebergarten. So we turned around and headed back to the city.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/9563/jena10di2.jpg

11. We passed back through downtown and then went to the university, just west of downtown. You almost could hardly tell it was a university, it blended in pretty well with the rest of the city.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8761/jena11xh7.jpg

12. To the south we drove through some more older residential neighborhoods.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5277/jena12uy3.jpg

13. And came across a large industrial area, featuring the facilities of the Schott Corporation.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/7545/jena13gy2.jpg

14. Some more Schott facilities.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/2516/jena14hp8.jpg

15. And to the south was a new office park.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4164/jena15df6.jpg

16. We then continued south in search of a place to eat dinner. Alas, nothing here.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/2796/jena16um1.jpg

17. Certainly nothing here! A large power plant.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/5246/jena17dq5.jpg

18. Some ultra-commie blocks!
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/8532/jena18gq9.jpg

19. Nothing to eat here, either. Just an industrial area.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/8461/jena19sw3.jpg

20. We were really starting to get hungry. Surely there must be a place in this direction we can eat at!
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7668/jena20hv4.jpg

21. Well, finally we hit the southern part of town and decided to cross over the river on the freeway and head back north. Unfortunately, we hit some major traffic related to a construction project. I could not figure out what this thing they were building was! It looked like another 2 lanes of freeway, but there was a tunnel . . . which didn't go under anything! It was just an above-ground tube with a road going through it! These crazy Germans!
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5104/jena21ob9.jpg

22. As we passed some more commieblocks, the traffic got AWFUL!! Compounding our misery was the fact that we were starving!
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7646/jena22rj4.jpg

23. Finally we hit an intersection and the traffic cleared up. So we headed back north toward the city center. It was a big mistake going down this way!
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2898/jena23fj0.jpg

24. Finally! We encountered a quaint little village that had some restaurants. We had some weiner snitzel and brats at a nice German restaurant.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/56/jena24rn7.jpg

25. Our tummies filled, we headed back north to our hotel, passing another cute village on the way.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/9555/jena25so1.jpg

26. And some more Shrebergarten.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/4386/jena26is5.jpg

27. And a sports complex.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/227/jena27xt6.jpg

28. And a nice neighborhood with fancy houses. We drove for a short while to look at some of the houses, then headed back to our hotel to call it a night.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/7716/jena28nz7.jpg

29. The next morning we decided to head out east near where we had left the previous day. Apartments hugged the winding roads.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9406/jena29hr8.jpg

30. We reached a little town at the far eastern end and had breakfast there.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7029/jena30va7.jpg

31. Then we headed back toward the city center. Next we decided to check out the northern parts of town.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7724/jena31ta5.jpg

32. North of downtown there were some unremarkable residential areas.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8173/jena32lx9.jpg

33. As well as some industry.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4485/jena33wa4.jpg

34. And some nicer residential areas with houses and flats. Something began to take shape on a construction site.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6136/jena34ri4.jpg

35. Sandwiched between some nondescript industrial areas was this nice little neighborhood.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7141/jena35gg9.jpg

36. And to the north of that, some new apartments were being built.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9255/jena36ed5.jpg

37. Finally, we crossed the river to check out yet another cute little village. We had a late lunch here, then decided there was not much more to see.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/9568/jena37xv7.jpg

38. So we headed south back to the Autobahn only to hit . . . more traffic.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6219/jena38fs4.jpg

Germany by rail. Destination #13 - Weimar

WEIMAR

Couldn't be bothered writing a narrative for this one.

Location of photos
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/2007/weimarmapvk6.jpg

1.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/1345/weimar1ps5.jpg

2.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3589/weimar2hs0.jpg

3.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/562/weimar3fn1.jpg

4.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/2549/weimar4iu5.jpg

5.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/3113/weimar5rh2.jpg

6.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1763/weimar6jw2.jpg

7.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6738/weimar7pw1.jpg

8.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9980/weimar8hg3.jpg

9.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6122/weimar9yz4.jpg

10.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6917/weimar10uc6.jpg

11.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/8264/weimar11ll3.jpg

12.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6307/weimar12nu5.jpg

13.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/4986/weimar13gb0.jpg

14.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/1827/weimar14dx8.jpg

15.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/4843/weimar15vz8.jpg

16.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2920/weimar16so7.jpg

17.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3130/weimar17in9.jpg

18.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/7015/weimar18ac3.jpg

19.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1200/weimar19sz2.jpg

20.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1719/weimar20ho0.jpg

21.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/4643/weimar21ct9.jpg

22.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/6489/weimar22ka5.jpg

Germany by rail. Destination #12 - Erfurt

ERFURT

Location of photos
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/3783/erfrutmapmb5.jpg

1. A couple hours after we left Bamberg we arrived at Erfurt. At last, we were in the former East Germany! They were building a new train station.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/4431/erfrut1nr4.jpg

This and the next 3 cities we were to visit were all very close to one another, so we decided to rent a car here and drive to the next 3 destinations rather than take the train to each.

2. Like all the other cities, Erfurt had a quaint and glorious downtown, though to be sure this one wasn't as quaint and well-preserved as Bamberg. We went to our hotel in a quaint building downtown and picked up our car rental nearby.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5362/erfrut2gm3.jpg

3. It was Sunday, so we went to a late mass at the chuch.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/315/erfrut3yx5.jpg

4. There was an old military fort, pretty well preserved.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4061/erfrut4ou1.jpg

5. In the north end of downtown there was a stream running through some apartments.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2578/erfrut5pl0.jpg

6. Even farther north, the housing patterns became more geometric.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5773/erfrut6lg0.jpg

7. We headed north in our car to go sightseeing, passing by some sort of college.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9553/erfrut7qj6.jpg

8. Across the street from that was some sort of medical facility.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4611/erfrut8kt5.jpg

9. Finally, as we approached the far northern parts of the city, we arrived in . . . COMMIEBLOCK HEAVEN!!
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6007/erfrut9bc8.jpg

10. More!
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/8957/erfrut10ph1.jpg

11. But not everything up here was commieblocks
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9132/erfrut11wn4.jpg

12. As we headed to the east several blocks, we came across an area where it appeared they had been tearing down old stuff and building new stuff.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6691/erfrut12nk7.jpg

13. It was starting to get late so we headed south again. On the way we passed some flats which had solar panels on their roofs, and plenty of Shrebergarten around.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/817/erfrut13kc3.jpg

14. There was also some industrial areas here. Already I had been struck by how much underutilized land there was here in the former East Germany compared to most of the cities we had seen in the west.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6308/erfrut14ne7.jpg

15. In fact, there was so much extra land available, they had more than ample room for vast areas of Shrebergarten.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9345/erfrut15rf5.jpg

16. The next morning we decided to continue our trek out toward the eastern parts of the city. We drove past some new subdivisions being built.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/5886/erfrut16so6.jpg

17. And father east, a quaint outlying town. We had breakfast here.
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4681/erfrut17hk1.jpg

18. Afterwards, we decided to turn around and head back toward the city. Farther east was just farms. We passed an industrial/commerical area.
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/1641/erfrut18dh6.jpg

19. And then headed south, passing through another quaint town. With more Shrebergarten.
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2730/erfrut19lt7.jpg

20. We continued south, passing through some farms, and then still another quaint town.
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3680/erfrut20ar7.jpg

21. And headed east, passing through yet another cute town. We stayed here for a short while, walking around and enjoying the nice weather.
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3296/erfrut21xb0.jpg

22. Hans had noticed on our map some more outlying towns and neighborhoods to the southeast of the city, so we decided to continue in this direction. Here was one we passed through.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/1746/erfrut22di5.jpg

23. And another.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5876/erfrut23qk5.jpg

24. We also passed by another (I think) hospital.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/2746/erfrut24pk8.jpg

25. Some boring average stuff.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3057/erfrut25ky1.jpg

26. Some highrises and lowrises.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/2406/erfrut26wy6.jpg

27. And as we got toward the center of town again, we finally got back to some nice, old stuff.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/9861/erfrut27gm3.jpg

28. To the west of that were some nice neighborhoods with fancy, expensive houses.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/101/erfrut28ix2.jpg

29. And even farther to the west was another neighborhood center. We had dinner at a small restaurant here. The food wan't really very good.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/9593/erfrut29ks0.jpg

30. After a night at a downtown pub and a near-score on an attractive but slightly chunky German blonde, late the next morning we headed to the far south to check out a certain village where this woman said she worked. We went to the restaurant where she said she worked, but alas, she was not there that day. Oh well, we had bruch there anyway.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/568/erfrut30jz8.jpg

31. Afterwards, we headed north to check out yet another quaint little town.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/3898/erfrut31iv2.jpg

32. In contrast, just south of the airport was a modern new development going up. It looked rather odd seeing this relatively dense, central-city style office park right out in the middle of nowhere.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/6173/erfrut32wq4.jpg

33. But just to the west of that we got back to old quaintness.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/9519/erfrut33vr6.jpg

34. And another.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/9931/erfrut34av9.jpg

35. Some more Shrebergarten.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4461/erfrut35dr5.jpg

36. Typical fields
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/5669/erfrut36jp5.jpg

37. And a neighborhood center which featured newer housing mixing harmoniously with the old.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1781/erfrut37it1.jpg

38. At the western edge of Erfurt proper there was a large grain silo.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1504/erfrut38me2.jpg

39. And back into the city itself. We got gas here.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/355/erfrut39ul0.jpg

40. And then drove north, passing through some residential areas.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/3396/erfrut40zu8.jpg

41. And some industrial areas.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9985/erfrut41nm0.jpg

42. On the other side of the outer loop freeway was an outlying town which had a large flower nursery. We stopped here and walked around for a bit, checking out all the pretty flowers.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4685/erfrut42vs8.jpg

43. Afterwards we drove north some more, until we reached this town.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/974/erfrut43pu1.jpg

44. Then we turned around and headed back toward town, passing by a new industrial park.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2218/erfrut44dh4.jpg

45. It was late in the afternoon, but we passed by the zoo and just couldn't resist! We spent almost 2 hours here.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3747/erfrut45wj6.jpg

I especially liked the elephants.
http://www.zooelefant.de/zoos_…rfurt/csami_seronga_t.jpg

46. Afterwards, we drove through an area just south of the zoo which had some houses and commieblocks.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/4132/erfrut46oj8.jpg

47. To the east was some new industrial thingy being built.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/6853/erfrut47fc0.jpg

48. Just to the south, as we headed back downtown, more industry.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/4172/erfrut48he4.jpg

49. And still more.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/9687/erfrut49gn9.jpg

50. Near the industrial area there was a huge area of Shrebergaren.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/8494/erfrut50ci4.jpg

51. But it was now time to go. We stopped by our hotel to pick up our stuff, checked out, and drove east toward Weimar.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3402/erfrut51rs8.jpg

Germany by rail. Destination #11 - Bamberg

Bamberg

Location of photos:
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/195/bambergmapob2.jpg

1. About a half hour after leaving Nuremburg we arrived at Bamberg.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9454/bamberg1sr4.jpg

2. We dropped off our things at our hotel and, as usual, began to explore the Medieval heart of the city. As usual, it was magnificent - in fact, it was a UNESCO World Heritage City. But . . .
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9840/bamberg2dc8.jpg

. . . By now they were all starting to look pretty much the same, and their impact on me began to lessen. I was almost disturbed by this feeling of mine -- it was like, "Ho hum, another fantastically quaint city center." I was no longer awed by all this beauty. If you're surrounded by constant beauty, does it cease to become beautiful? As we walked about, I asked Hans and Frans.

"Don't you guys ever get bored of all these quaint towns? I mean, they're quaint, but there's so many of them. I feel like I'm going from one Disneyland fairy tale place to another, and it almost doesn't seem real, and I'm not so awed by them anymore as I was the first few places we went to. It's only when we get to the modern areas and the industrial areas do I feel like these are real, working cities and not some theme park!"

They pondered my question a bit, then finally Franz said, "I suppose you get accustomed to them, but that doesn't mean I don't think they're beautiful, because they are."

Hans then remarked, "You probably have a point. I don't think I truely appreciated how quaint German cities can be until I went to America!" He chuckled, as did Franz and I.

3. Anyway, this was a small city, so we foresaked the car rental and decided to get around via public transit and walking. We walked a bit south of the city center, exploring some more neighborhoods.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6629/bamberg3mu7.jpg

4. After having an early dinner, we then got onto a random bus which brought us to the southern parts of the city. We went by a park.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/4499/bamberg4eb9.jpg

5. The bus then went west and passed through some residential areas.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/11/bamberg5ca2.jpg

6. And some more.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/8758/bamberg6cq5.jpg

7. And then ended up in the small town of Vildensorg. We had coffee at a cafe here, then took a bus back to the city center and our hotel, and we called it a night.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/8062/bamberg7yj1.jpg

8. The next morning we ate breakfast at a cafe near our hotel and decided to rent a car after all. We first drove west and passed through some more newer residential areas. After this there was nothing but farms to the west, so we turned around and headed back east.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/7205/bamberg8oz5.jpg

9. And passed by some new construction north of downtown.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/6051/bamberg9ss2.jpg

10. And we also drove past the port. A barge was unloading its cargo.
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/6927/bamberg10fo7.jpg
Scenes like this, as I said, did me the service of reminding me that Bamberg was a real, working city. Perhaps that's why I derived so much pleasure in seeing the large industrial areas!

11. To the north was a sewage treatment plant and some more industry.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1046/bamberg11tj9.jpg

12. But, alas, the mundane landscapes could not last forever. We passed over the river and encountered still another quaint little town.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3199/bamberg12de8.jpg

13. We continued west for some while but there was only farms and woods. So we headed back over the river, taking the freeway to the north side of town.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/299/bamberg13ye1.jpg

14. We took an exit off the freeway and encountered - you guessed it - another quaint little town.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4108/bamberg14kx9.jpg

15. Heading west on a rural road we saw another.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7823/bamberg15jy2.jpg

16. Beyond that town there was nothing but more farms, so we got back onto the freeway, passing by a large industrial area.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2265/bamberg16zp4.jpg

17. We got off the freeway shortly afterwards and got onto a country road.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8650/bamberg17ao0.jpg

18. And encountered - surprise! - still another cute little town. It was lunchtime now so we stopped at a restaurant here for a bite.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2187/bamberg18zw9.jpg

19. After we finished lunch we drove farther east on the country road and encountered - *yawn* - yet another cute little town.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/167/bamberg19lk9.jpg

20. We drove south across the freeway and passed through yet another one.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9527/bamberg20va9.jpg

21. Finally we got to one place we had wanted to visit - Seehof Palace, which dates from 1686. We spent about an hour touring it. Beautfiul!
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9595/bamberg21tz4.jpg

22. After touring the palace, we drove back toward the center of town, passing by some new apartments that had solar panels on their roofs.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2057/bamberg22iw9.jpg

23. And, farther in, some mundane residential areas. At this point I remarked to Hans and Frans that I noticed a large Bosch plant on the south side of the freeway that we had passed earlier in the day, but I did not get a picture of it. So we made a detour north.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/8324/bamberg23ki0.jpg

24. And I got my picture of it to add to my industrial facilities collection.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/8324/bamberg24oa0.jpg

25. It was late in the afternoon and we didn't want to drive around too much anymore, so we headed back to the center of town, passing through some more residential areas.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/3525/bamberg25du2.jpg

26. It was warm that day, and even late in the afternoon there were still people in the swimming pool.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6213/bamberg26ac9.jpg

27. And almost back to our hotel we passed by a strange grain silo. Or, at least it used to be a grain silo. I couldn't tell if it was still one or not! Anyway, we retired to our hotel and Hans and Franz watched another football game that night while I wandered around downtown, window shopping.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/4469/bamberg27lk8.jpg

28. The next morning we were looking at a map of Bamberg as we ate our breakfast. I noticed there was a town called "Bug" to the south of the city. I just *had* to see what a town called "Bug" looked like! Well, no surprise, it looked like a zillion other small towns in these parts.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/8302/bamberg28yh5.jpg

29. Today was a momentous day for Hans - he was due to get his casts off his that he received in his Munich accident. So we stopped by the hospital so that Hans could undergo his procedure. It turned out that he only sustained a few minor fractures, hence, why the casts could come off so soon!
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/3992/bamberg29zk0.jpg

30. While me and Franz were awaiting Hans to finish his stay at the hospital, we decided to drive around some more. We first drove through some farms north of the city.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4382/bamberg30qx4.jpg

31. And then passed through a cute neighborhood north of downtown. We then went to pick up Hans at the hospital, ate dinner, had beers at a pub downtown and hit the sack for the night.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/8949/bamberg31ya3.jpg

The next morning we handed in our car rental and headed back to the train station: It was now time to go to Erfrut! Bamberg was our 11th city, so we're halfway through our tour. And now, for most of the rest of the trip, we leave what used to be West Germany and head for what used to be East Germany. This should be interesting.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/8614/bamberg32ks1.jpg

I got them here:

http://local.live.com/ <-- Only works well with Internet Explorer

I'll fix the thumbnail ones, didn't notice that.

Germany by rail. Destination #10 - Nuremburg

Nuremburg

Location of photos.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7496/nuremburgmapxc3.jpg

1. About an hour after departing Munich, we arrived in Nurembug.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4322/nuremburg1lo8.jpg

2. Once again, after we dropped our things off at our hotel, we explored the old center of town and ate lunch in the plaza. I took an extra-big photo of it for you to enjoy!
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1971/nuremburg2ya6.jpg

3. This was more of the area. That was our hotel, on the right.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7452/nuremburg3nh0.jpg

4. After a while the sun began to peek out.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2619/nuremburg4cz9.jpg

5. There was some construction going on northeast of the town center.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2002/nuremburg5ph5.jpg

6. We then rented a car and started driving around. The sun was out fully now, and throngs of people were crowding a public swimming pool and the neighboring river.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6237/nuremburg6lz7.jpg

7. There was a generous supply of Schrebergarten throughout the city.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3783/nuremburg7ux3.jpg

8. Some modern stuff.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2637/nuremburg8gh2.jpg

9.And more Schrebergarten. There was easily more here than in any city we'd been to yet.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4070/nuremburg9pk7.jpg

10. We passed through a residential area.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6894/nuremburg10vk3.jpg

11. But it was getting late, so we headed back toward the center of town. We had dinner at our hotel, watched a football game on TV and called it a night.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5964/nuremburg11qb8.jpg

12. The next morning we got up and headed to the northwest. We passed some newer apartments that we really . . . orange.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5622/nuremburg12zc3.jpg

13. There were farms - including lots of greenhouses - right near the city.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/8382/nuremburg13bw9.jpg

14. And an IKEA!!!
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/783/nuremburg14yy0.jpg

15. We passed some more residential areas abutting an industrial park.
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5987/nuremburg15sr6.jpg

16. And after we drove some more, we encountered the first of several quaint outlying towns.
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/218/nuremburg16br4.jpg

17. Another one. We ate lunch here.I felt at home in my lederhosen.
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/373/nuremburg17vc8.jpg

18. After we finished lunch, we headed east and passed another industrial area.
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5723/nuremburg18sf8.jpg

19. And encountered yet another quaint little town.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/1499/nuremburg19ga9.jpg

20. Yet another one was located to the north of the previous one.
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9830/nuremburg20ty5.jpg

21. And to the north of that was yet another one.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4351/nuremburg21rs6.jpg

22. We got back on the highway and passed yet another industrial area.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5108/nuremburg22yk8.jpg

23. And when we got off the freeway we passed through still another cute town. I was almost starting to get bored of them!
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/2432/nuremburg23qq6.jpg

24. We got back on the freeway again and encountrered some construction.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1073/nuremburg24vp8.jpg

25. And then came to still another quaint little town. Yawn.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6687/nuremburg25nn8.jpg

26. We began to head north toward the city of Erlangen, which is to Nuremburg something like what Tacoma is to Seattle. We passed another commercial/industrial area. By now I was almost welcoming these drab landscapes, it was a way to remind me that I wasn't in some fairy tale land!
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/2591/nuremburg26bj6.jpg

27. The highrise apartment blocks were similarly a welcome sign that not all was fairy-tale land here.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4479/nuremburg27dj6.jpg

28. And office parks like this, too.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/8418/nuremburg28lv3.jpg

29. Finally we arrived in Erlangen. The center of town was mostly - surprise! - a quaint fairy-tale place. But a big construction site and a giant smokestack from a power plant gave it some welcome humility.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/837/nuremburg29tm0.jpg

30. There was a large park in the center of town which was surrounded by fantastic old buildings.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9320/nuremburg30he6.jpg

31. We headed east in search of still more quaintness and found this place. Franz had to take a piss really bad, so we got out of the car and he pissed in the fields!
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7008/nuremburg31wy2.jpg

32. We decided not to head too far east and turned back west. We drove through this exclusive neighborhood.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6250/nuremburg32ny3.jpg

33. We crossed over the river and saw some sheep in a field.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5486/nuremburg33fc9.jpg

34. A short while later, a large highrise dominated a suburban town.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/760/nuremburg34hr1.jpg

35. More suburbs.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/928/nuremburg35bb7.jpg

36. And some brand-spanking-new stuff.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/8598/nuremburg36bg1.jpg

37. It was late in the afternoon and we decided to head back south toward Nuremburg proper. On the way we hit yet another quaint town with yet another little waterfall. We ate dinner here and called it a day.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/6934/nuremburg37ul3.jpg

38. The next day we headed toward some of Nuremburg's western suburbs. Here was a town along a river.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7119/nuremburg38lh8.jpg

39. And here we saw something I had wanted to see at the outset of my trip: An amazing engineering feat - a waterway "bridge" passing over a road! A small solar farm was located on a hill next to it.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6316/nuremburg39ci6.jpg

40. After seeing the bridge, we began to follow the path of the waterway - which was actually a man-made canal - and passed by a large factory. A part of it had solar panels on the roof.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6212/nuremburg40tb6.jpg

41. Farther west was yet another quaint town, where we had brunch.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5875/nuremburg41yn3.jpg

42. Afterwards we headed back east.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6718/nuremburg42ze8.jpg

43. Passed over a stream.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/483/nuremburg43eu0.jpg

44. And got to the town of Furth. More quaintness.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/3444/nuremburg44kl7.jpg

45. To the south there was some old and new mixed together.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9519/nuremburg45er0.jpg

46. And nearby, a large industrial area. Beautiful!
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8706/nuremburg46rq8.jpg

47. There were some Schrebergarten right next to the industrial area.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4171/nuremburg47xj1.jpg

48. And there were even some Schrebergarten next to the alien pyramid!
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/5084/nuremburg48cq1.jpg

49. Almost right in the middle of the urbanized area were some fields.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/2407/nuremburg49yt7.jpg

50. More of the industrial area.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/1051/nuremburg50yj2.jpg

51. And some residential near the industrial area.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/237/nuremburg51xb1.jpg

52. There were some older industrial buildings which were still in use - sort of.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9439/nuremburg52ag8.jpg

53. But Hans and Franz got tired of my fixation on industrial architecture and other mundane things, so we headed toward the center of town again. This was south of where we were after we first got here.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/906/nuremburg53kt7.jpg

54. But I was driving and managed to sneak in another industrial fix!
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/59/nuremburg54se5.jpg

55. Schrebergarten could be found just about anywhere. Also in this part of town was a relative rarity in the cities we'd been to so far: Sizeable expanses of underutilized land.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4504/nuremburg55xr7.jpg

56. We passed by the sports complex.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6840/nuremburg56om1.jpg

57. And more Schrebergarten. Speaking of sports, the face of a football player donned the side of a highrise.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/8918/nuremburg57jq4.jpg

58. It was starting to get late but we decided to drive around just a little more. We passed through some more residential areas abutting some industry.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/502/nuremburg58sv7.jpg

59. As well as a 60's-era development. Brave New World!
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7936/nuremburg59pu5.jpg

60. Once we saw this we decided it was time to head back to the center of town and eat dinner. Once again we merely ate at our hotel.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/4558/nuremburg60ia0.jpg

61. We got up early the next morning and checked out of our hotel. We had originally planned to catch the train to Bamberg first thing in the morning but decided to drive by just a few more areas first. We had breakfast at a cafe here, east of downtown.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/1807/nuremburg61ht0.jpg

62. And we continued east, paralleling a river.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5193/nuremburg62ha7.jpg

63. We stopped our eastward progression once we hit a mall.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5470/nuremburg63rr0.jpg

64. On the way back toward the center of town we passed through still more fancy neighborhoods.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1365/nuremburg64cf8.jpg

65. We were talking about the waterway we had seen yesterday and I begged Hans and Franz to let me see the port. So we drove a ways southward, here it was.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5126/nuremburg65oo0.jpg

66. Nearby was an average suburban town.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7527/nuremburg66yp4.jpg

67. And another Modernism-era development.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1411/nuremburg67ic0.jpg

68. More suburbs.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7150/nuremburg68cb4.jpg

69. And still more.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1264/nuremburg69cj7.jpg

70. To the northwest of that was, finally, a quaint little town. We had lunch here.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4283/nuremburg70no8.jpg

71. At this point we decided we would catch a much later train to Bamberg than we originally planned. It was overdue to turn in our rental car too, but oh well.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5654/nuremburg71vx6.jpg

72. The other day we had briefly passed by an agricultural area between Nuremburg and Erlangen. We decided to investigate more of it. There were quite a lot of greenhouses!
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9826/nuremburg72bo4.jpg

73. And more farms.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3226/nuremburg73rc6.jpg

74. And still more farms.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7786/nuremburg74sk9.jpg

75. And more greenhouses around another cute town!
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4995/nuremburg75cg6.jpg

Well OK, it was fairly late in the afternoon. We turned in our rental car and headed to the train station. And now on to Bamberg!
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2525/nuremburg76zg2.jpg

^
I originally did. Read the moderator's comment at the bottom of the post.

Germany by rail. Destination #9C - Munich, South

MUNICH - South

Location of photos
http://img453.imageshack.us/im…236/munichsouthmapbb8.jpg

1. The next day we decided to explore the southern part of the metropolis. We began by driving to the southeast, through some residential areas.
http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/9748/munichsouth1ue9.jpg

2. There were some new apartments being constructed.
http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/2247/munichsouth2yy1.jpg

3. There was quite a lot of this.
http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/8940/munichsouth3uz6.jpg

4. And a lot of this, too.
http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/910/munichsouth4mc3.jpg

5. We drove past some more farms.
http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/1795/munichsouth5tw8.jpg

6. And still more residential areas. The southern parts of the city were dominated by lower-density residential areas.
http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/3151/munichsouth6nr0.jpg

7. But there were some commercial and industrial areas, too.
http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/3596/munichsouth7bj1.jpg

8. We had brunch at a deli here.
http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/1926/munichsouth8xw4.jpg

9. And then drove past some offices.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7690/munichsouth9jp8.jpg

10. Another cute little neighborhood center, bordering some fields. There was a place here we wish we had stopped and ate brunch at instead of the place we actually did eat at. Oh well.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/8050/munichsouth10oi8.jpg

11. We drove north, passing through still more residential suburbs.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5159/munichsouth11ba2.jpg

12. And a modernistic office development.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4599/munichsouth12og0.jpg

13. Another new housing development was going up here, with a very formal layout.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/706/munichsouth13vf6.jpg

14. As we drove north, we got a bit closer to the center of the city again, and hit some interesting neighborhoods. Here was a cute church nestled amid some houses and apartments.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6453/munichsouth14qt6.jpg

15. But not everything was cute.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8877/munichsouth15mi5.jpg

16. We passed some people playing tennis. In the cities here in Germany, I noticed how prevalent clay courts were compared to the green asphalt ones which dominated in America.
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8030/munichsouth16rq3.jpg

17. We took a left and drove past some more apartments. At this point we were just driving around sightseeing, with no particular destination in mind.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/5602/munichsouth17ld0.jpg

18. Close in to the city center, we passed some *really* drab apartment blocks.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4214/munichsouth18fs6.jpg

19. But eventually arrived in some nicer neighborhoods again.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/5013/munichsouth19nd8.jpg

20. This appeared to be a school of some sort. I think.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/6964/munichsouth20ax4.jpg

21. We drove south along a major road, passing by some woods on our left. We saw deer, bears, lynx and moose in the woods. At one point, an elf stopped us at a traffic light, asking for directions.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9091/munichsouth21hh1.jpg

The elf looked similar to this:

22. After driving for a bit after giving the elf some directions, we encountered this little village center here, and stopped for some coffee. It was too quaint for words.
"I feel like I'm in a ski village," I said to Hans and Franz as I sipped a cappucino. They laughed. It did look like a ski village here, they admitted. So did several other village centers we passed through.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/7189/munichsouth22ec4.jpg

23. After stopping for about a half-hour, we crossed over the freeway and drove north again, passing more low-density residential areas.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/446/munichsouth23fq6.jpg

24. We continued north, passing this school (or whatever it was) here. Fields interrupted the built-up areas, as usual.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/6884/munichsouth24kp2.jpg

25. More residential areas.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7089/munichsouth25fr7.jpg

26. And another cute church nestled amid some houses and apartments.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/2173/munichsouth26fl5.jpg

27. We took a right on a certan road, and passed by a soccer ball atop a sports bar.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/8401/munichsouth27jg3.jpg

28. And some more apartments.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/7168/munichsouth28jy2.jpg

29. And still more apartments. This part of town is pretty boring, Frans remarked. We all agreed.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/3139/munichsouth29so5.jpg

30. Nevertheless we continued on.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/6267/munichsouth30pn7.jpg

31. Here and there we saw more solar panels atop people's roofs.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/233/munichsouth31vx0.jpg

32. More apartments.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/359/munichsouth32dr9.jpg

33. And more houses and duplexes. It was interesting to see in these German cities how much duplexes and quadroplexes were mixed in with the single-family houses.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/3392/munichsouth33ux7.jpg

34. It was so boring here that Hans started going insane and jumped out of the car while we were going 80kph. He broke several bones, but fortunately we were right near a hospital.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1999/munichsouth34bl3.jpg

35. While Hans was in the hospital getting his broken bones set, me and Hans drove around some more. We passed yet more apartments.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/6122/munichsouth35vs4.jpg

36. And some industry.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1883/munichsouth36mi4.jpg

37. Another village center had the vague feeling of a ski town. The Alpine-style of some of the buildings gave it that look.
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/4484/munichsouth37qp5.jpg

38. There was a small castle surrounded by a small moat.
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/5283/munichsouth38xe9.jpg

39. And nearby was a more modern town center.
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/8136/munichsouth39ui5.jpg

40. After circling through a rural road, we turned around and passed through another woods. It was time to pick up Hans in the hospital. Here we nearly ran over a moose which was being ridden by two elves. The elves cursed at us furiously. We shot back. After all, it wasn't our fault.
"Control your damn moose!" screamed Franz.
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/8038/munichsouth40gh4.jpg

41. On the way back to the hospital we passed through still another town center.
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/1177/munichsouth41fc2.jpg

42. And drove north on the freeway, back to the hospital to pick up Hans. He was bandaged, but OK.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/3811/munichsouth42bo6.jpg

43. So we got back on the freeway and headed back to our hotel. We had originally planned to stay one more day, but with Hans' injury we decided to go early. By now we had pretty much seen everything anyway.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6382/munichsouth43pt1.jpg

The next day it time to head on. Nuremburg, here we come!
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8238/munichsouth44gv3.jpg

^
In my thread for Mannheim I explained why I didn't go to Heidelburg.

Note to the moderators: I'm not sure how to deal with thumbnail images. If it's not OK to even show thumbnailed images, please replace it with the image link alone. Thank you.

Germany by rail. Destination #9B - Munich, North

MUNICH - North

Location of photos
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3325/munichnorthmapbu4.jpg

1. The next day we decided to see the outlying areas of the city, so we rented a car. We began the morning by driving east, through some residential areas that mixed with some fields.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/1931/munichnorth1wa2.jpg

2. Further out there was a moderistic office park.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/9498/munichnorth2no5.jpg

3. We drove south in search of a place to eat breakfast (which at this point was almost brunch). We discovered a nice little neighborhood center here and had coffee and pastries at a little restaurant.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/7319/munichnorth3yc9.jpg

4. We also passed by this immense modernistic facility!

5. South of that were some more modernistic offices.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6862/munichnorth5jb5.jpg

6. And even a modernistic park.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/124/munichnorth6jj5.jpg

7. We headed toward the northwest and again passed through the area where farms and towns mixed. Lovely!
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1449/munichnorth7mh4.jpg

8. More of that.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2275/munichnorth8le5.jpg

9. Then as we got toward the river, we once again passed some modernistic highrises. The design of one foreshadowed the Olympic Village we would see later on.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8472/munichnorth9sy9.jpg

10. We began to drive south toward the center of town again, but decided to turn around because we'd already seen most of the city center. We turned around at this housing complex here.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9315/munichnorth10fb0.jpg

11. We proceeded up the road which paralleled the river and, quite a ways north, encountered yet another quaint little town center. Here I picked up another pair of lederhosen, and stopped by a wine store to ship some wine to my mother in the states.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3471/munichnorth11js3.jpg

12. Immediately east of the quaint town center was yet another ultramodern office complex. At this point we decided to drive north toward the freeway. We got on the freeway and headed west, when all of a sudden we saw . . .
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6898/munichnorth12uf4.jpg

13. An alien spaceship!!!!
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/4981/munichnorth13mw3.jpg

14. We desperately wanted to escape the alien invaders so we headed south as fast as we could! We took refuge in this nondescript neighborhood here.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8330/munichnorth14nm6.jpg

15. And then also killed some time in this nondescript commercial/industrial area here.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/7513/munichnorth15fi8.jpg

16. After we had hung out in the industrial area some more, Hans suggested that, since we had not seen any epic battles and laser beams shooting from the sky, perhaps the aliens had departed and we could safely proceed.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/140/munichnorth16sz8.jpg

17. So we set our sights on one of the 2 BMW plants in the city, passing through this nice residential area on the way.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9731/munichnorth17vo3.jpg

18. And here was the BMW facility. It was glorious!

19. We decided to head to the north freeway again, passing by these highrises.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/7260/munichnorth19tl1.jpg

20. When we got on the freeway, we passed a farmer plowing his land. Traffic on the freeway was light, and people were driving insane speeds! This was the Autobahn, after all.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9725/munichnorth20rv2.jpg

21. Continuing on the freeway, we passed another modern commerical/industrial area.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1157/munichnorth21jq9.jpg

22. Then we decided to get off the freeway in search of a place to have a (late) lunch. But we couldn't find anything good here.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2044/munichnorth22pq4.jpg

23. Nor did we find anything here.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/6210/munichnorth23xe2.jpg

24. So finally, in desperation, we got some ready-made sandwiches at a convenience store here.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3955/munichnorth24pb1.jpg

25. Afterwards, we headed east and passed by a huge rail yard.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2482/munichnorth25mn6.jpg

26. Nearby were some new houses going up.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/1964/munichnorth26rl0.jpg

27. To the east of that were some commieblocks.
"What's a commieblock?" asked Hans.
"You don't know what a commieblock is?" I said.
"No, I'm afraid not. Is that what these things are called? I always just called them apartment flats."
I shook my head. "I thought everyone in SSC and SSP knew what a commieblock was!"
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/4782/munichnorth27yw7.jpg

28. We continued east, heading back toward the city center. We passed the 1972 Olympic Village.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8109/munichnorth28tb9.jpg

29. Across the street from that was BMW's main plant. Fabulous!

30. In a park to the south were more Olympic facilities.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5016/munichnorth30hj6.jpg

31. And to the east was a university. We walked around the campus for a bit.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6263/munichnorth31be8.jpg

32. It was starting to get late, so once again we began searching for a place to eat. There was nothing good here.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9088/munichnorth32uq9.jpg

33. But a few blocks to the south we found some good places here.I had steak for dinner, and the pounds continued to pile on.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5633/munichnorth33vp3.jpg

34. Afterward we passed through some more old neighborhoods, ones we hadn't seen yet. This was not far north of our hotel so we had a couple beers at a pub here. Frans tried hitting on some woman and would have succeeded if Hans hadn't gotten drunk and threw up on the woman's pants!
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1803/munichnorth34em9.jpg

35. The next morning we got up quite late, in large part due to Hans' hangover. We headed west from our hotel and drove by an area where old and new met.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1453/munichnorth35rn7.jpg

36. On our way to visit another palace we passed through some really fancy neighborhoods.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/1176/munichnorth36kh2.jpg

37. Finally we arrived at the Nymphenburg palace. Beautiful! We spent more than 2 hours touring it. It was filled with beautiful artwork and exquisite furniture and decorations.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/7118/munichnorth37wh9.jpg

38. Afterwards we decided to more-or-less drive around aimlessy. Hans still wasn't feeling well from the previous night (we tolerated him in the palace), so we decided to make the rest of the day rather low-key and just drive around. We went north from the palace and drove through here.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/7986/munichnorth38fz7.jpg

39. Went west and drove through this neighborhood here.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8472/munichnorth39ny0.jpg

40. We started to head north but realised we were getting near an area we had been through yesterday (when we ate the ready-made sandwiches in desperation).
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5558/munichnorth40hl6.jpg

41. So we went farther west and passed an industrial area.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/5356/munichnorth41zd7.jpg

42. And some more residential areas. At this point we decided to head back toward town.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3766/munichnorth42ao0.jpg

43. On the way we noticed the residential areas started getting denser once again.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3207/munichnorth43pw7.jpg

44. Unless you went away from the main road.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3334/munichnorth44ck7.jpg

45. In fact, there were even some farms interspersed between the towns or neighborhoods.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/5835/munichnorth45nt0.jpg

46. Hans was starting to feel a little better, so we had an early dinner at a cafe here. I ate light this time, having just a salad with some fish. All of us refrained from drinking.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/2171/munichnorth46nr1.jpg

47. Afterwards we headed back toward the center of the city where our hotel was, passing some boring apartment blocks. I noticed they were fixing some of them up.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8928/munichnorth47cq2.jpg

48. We even saw some Schrebergarten right near the western end of the city center. These things seemed to pop up just about anywhere! But finally we got to our hotel and called it a night.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/903/munichnorth48ze9.jpg

Nice!

Germany by rail. Destination #9A - Munich, Central

MUNICH - Central

Location of photos
http://img128.imageshack.us/im…8/munichcentralmapbx6.jpg

1. About 40 minutes after leaving Augsburg, we arrived in Munich. The train station was huge!
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5653/munichcentral1re6.jpg

2. We had planned to stay here about a week, far longer than any other stop. So we first dropped our stuff off at the hotel and once again I donned my lederhosen . . .
http://www.2travelandeat.com/i…allemagne/lederhosen2.jpg

. . . and my hat.
http://www.2travelandeat.com/i…agne/chapeau.bavarois.jpg

We then headed out to walk around. We first visited the fabulous City Hall and the Church of Our Lady.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3550/munichcentral2ol5.jpg

3. We then passed by the National Theater.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/7076/munichcentral3pj5.jpg

4. And walked through some of the twisting Medieval streets.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/8814/munichcentral4ln2.jpg

5. And passed by the Hofgarten.
http://img481.imageshack.us/im…360/munichcentral5ej5.jpg

6. There were some grand old buildings.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5479/munichcentral6xz3.jpg

7. And some grand residential areas to the north. We had lunch at a cafe here.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/976/munichcentral7qb0.jpg

8. Afterwards, we walked through the park.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6301/munichcentral8ey0.jpg

9. And emerged at the west end of the park where an arch and the library greeted us.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7333/munichcentral9ct4.jpg

10. By now it was mid-afternoon and we spent the next few hours touring the large art galleries and museums found west of the park.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5358/munichcentral10gy0.jpg

11. After looking at the art, we headed west several blocks and had brats, beer and sauerkrat at a restaurant here. I felt like a real native in my lederhosen!
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/276/munichcentral11gf8.jpg

12. After dinner we walked around a little more, then went back to the hotel and called it a night.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/6520/munichcentral12dx8.jpg

13. The next day we got up bright and early and began walking about again. We headed west from our hotel and passed by a large construction project.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8030/munichcentral13sn3.jpg

14. It was Sunday, so we headed south and went to church.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4396/munichcentral14mv5.jpg

15. Afterwards, we walked through some residential areas.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2903/munichcentral15wf5.jpg

16. And some more. We had lunch here.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1822/munichcentral16js8.jpg

17. Next we went to the German Museum, and spent a few hours touring the science and technology exhibits.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1148/munichcentral17ni1.jpg

18. Afterwards we walked south along the river, passing the Bavarian state parliament building.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3825/munichcentral18cz4.jpg

19. And then we headed east a few blocks to see yet another glorious cathedral.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/7298/munichcentral19na3.jpg

20. For dinner we ate at a restaurant in another lovely residential area. We stayed in this area for the rest of the night, stopping a a pub to get really drunk!
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3799/munichcentral20tt8.jpg

21. The next moring we decided to continue exploring northeast of the city center. Another heat wave had begun, and we decided to spend a bit of time at the public swimming pool.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4760/munichcentral21az3.jpg

22. Afterwards we continued north where we encountered some beautiful old houses.
http://img517.imageshack.us/im…32/munichcentral22ag7.jpg

23. As well as some nondescript apartment blocks. Here, as in other parts of the city, we noticed that a new transit line was busily being built.
http://img252.imageshack.us/im…29/munichcentral23ab1.jpg

24. To the north we encountered some really modern buildings, and at this point decided to head back toward the river and some older parts of town.
http://img506.imageshack.us/im…48/munichcentral24em2.jpg

25. Much better! Here we had brunch.
http://img506.imageshack.us/im…65/munichcentral25hs8.jpg

26. We then decided to catch a bus and head south, since we hadn't been there yet. We passed by some industy. "Oh, let's stop here! I need my industrial fix!" So here we got off the bus.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/8340/munichcentral26wc3.jpg

27. Going back north there were some more grand streets and residential areas.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3847/munichcentral27dp9.jpg

28. But farther to the east it got boring.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/767/munichcentral28pu6.jpg

29. And even more boring.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3741/munichcentral29mo1.jpg

30. We hopped on a bus again and went several blocks south. We began to encounter some neighborhoods which almost looked like American single-family towns. I began to feel out of place with my lederhosen.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/2065/munichcentral30um6.jpg

31. And to the east was just some more nice, but nondescript, residential areas.
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/8941/munichcentral31dc4.jpg

32. So once again we hopped on a bus and headed west in search of some more interesting areas. It was almost time for dinner and we needed to find a nice place to eat. We found an Italian restaurant here and had an early dinner.
http://img257.imageshack.us/im…96/munichcentral32kj2.jpg

33. After dinner we walked around the neighborhood for a while. I had already gained 5 pounds on this trip and needed to burn some calories!
http://img257.imageshack.us/im…11/munichcentral33xr8.jpg

34. And this was more of the same area. Finally it was getting dark and we headed back to our hotel for the night.
http://img257.imageshack.us/im…60/munichcentral34jk9.jpg

35. The next morning we headed south along the river again on a bus. We had breakfast at a cafe here.
http://img257.imageshack.us/im…87/munichcentral35am4.jpg

36. Then we headed northwest to see some more nice residential areas.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/4572/munichcentral36dd8.jpg

37. More of the same area.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8185/munichcentral37uq9.jpg

38. To the north there was yet another large cathedral. And immediately to its west was an immense open plot of land which appeared to be some future construction area. We couldn't figure out what was going to be built here.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/931/munichcentral38gf5.jpg

39. We hopped on another bus and headed south again, to check out an area we had not quite reached. It was nice, but unremarkable.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5582/munichcentral39rg8.jpg

40. So we headed toward the river again and caught a bus heading back north. Yesterday we had passed near some modern new buildings northeast of the old town but didn't see them up close.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8976/munichcentral40as8.jpg

41. So we headed there to check them out. We ate in a restaurant here. Businessmen in suits were everywhere.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/7134/munichcentral41yc5.jpg

42. To the northeast, we saw an industrial building with solar panels covering the roof.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/9568/munichcentral42xk4.jpg

43. And to the south across the railroad tracks was some more modern commercial development.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/6442/munichcentral43il8.jpg

44. It was getting late in the afternoon, so we headed back to the center of town along the river. We passed by the falls.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/6118/munichcentral44gd5.jpg

45. And went back to our hotel. We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant that night.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/107/munichcentral45uo8.jpg

Hmm, I didn't know hotlinking wasn't allowed.

Keinesfalls dürfen im Deutschen Architektur-Forum Landkarten oder Stadtpläne direkt eingebunden werden. Weder ganze Pläne, noch Ausschnitte von Plänen, gleichgültig ob abgeändert oder original, gleichgültig ob per Hotlink direkt oder per Bild-Host indirekt. Gewisse Rechtsanwaltskanzleien gehen nämlich gezielt auf Suche nach in Foren eingebundenen Stadtplänen oder Landkarten und verschicken dann Abmahnungen, verbunden mit Kostenrechnungen in schwindelerregender Höhe.

Landkarten und Stadtpläne sind stets urheberrechtlich geschützt. Solche Grafiken dürfen nur eingesetzt werden, wenn diese selbst erstellt wurden oder, nachweislich und im Beitrag kenntlich zu machen, unter einer Public License (beispielsweise GNU) stehen. Links sind in der Regel ebenfalls zulässig.

Entsprechendes gilt für Songtexte aller Art.

However, these aren't really "maps," they're aerial photographs. Whatever.

Germany by rail. Destination #8 - Augsburg

Augsburg

Location of photos
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/8859/augsburgmapzy8.jpg

1. About 40 minutes after departing Ulm, we arrived in Augsburg. The countryside on the way had been beautiful!
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/605/augsburg1uc8.jpg

2. We arrived fairly early and, once again, began exploring the Medieval heart of the city and ate at a cafe in the central plaza. By this time I had seen so many of them I began having philosophical musings on all this fairytale-ness. There seemed to be almost an unreality about the place.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/426/augsburg2un8.jpg

3. But, perhaps fortunately, not all of the centers of these cities were Medieval fairytale-ness.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5452/augsburg3va3.jpg

4. Augsburg, like many other German cities during WWII, had been heavily bombed. A first, a largely unsuccessful RAF raid in 1942 had targeted an engine factory and caused relatively little damage. But another raid in February 1944 was much larger and caused considerable damage. But walking through the heart of the old town, you would almost never know it!
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/6394/augsburg4dn4.jpg

5. Since we were now in Bavaria I had an annoucement to make to Hans and Franz.
"I simply must buy some lederhosen!" I said.
They laughed, and we found a shop selling traditional Bavarian clothing. Once again we booked a room in a small, quaint downtown hotel. While we dropped our luggage off into our room, I shut myself in the bathroom to change clothes. I emerged fully dressed in my brand-new Bavarian outfit!
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3461/augsburg5cd5.jpg

This is what my new lederhosen looked like. I decided I would spend the rest of the day wearing them, and I would also wear them on other days, too. I wanted sooo much to look like a real Bavarian!

http://www.2travelandeat.com/i…allemagne/lederhosen2.jpg

I also bought one of these hats:

http://www.2travelandeat.com/i…agne/chapeau.bavarois.jpg

Franz had great misgivings about my new travel clothes. He seemed quite . . . embarassed . . . to have to be seen with me. Too bad!

6. We explored more of the city center. It was fairly extensive.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/52/augsburg6ih7.jpg

7. Later in the afternoon, we rented a car and began touring more of the city. We passed some modern areas near a river.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3482/augsburg7ip8.jpg

8. Augsburg used to be the center of Germany's textile industry. A few old textile mills had been preserved.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/6489/augsburg8fc1.jpg

9. We drove east, passing over the river, wondering if we'd see another quaint suburb with orange roofs, as we had in the other cities. This particular one turned out to be nice, but more modern and unremarkable.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/7314/augsburg9el7.jpg

10. Same with the area immediately to the south.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/4481/augsburg10ji7.jpg

11. So, we decided to head back north again, passing through some industrial areas.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/5458/augsburg11lq8.jpg

12. And some more nice-but-newer residential areas.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/3240/augsburg12ys0.jpg

13. East of that we passed by a modernistic office/commerce park.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/5356/augsburg13ik3.jpg

14. And passed through yet another nice-but-newer neighborhood.
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/7913/augsburg14ra1.jpg

15. Finally we reached a point along this side of the river where the built-up area was about to run out. While it was nice here, it was hardly tourist material. So we got on the freeway and went back west, over the river.
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/953/augsburg15jc3.jpg

16. Once we went over the river, we encountered more of the same.
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/6931/augsburg16dt9.jpg

17. So we stopped here to get gas and grab some sandwiches at the deli in the grocery store. As we walked the aisles, I had a constant smirk on my face at the stares I was getting from my lederhosen. Franz kept a safe distance behind me, not wanting to be associated with me. Hans, for his part, thought it was all rather amusing.
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/7182/augsburg17my1.jpg

18. After snacking, we proceeded north again to seek out some quaint outlying towns. While these were nice with the usual German touch, once again, they weren't particularly noteworthy.
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/6775/augsburg18gd1.jpg

19. On a whim we decided to head father west along a semi-rural road instead of getting back on the freeway. We encountered this little village at the edge of the countryside. It was just a tad bit quainter than the areas to the east. I began to feel a bit more at ease here, dressed as I was in my Bavarian outfit.
"Wouldn't it be a shame if I bought these Bavarian clothes and all we saw were modern towns?" I said to Han and Franz. They glanced back at me (I was in the back seat), regarding me strangely.
"We'll look for more quaint towns, if it makes you happy," chuckled Hans. Franz shook his head back and forth, in disbelief at the spectacle I was creating.
I also noted several houses and buildings in this little hamlet with solar roofs.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/8018/augsburg19vf1.jpg

20. We headed south along a country road and encoutered yet another little town. It was fairly modern, but still quaint. It appeared that the west side of town was a bit nicer than the east.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/338/augsburg20gu6.jpg

21. But, alas, there were modern and mundane areas here, too. At least this new apartment complex made an effort to be quaint.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9981/augsburg21at6.jpg

22. So we decided to head still farther west and explore some of the urban-rural interface, as we had done in the previous cities. Some areas were reasonably charming.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/2259/augsburg22rb7.jpg

23. While others weren't.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9076/augsburg23ga0.jpg

"Well," I said. "Here I am, dressed in my lederhosen expecting to be overwhelmed with quaintness. But outside of the central city, it's been nice but rather mundane."
"Don't worry," said Hans, "there are plenty more places in Bavaria where you and your lederhosen will fit right in."

24. So we drove back toward the center of the city. We saw a huge water tower.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9919/augsburg24cg9.jpg

25. And some more nice-but-unremarkable neighborhoods.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/5811/augsburg25tw1.jpg

26. Here and there we did encounter some neighborhoods which were semi-quaint.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6268/augsburg26ku6.jpg

27. But many that weren't.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/3562/augsburg27hw0.jpg

28. And some that were a mixture.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/4927/augsburg28kn9.jpg

29. In the southwest quadrant of the city we encountered a new development which attempted to be fairly quaint. And, I admit, it sort-of seemed to succeed.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/1011/augsburg29qm3.jpg

30. We drove into it to take a closer look. I was fascinated by the large, steep roofs.
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/3239/augsburg30xz8.jpg

31. It was getting late in the day, but we still searched some more for some quaint, older towns on the outskirts of the city. We did find something I had never seen in the US before - houses built directly underneath major transmission lines.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1231/augsburg31qc7.jpg

32. Finally, late in the afternoon we discovered a small town which was reasonably quaint. We parked our car and walked around. At last I felt my lederhosen was being put to good use! While exploring a small gift shop we actually saw another man wearing lederhosen! I was so excited! Hans laughed, but Franz shook his head in disgust once again. We then found a cute little restaurant serving Bavarian specialties and had dinner. I had some Schweine Schnitzel and Kassler Rippchen with a Bratwurst and potato salad on the side. A local German brew (whose name I couldn't begin to remember!) washed it all down.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6229/augsburg32cy0.jpg

33. Before heading back to our hotel, we made one last drive through more western neighborhoods and encountered some more nice neighborhoods.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9626/augsburg33sr1.jpg

34. And this.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9953/augsburg34ks9.jpg

35. And this.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3540/augsburg35lc2.jpg

36. And this. But it was almost dark - time to head back to the hotel!
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8377/augsburg36ef2.jpg

37. The next morning we had breakfast at a cafe in a neighborhood north of downtown. I insisted on wearing my lederhosen again. In fact, I just might buy another pair if we pass another place that sells it, I said!
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3236/augsburg37tm0.jpg

38. Afterwards, we headed north and passed through some in-city neighborhoods which were a mix of old and new.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/988/augsburg38mr8.jpg

39. And immediately west of downtown there were some boring apartment blocks. We looked at our street map and realized there weren't many areas north, west and east of the city we hadn't yet ventured into. So we went south.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/9442/augsburg39sh7.jpg

40. South of downtown there were some areas which vagely reminded me of some areas of Stuttgart, such as this.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6728/augsburg40yb5.jpg

41. And this.
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3431/augsburg41ea3.jpg

42. But soon we encountered more areas which just looked like the rest of Augsburg.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6721/augsburg42wi3.jpg

43. We saw some more industrial areas and garden plots.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/114/augsburg43xh1.jpg

44. A university.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6443/augsburg44be2.jpg

45. And a chance to get my industrial architecture fix.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/2826/augsburg45ah9.jpg

46. We were almost out of areas to explore and decided to call it quits and head for the train station to catch a late-afternoon train. On the way back into town I wanted one last chance to check out some big apartment blocks.
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/8935/augsburg46ws0.jpg

But then we stopped by our hotel to pick up our belongings, surrender our car rental, check out of the hotel and head to the train station. Augsburg had started out with a wonderful city center, but the rest of it had been mostly nice, but fairly mundane. No matter - now it's time to move on to the Big Time - Munich!
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/2943/augsburg47un8.jpg

-----------------
Moderationshinweis: Bitte kein Hotlinking von Landkarten (Info)! Danke
Due to copyright problems no hotlinking of maps please. Thank you.

Germany by rail. Destination #7 - Ulm

Ulm

Location of photos
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/7008/ulmmapyi2.jpg

1. About an hour after we left Stuttgart, we arrived at Ulm. I honestly had never heard of this city until we began planning our trip!
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7937/ulm1ah8.jpg

2. In the Medieval heart of the city there was a cathedral which towered over everything else. We went inside and looked around. Magnificent! You can see what it looked like inside here.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2679/ulm2qc2.jpg

3. We booked a room in a cute little hotel in the heart of the city. Once again, after doing so we sat at a cafe and enjoyed the scenery.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3480/ulm3kh5.jpg

4. Since this was a smaller city we decided not to rent a car. We did, however, find a place to rent bicycles and began touring the city this way. Downtown was a mixture of some new alongside the old.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/802/ulm4ic0.jpg

5. North of downtown were some nice but unremarkable (by German standards) residential areas.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4020/ulm5fo2.jpg

6. To the near-southwest of downtown was more of the same. I remarked to Hans and Franz that, areas like this which are considered nice but not-too-remarkable in Germany, would be considered quaint, priceless treasures in the US, swarming with tourists!
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9641/ulm6zy0.jpg

7. Across the river to the south was Neu Ulm, or New Ulm. It was, by my (American) standards, still quite "old," but we're talking about Europe here, where something 100 years old is considered to be new and modern.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6027/ulm7gb4.jpg

8. To be quite honest, our main motivation for renting bicycles instead of a car was to work off some of the excess calories we had already accumulated in the previous 6 cities! We even ventured out to the far eastern parts of the city, where the city met the rural areas.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6348/ulm8hh9.jpg

9. But all this biking around made us thirsty, so we bought ourselves some Cokes.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/5030/ulm9uc3.jpg

10. And then continued to bike around the southeast edges of the city.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4461/ulm10wq5.jpg

11. As well as some nearby new residential developments.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8055/ulm11wc6.jpg

12. It was already 5pm and we were only able to cover some areas around downtown and the southeast of the city, so we headed back toward town, passing through some residential areas on the way.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4038/ulm12is6.jpg

13. The next morning we headed out south of downtown, riding through some residential areas. On the road at the top of this picture here, Hans almost got hit by a truck!
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2890/ulm13zq0.jpg

14. Here were some EADS facilities. EADS is, of course, the parent company of evil Airbus. Being a highly partisan Boeing fan myself, I contemplated bombing these facilties here.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5364/ulm14pj4.jpg

15. But common sense got the better of me as we continued through some southwestern neighborhoods.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8149/ulm15hl0.jpg

16. To the far southwest were some really new neighborhoods at the edge of the farms.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7029/ulm16sq5.jpg

17. At one point we decided to catch a bus and head toward the northern parts of town. Glady, the buses had facilities to let us bring our bikes along. We got off near an IKEA and had lunch in an adjacent shopping center.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/6305/ulm17rq6.jpg

18. We headed west and passed by some large, modernistic facility.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/5435/ulm18re9.jpg

19. And then, once again, into some more residential areas. I continued to note the commonality of newer residences and other buildings with solar panels on their roofs.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8697/ulm19zo2.jpg

20. We made our way to a far-northwestern town/suburb, then turned around and headed back east.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/3831/ulm20nd4.jpg

21. We veered off to the north-central outskirts of town and passed through a science office park.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1863/ulm21yh4.jpg

22. Which included the University of Ulm.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/2198/ulm22kb9.jpg

23. At the far north edge of the metropolis (if you want to call it that) was a quaint little town. We stopped here for refreshments.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/3127/ulm23ow5.jpg

24. Off to the east we could see a large tower-like building piercing the sky. We were curious and decided to investigate. When we got there, we couldn't figure out what it was. It was just some big tower rising above some industrial building. Whatever it was, the views from the top of it must be great!
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/4398/ulm24su5.jpg

25. Once again it was already late in the afternoon and we decided to head back to town, passing through some nice but mundane neighborhoods on the way.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5792/ulm25sf1.jpg

26. And we also passed by some sort of educational institution nearby.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5324/ulm26pv9.jpg

27. The next day we decided to head east. While passing by this park I got a flat tire. Fortunately there was a bicycle store nearby where I got it fixed.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5845/ulm27wh0.jpg

28. Most of Ulm was reasonably moderate terrain, but there were some hills. We continued northeast and worked up quite a sweat going up here.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/5298/ulm28xt3.jpg

29. At the top of the hill were some strange institutional-looking buildings. At this point we decided to take one of Ulm's cute yellow buses back down the hill, to save a little time.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/677/ulm29sq4.jpg

30. It was about 2pm and we figured we had just enough time left in the day to explore some of Ulm's eastern areas. Here was a typical residential area. We stopped in a restaurant here and had some beer and brats.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/3968/ulm30eo7.jpg

31. We continued a little farther east to a town called Pfhul - which I jokingly referred to as, "Fool."
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/9567/ulm31ri7.jpg

32. And the headed south to the railroad tracks, where the city turned into country. Speaking of railroads, tomorrow morning was our train and it was time to head back.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/7669/ulm32wc7.jpg

33. We took one little detour to a close-in neighborhood north of downtown, but then headed back to our hotel and called it a day.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/2233/ulm33hh9.jpg

Yet another pleasant little city we must say goodbye to. Time to hop on the train again and head for Augsburg!
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7527/ulm34ow0.jpg

-----------------
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Germany by rail. Destination #6 - Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Location of photos
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/379/stuttgartmapvi7.jpg

1. Less than an hour after departing Heilbronn, we arrived in Stuttgart.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3640/stuttgart1pi0.jpg

2. We checked in at a downtown hotel and immediately proceeded to find a place for an early dinner. As had already become our custom, we had coffee and sandwiches at a cafe in the main downtown plaza. Afterwards, we toured the adjacent palace and cathedral. Those Germans sure knew how to build elaborate buildings! We were finally in the big city so, instead of going about travelling at first, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening right in the central city, window shopping and observing the buildings and the women. That night we went to a pub and got drunk again. Franz had 7 shots of scotch - big mistake! We practically had to drag him out of bed the next morning!
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1463/stuttgart2jd4.jpg

3. Once we managed to pull Franz out of bed, I implored my two friends to let me have my industrial fix.
"We're in Stuttgart and I simply must see the Mercedes factory!" I said.
"There's two of them. Which one do you want to see?" asked Hans.
"Both!" I said.
Finally we agreed we'd visit one of the two at first, then if we had time later on, we'd see the other. The closer of the two was not far east of downtown, so we rented our car and went there first. It was magnificent!
http://img488.imageshack.us/im…/stuttgart3kl0.th.jpg</a>

4. Afterwards we went back downtown and wandered about a bit. The city began to remind me a bit of Pittsburgh or Cincinnati: There was a fairly small but compact central city, and the rest of the metropolitan area consisted of a series of towns which were somewhat forcibly seperated from one another by steep hills or deep valleys. At any rate, downtown, while mostly low-rise, was dense with a mixture of old and new structures.
http://img488.imageshack.us/img488/7476/stuttgart4ym5.jpg

5. Here was an ultramodern district.
http://img488.imageshack.us/img488/1592/stuttgart5oc5.jpg

6. And climbing the hills to the west was a beautiful old district.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2286/stuttgart6hb7.jpg

7. As you climbed the hills of that district, the views became ever more grand!
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/825/stuttgart7ir0.jpg

8. Our car nearly overheated climbing the hill, so we went back downtown. This was a modernistic structure of some kind right next to the railroad station.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3384/stuttgart8lq9.jpg

9. To the east of downtown were some smaller hills with more grand residential areas.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7137/stuttgart9mx6.jpg

10. And a mixture of old and new residences south of downtown.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/391/stuttgart10ql2.jpg

11. More of the same district here.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1420/stuttgart11ze7.jpg

12. Then we went north of downtown. We had a light lunch in this cafe here. Franz began flirting with the waitress and got her phone number! She also had 3 tickets to the football game today which was to start in just a few hours, which she could not use. So she gave them to us - free!
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/8679/stuttgart12er6.jpg

13. To kill a bit of time before the game, we drove a bit farther west and ran into some cute but unremarkable neighborhoods.
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/8928/stuttgart13hb2.jpg

14. But soon it was time to drive east again and watch the football game. Stuttgart won! There were, as expected, riots on the streets afterwards and drunken brawls broke out everywhere. So we retreated back to our hotel for the rest of the day, to insure our safety.
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/4647/stuttgart14hu0.jpg

15. At the hotel that night I was thumbing through a tourist guide and discovered there was not just the 2 Mercedes factories in town, but this was also where Porsches were made!
"Oh please guys," I said in my poor German, "I want to see the Porsche factory tomorrow!"
I was rather surprised when they agreed that would be cool. So the first thing tomorrow morning we set out to the northern portion of the city where the plant was located. After seeing the Mercedes factory it was smaller than I anticipated. I suppose they don't sell as many Porsche's as they do Mercedes!
http://img126.imageshack.us/im…stuttgart15sq7.th.jpg</a>

16. After checking that out, we passed another industrial area to the south.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/3615/stuttgart16ey7.jpg

17. Then headed east, passing through a new development rising over some vineyards.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4203/stuttgart17rs4.jpg

18. Toward the northeast side of town we saw more modern developments.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4403/stuttgart18vo0.jpg

19. And to the south of that, some smaller apartments shared the hilside with still more vineyards. Seeing all these vineyards, I began to wonder how much wine Germans drank in a typical year!
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4948/stuttgart19is7.jpg

20. We spent the rest of the day hanging out in this beautiful neighborhood east of downtown. The geometry of the streets was wonderful, and the architecture of the buildings was beyond quaint!
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7827/stuttgart20yh5.jpg

21. We must have spent 3 hours sitting at a cafe here, watching the streetcars pass by - and the women, too. And speaking of women, Franz called the waitress we had met yesterday on his cellphone. She told him to piss off and hung up on him!
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/9884/stuttgart21ey5.jpg

22. The next morning we headed south again, passing by some modernistic institutional-looking buildings.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/3095/stuttgart22hp2.jpg

23. As well as more cute neighborhoods.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/3883/stuttgart23dw6.jpg

24. We had breakfast at a cafe here.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/9625/stuttgart24gx3.jpg

25. Then just started driving around aimlessly.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/5198/stuttgart25vu7.jpg

26. Here was the Stuttgart Technical University.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/4634/stuttgart26zl8.jpg

27. And the rather interesting centerpiece of a neighborhood.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/4586/stuttgart27rr2.jpg

28. In the same general area we saw solar panels on the roof of an industrial building.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8886/stuttgart28tm4.jpg

29. And a modernistic office campus next to a freeway interchange. Just like America!
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/3264/stuttgart29bk0.jpg

30. Farther to the north was another office campus, this time housing some Bosch offices. I recalled the magnificent complex in Mannheim.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/7031/stuttgart30ax1.jpg

31. North of that there was yet another outlying town or suburb with yet another quaint central area.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1086/stuttgart31kf3.jpg

32. Driving north we passed still more modernistic offices.
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/6100/stuttgart32ly3.jpg

33. As well as some pretty ugly distribution facilities.
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/4962/stuttgart33kk2.jpg

34. To the west was still another quaint little outlying town. Did Germans ever get bored of these, I wondered? I was too embarrassed at the thought to ask Hans or Franz.
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/2532/stuttgart34tl2.jpg

35. After passing through that town we veered west and began to hit the countryside. We were tempted to take a longer jaunt into the rural areas but decided against it. "There's too much in Stuttgart to see," noted Hans. We agreed.
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/4831/stuttgart35ml7.jpg

36. Still driving aimlessly, we decided to head back south again and passed some mundane looking places.
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/5215/stuttgart36uy5.jpg

37. When alongside the road, I saw something I thought I'd never see in Germany: BASEBALL!!!!!!!!!
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/5897/stuttgart37ur2.jpg

38. At last we decided to see the other Mercedes plant, located in a distant suburb southwest of the city. Along the way, we passed some modern highrise apartments.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5372/stuttgart38gq7.jpg

39. As well as the cute center of the town where the plant was located.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8196/stuttgart39ty1.jpg

40. HERE IT IS!! Wonderful!! This and the next 2 shots comprise the plant.
http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stuttgart40bp2.jpg

41. More.
http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stuttgart41mb3.jpg

42. And more. If you have a Mercedes made in Sindelfingen, Germany, now you know what its birthplace looks like!
http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stuttgart42ij6.jpg

43. Since we were in the south end of the metro, we decided to check out some more little towns. It was just amazing how every little town was carefully seperated by farms or forests, and typically had a quaint and identifiable city center.
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/4512/stuttgart43qp1.jpg

44. North of the airport, city and farm were, as always, carefully defined.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/2296/stuttgart44hb8.jpg

45. More of the same.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/5923/stuttgart45cw0.jpg

46. Still more.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/2260/stuttgart46cl6.jpg

47. New developements were carefully planned, laid out in formal patterns and typically comprised of dense housing.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/8279/stuttgart47sn8.jpg

48. Another newer district south of Stuttgart proper.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6526/stuttgart48ix8.jpg

49. And a close-up of some cute smaller apartments in yet another town.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7677/stuttgart49sw2.jpg

50. North of ^that^, hillside development faded into more vineyards.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6892/stuttgart50sw6.jpg

51. And to the east, near the river, a nice little town abutted more garden plots.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4743/stuttgart51pw0.jpg

52. We continued east toward the river and took the bridge which passed near the port.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4549/stuttgart52mf8.jpg

53. And encountered yet another magnificent huge factory!
http://img249.imageshack.us/im…stuttgart53xs2.th.jpg</a>

54. ^In the bottom-right corner of that factory photo you can see a little town. Here's what it looks like up close, from the opposite angle. So, in one small stretch, you have a giant factory, a quaint little town, and some vineyards climbing the hill!
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1271/stuttgart54as8.jpg

55. Just to the north of that was still another cute little town with still more cute vineyards.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5017/stuttgart55gl4.jpg

56. And if you climb the road which goes up the hill, you encounter still another little village, nestled in a little valley filled with fields. Lovely! We bought a bottle of wine here.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3140/stuttgart56bv3.jpg

57. We went back down the hill.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2563/stuttgart57bx4.jpg

58. And, not having eaten anything for hours, stopped at an unremarkable deli here for a sandwich.
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/2793/stuttgart58ey7.jpg

59. Afterwards we continued our aimless drive. We went north to visit yet another town.
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4152/stuttgart59vf1.jpg

60. Passed by some greenhouses
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6466/stuttgart60tw0.jpg

61. And some more small apartments. Or are these single-family houses? It was hard to tell!
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4600/stuttgart61am0.jpg

62. To the northwest there were more apartment blocks
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8972/stuttgart62ld7.jpg

63. And to the northeast there were more fields and garden plots
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7519/stuttgart63kv3.jpg

64. This was a newer village to the north
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6040/stuttgart64oi7.jpg

65. And an older village along the river. We watched a boat go through the locks.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7937/stuttgart65pi5.jpg

66. To the west was another large apartment complex
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5902/stuttgart66st7.jpg

67. And more. I couldn't decide whether more Stuttgarters lived in quaint towns, or more lived in modern apartment blocks. I asked Hans and Franz, they didn't know either.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/887/stuttgart67mq5.jpg

68. We started to venture really far north, but it was beginning to get late so we turned around
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/1395/stuttgart68nn6.jpg

69. Passed some more fields
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/7613/stuttgart69nf0.jpg

70. Got some gas
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/6289/stuttgart70zl0.jpg

71. Passed one last new housing complex
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/6826/stuttgart71cg9.jpg

72. And headed back to the center of town.
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/1287/stuttgart72hr7.jpg

73. Before calling it a night, we took one last drive up the hills to the west of downtown to look at the city in the sunset. Beautiful! We had dinner in a restaurant near here, drank our bottle of wine, and headed in for the night.
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/6125/stuttgart73su9.jpg

The next day it was time to leave. We handed in our car rental and checked out of the hotel. That was fun! What a city! After the big city we've got a small one next - Ulm. Time to hit the road . . . or should I say, the railroad!
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1193/stuttgart74nd4.jpg

-----------------
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Germany by rail. Destination #5 - Heilbronn

Heilbronn

Location of photos
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1472/heilbronnmaplj8.jpg

1. So, once again our train pulled into the train station.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/8774/heilbronn1ky8.jpg

2. This time we stopped at our hotel at the bottom-left first to unload our belongings. Then we went to a cafe near the plaza to sit and drink a few beers.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7813/heilbronn2ec8.jpg

3. We walked around downtown a bit more.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7308/heilbronn3sf8.jpg

4. After which point we rented a car once again and began to drive around. We went here to the south end of downtown.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3637/heilbronn4eb5.jpg

5. Then headed east.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6743/heilbronn5rm3.jpg

6. We turned left to go north, and once again passed through some nice but no too remarkable neighborhoods. By now I was clearly beginning to discern a pattern with these German cities.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6750/heilbronn6fj5.jpg

7. But, alas, there was salvation in the area. Unlike Mannheim and Karlsruhe which had no vineyards, here in Heilbronn we struck gold again. We bought some wine at this vineyard here. It turned out the guy who owned this vineyard knew Han's cousin!
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9336/heilbronn7go8.jpg

8. I once again wanted my industrial fix.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9830/heilbronn8eo6.jpg

9. And we all wanted yet another vineyard fix!
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9473/heilbronn9nx0.jpg

10. More vineyards and other farms at the outskirst of town. Lovely!
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/4876/heilbronn10hc0.jpg

11. North of the city there was a modernistic skyscraper rising up over some vineyards. Love the contrast!
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/3064/heilbronn11zv2.jpg

12. And to the north of that, another cute town.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9758/heilbronn12ba1.jpg

13. I got more industrial fix - this was huge!
http://img248.imageshack.us/im…heilbronn13nr3.th.jpg</a>

14. Across the river, the commercial edge of yet another town abutted some farms.
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4152/heilbronn14pd9.jpg

15. Just to the left of ^that^ photo was the town itself. We had an early dinner here, drinking our wine with the dinner. We found a lovely Italian restaurant.
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6195/heilbronn15ts6.jpg

16. After dinner we drove a bit west to the edge of the town.
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4153/heilbronn16wo9.jpg

17. Until we came to the rural area. Even some of the farm buildings had solar panels!
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3584/heilbronn17bw9.jpg

18. To the south, industrial areas directly fronted the fields once again.
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3141/heilbronn18zv1.jpg

19. Then we headed still south through the rural areas, wanting to check out one more town before we called it a day.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/5766/heilbronn19qj1.jpg

20. This was the town.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/7020/heilbronn20zg4.jpg

21. We headed back east again, toward the center of Heilbronn.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/2398/heilbronn21ch8.jpg

22. And passed through an industrial area on the way to downtown. We headed to our hotel and hit the sack.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/9303/heilbronn22bp6.jpg

23. The next morning was clear and sunny. Once again we wanted to check out another neighborhood. We ate breakfast in a cafe here.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/7461/heilbronn23tl1.jpg

24. We checked out a large park afterward.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/859/heilbronn24bv2.jpg

25. Drove along the road which paralleled the river.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/1892/heilbronn25rp6.jpg

26. Then decided to head east to see if there was anything interesting on the east edge of town. Not too much. Here was some new development.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/5356/heilbronn26hu3.jpg

27. And this, too. This should have been placed before the above photo. Oh well.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/2176/heilbronn27fx4.jpg

28. Although there weren't too many interesting towns over here, there were some more nice farms and vineyards.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/5046/heilbronn28mk1.jpg

29. But we decided to head back west, passing through town again.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2192/heilbronn29lf8.jpg

30. After crossing the river we headed north.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9774/heilbronn30tu7.jpg

31. To check out a little town we had missed yesterday. We had lunch here.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4199/heilbronn31pd7.jpg

32. These were just some nice new townhouses on the outskirts of this town.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7/heilbronn32qv9.jpg

33. We headed back east once again to check out some more vineyards. The waitress at our lunch place recommended a certain winery east of town. These houses were right near it.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/1524/heilbronn33jl9.jpg

34. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel to call it a day. We rented a movie at the hotel and drank the wine. It was excellent!
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/8880/heilbronn34ts9.jpg

35. The next day, our train was to leave a bit later than we usually departed, so before we dropped off our rental car we decided to check out 2 more towns. This was one . . .
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6451/heilbronn35fo6.jpg

36. . . . and this was the other. We went back to the hotel, picked up our stuff, turned in our car and headed back to the train station.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/8286/heilbronn36sp2.jpg

Stuttgart, here we come!
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1145/heilbronn37fl2.jpg

-----------------
Moderationshinweis: Bitte kein Hotlinking von Landkarten (Info)! Danke
Due to copyright problems no hotlinking of maps please. Thank you.

Germany by rail. Destination #4 - Mannheim

Mannheim

After Karlsruhe we headed north once again. While we were planning our trip, at first we thought about going to Heidelburg. But then Franz, who had been there this time of year in the past, advised against it.

"Why?" I asked.

"It's wall-to-wall tourists in the summer," he said. "And anyway, you'll see so many quaint, historical places on this trip which look just like Heidelburg, you won't be missing anything."

So we decided instead to visit Mannheim alone and skip Heidelburg. As the trip progressed, I gradually realized just how right he was. I would soon become so overwhelmed with quaint cities and towns that I almost became bored of them.

(Read: Windows Live Local doesn't have bird's-eye coverage of Heidelburg)

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Location of photos
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/739/mannheimmapiz1.jpg

1. After departing Karlsruhe, we arrived in Mannheim less than an hour later. There was a nice skyscraper next to the railroad.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2793/mannheim1mh0.jpg

2. First thing, as in Karlsruhe, was to visit the castle.
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5541/mannheim2jg6.jpg

3. And then wander around downtown. It was quite modern compared even to Karlsruhe.
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/8757/mannheim3ji8.jpg

4. However it did have some nice old parts, including this lovely cathedral which was being restored.
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/2478/mannheim4cp7.jpg

5. A central plaza with a fountain seemed very "European." Our hotel was near here, and we dropped our things there and rented another car.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/8407/mannheim5qj8.jpg

6. Nearby, a neighborhood with not one, but two, chruches.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/4599/mannheim6vj0.jpg

7. More of the same.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/5971/mannheim7oo8.jpg

8. And still more. We had a late lunch at the cafe on the plaza.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9390/mannheim8sr1.jpg

9. And toured some more older neighborhoods.
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7682/mannheim9xi0.jpg

10. More of the same.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/9071/mannheim10fg7.jpg

11. And some not-so-old parts.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/3060/mannheim11aa7.jpg

12. Mannheim is a VERY industrial city, as you'll see from these pictures. It was heaven!
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/2773/mannheim12og6.jpg

13. Beautiful!
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/122/mannheim13oe8.jpg

14. And some more nice neighborhoods with little churches. It was almost a shame knowing how few Germans went to church these days, seeing that they had some many nice ones. It was as if they were all going to waste!
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/9606/mannheim14zw3.jpg

15. Some people get to see industrial beauty right outside their balcony!
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/1512/mannheim15tk1.jpg

16. Some more industrial-commercial.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/2421/mannheim16px1.jpg

17. Lovely!
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/1992/mannheim17et8.jpg

18. We ate an early dinner in a restaurant here. Instead of drinking and staying up late we decided to just watch some TV in the hotel and hit the sack early.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/1992/mannheim18zs0.jpg

19. The next morning, just for the heck of it, went to the north of the city to see what was there. Not very much. At least the streetcar goes to these apartments!
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/9748/mannheim19bg8.jpg

20. There was also an oil refinery in Mannheim.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/2630/mannheim20ft9.jpg

21. And a grain elevator.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/6594/mannheim21ro8.jpg

22. More Schrebergarten next to some farms.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/9528/mannheim22uc3.jpg

23. And the port.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/6030/mannheim23ph6.jpg

24. Across the river from Mannheim was another city called Ludwigshafen. This is the downtown.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2613/mannheim24wd4.jpg

25. And this was south of downtown.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4516/mannheim25pj0.jpg

26. Even farther south of downtown.
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/4012/mannheim26fy6.jpg

27. This was an Alcoa aluminum plant. I love it! And we're not even getting started with industrial beauty - the best is yet to come!
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/5711/mannheim27hc1.jpg

28. Just to the west of the Alcoa plant was a nice little neighborhood. Or maybe it was its own town, I dunno.
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/2007/mannheim28uy1.jpg

29. And to the north, another, newer neighborhood. I liked the way you could find a residential highrise popping up just about anywhere in a German city.
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/2931/mannheim29xj2.jpg

30. Some highrises by a lake and along the freeway.
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/8013/mannheim30sb7.jpg

31. But typically they kept highrises out of the quaint town centers. We had lunch here.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/8243/mannheim31ax2.jpg

32. We saw more highrises. The heat wave had cooled down (thank God!) so the lake and the swimming pool here didn't seem so enticing.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/9759/mannheim32ng7.jpg

33. Another newer residential area. Look close and you can see some more solar panels on the roofs.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/6545/mannheim33qu0.jpg

34. And other quaint village. We stopped for a beer here.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/8295/mannheim34bd1.jpg

Now . . .

35. THIS IS IT!! Yes everyone, this was just wonderful! In Ludwigshafen there was a truely massive BASF facility. It took me 10 full-image shots just to traverse the facility north-to-south. And I didn't even get it all going east-to-west. For all you industrial architecture junkies, these shots are heaven!
http://img453.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35aga2.th.jpg</a>
35b.
http://img453.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35byl8.th.jpg</a>
35c.
http://img259.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35cxx5.th.jpg</a>
35d.
http://img259.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35dpj5.th.jpg</a>
35e.
http://img458.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35eig7.th.jpg</a>
35f.
http://img458.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35fgp9.th.jpg</a>
35g.
http://img484.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35gyk6.th.jpg</a>
35h.
http://img484.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35hrm4.th.jpg</a>
35i.
http://img484.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35idz4.th.jpg</a>
35j.
http://img259.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35jmu0.th.jpg</a>
35k.
http://img259.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35kdw6.th.jpg</a>
35l.
http://img259.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35lox6.th.jpg</a>
35m.
http://img115.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35mgq2.th.jpg</a>
35n.
http://img115.imageshack.us/im…mannheim35njw7.th.jpg</a>

36. Northwest of the BASF facility was a large Modernist-era housing complex. I suppose a lot of the BASF employees live here.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5913/mannheim36cs9.jpg

37. And in stark contrast, north of that was a quaint little town.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/820/mannheim37jg1.jpg

38. We got on the freeway to drive east, and passed an Ikea.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5239/mannheim38zd4.jpg

39. Then turning south onto another freeway, we stopped at this mall. Once again I felt like I was back in America!
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/2244/mannheim39yu7.jpg

40. West of the mall was another Modernist housing development. It appeared to be showing its age.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1801/mannheim40zp6.jpg

41. But to the south was another little neighborhood which looked just fine.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/8179/mannheim41eq9.jpg

42. Even near the center of the metropolitan area you often find fields, well-tended by farmers. Note the location of this on the map.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/4006/mannheim42jp4.jpg

43. Nearby was another neighborhood with a mix of old and new.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/6700/mannheim43qb8.jpg

44. To the south, along the river were some more nice places.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8035/mannheim44zg8.jpg

45. And to the south were more fields abutting the city.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/80/mannheim45az2.jpg

46. Even the busines parks sometimes abutted fields. It's amazing the results you can get when you have a densely-populated nation. Space was at a premium here, and it showed!
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5493/mannheim46ih7.jpg

47. We veered back toward the town center. It was nearing dinner time.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/2392/mannheim47kf6.jpg

48. But we decided to head south, looking for something we hadn't seen before, and ran across this new development right in the middle of the city.
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/3650/mannheim48yt5.jpg

49. Our luck turned sour going even further south
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/1769/mannheim49yd1.jpg

50. So we headed west
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/2707/mannheim50gr2.jpg

51. But went a bit too far west. At least the lake was nice. But there was no where to eat!
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/2281/mannheim51lz8.jpg

52. We then headed back north to go downtown, we *knew* there would be some good places to eat there!
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/9062/mannheim52ur4.jpg

53. When - luck of all luck - we passed by a giant John Deere factory! Beautiful! There happened to be a sandwich place across from the factory, so we decided to eat there.
http://img475.imageshack.us/im…/mannheim53el2.th.jpg</a>

54. The next morning we headed out again. I told Hans and Franz I wanted to pass by the John Deere factory again. They were getting a bit tired of my obsession but humored me anyway. On the way there we passed some government buildings.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/4421/mannheim54il8.jpg

55. I'll skip another picture of the factory, but after we went even farther south we encountered this beauty! A power plant with a HUGE pile of coal stood alongside the river. Immediately to its left was yet another (older) power plant with another pile of coal alongside it. I didn't take a picture of both, figuring this would suffice.
http://img250.imageshack.us/im…/mannheim55sd8.th.jpg</a>

56. South of the power plant was the port.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/1626/mannheim56wg9.jpg

57. And across from the port was a little neighborhood. Even the working-class neighborhoods seemed reasonably nice and well-maintained. At least most of them.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2962/mannheim57vb1.jpg

58. We had brunch in this little neighborhood here.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8387/mannheim58ht1.jpg

59. Then drove through the countryside.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2148/mannheim59qe6.jpg

60. We passed by what appeared to be some little vacation spot.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1328/mannheim60ab8.jpg

61. Then after a drive through some more fields, we headed south to check out another quaint little outlying town.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7475/mannheim61sg3.jpg

62. Along the freeway going back north we passed through more fields.
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/1461/mannheim62ps7.jpg

63. And encountered yet another little village, with fields directly abutting the town.
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/8899/mannheim63qi7.jpg

64. We hit the freeway again - at this point we were sort-of driving aimlessly.
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/2199/mannheim64mf4.jpg

65. We passed this in Ludwigshafen. We were wondering if there was anything truely interesting in the center of this town. Not particularly.
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/9554/mannheim65ff4.jpg

66. So we decided to head back east to Mannheim proper. At the edge of town we saw more Schrebergarten.
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/4825/mannheim66lf3.jpg

67. And encountered another typical neighborhood. But after an argument we decided to head back west over the river once again.
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/3582/mannheim67pb0.jpg

68. Once we got to the far western parts of the metro, we passed by, once again, a great example of dense development directly abutting farmer's fields. Urban growth boundary advocates take note!
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/2310/mannheim68me2.jpg

69. And directly south of the BASF plant was this great, dense area. This was probably the most interesting part of Ludwigshafen (except, of course, for the BASF plant ;)).
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/5880/mannheim69ga7.jpg

70. It was getting late and we had to eat. We went north again and ate at a restaurant in a nice little neighborhood we had passed through before. I give you this big-scale shot of this neighborhood so that you've got a nice wallpaper for your computer.
http://img372.imageshack.us/im…/mannheim70kc5.th.jpg</a>

Well, we ended up spending more time here than we thought we would, but it was worth it!. The next morning it was on to Heilbronn!
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/8485/mannheim71ns4.jpg

-----------------
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Germany by rail. Destination #3 - Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

Location of photos
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/407/karlsruhemapmr3.jpg

1. We took a very-late-night train from Offenburg and arrived at Karlsruhe a short while later.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/572/karlsruhe1cv2.jpg

2. After renting our car, the first place we toured was the famous castle.
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/493/karlsruhe2ik0.jpg

3. Then we had lunch at a downtown cafe.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/9404/karlsruhe3vh1.jpg

4. We visited a museum.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/9207/karlsruhe4vj3.jpg

5. And drove through a university.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/1440/karlsruhe5nj2.jpg

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.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/2821/karlsruhe6yf6.jpg

7. More older sections. We sat in this little park for a bit and watched the women walk by.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/9281/karlsruhe7js0.jpg

8. Then drove around through some more quaint, old, inner city areas.
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/5402/karlsruhe8nk3.jpg

9. The geometric patterns of some streets were wonderful!
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/5869/karlsruhe9ht9.jpg

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.
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/3289/karlsruhe10fw5.jpg

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!
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/225/karlsruhe11en2.jpg

12. Afterwards we drove around and saw some more industrial-commerical areas.
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/8736/karlsruhe12to6.jpg

13. And some more residential areas.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3610/karlsruhe13zb7.jpg

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!
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4428/karlsruhe14tv6.jpg

15. They were tired of my industrial fixes, so afterwards we drove through some quaint neighborhods.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2928/karlsruhe15ox3.jpg

16. And another one.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2736/karlsruhe16oi9.jpg

17. We also drove through some forests surrounding the city.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8484/karlsruhe17mr6.jpg

18. And back in the city, we saw some apartment blocks which almost appeared to be set amid a forest!
http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/8890/karlsruhe18zg0.jpg

19. Towards the end of the day we passed through some more areas where fields directly abutted the town.
http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/2892/karlsruhe19sn6.jpg

20. As did the industrial areas.
http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/7391/karlsruhe20nt3.jpg

21. We had an early dinner at the sidewalk cafe at the top of this shot.
http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/8977/karlsruhe21bc4.jpg

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)!
http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/8279/karlsruhe22dg4.jpg

23. The next morning we drove through some outskirts of town. Unfortunately we didn't find the hills with vineyards we found in Offenburg.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5204/karlsruhe23np0.jpg

24. So we headed back toward town.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2389/karlsruhe24fw8.jpg

25. I wasn't sure what this strange building was - a castle? Some old government building?
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/904/karlsruhe25nw4.jpg

26. At any rate, it was still hot so we decided to get some drinks at Wal-Mart.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7615/karlsruhe26mq3.jpg

27. And got some gas.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/6209/karlsruhe27ow5.jpg

28. We drove past a university.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1111/karlsruhe28he8.jpg

29. And some more modern housing.
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7928/karlsruhe29ma1.jpg

30. The next day was Sunday, so we went to church here.
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7992/karlsruhe30sl1.jpg

31. Afterward I insisted on seeing some more industrial areas.
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/4348/karlsruhe31eh1.jpg

32. But Hans and Franz wanted to head back to town.
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/3452/karlsruhe32ep0.jpg

33. We passed through some residential areas.
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/2083/karlsruhe33ya5.jpg

34. And saw some fairly large Schrebergarten.
http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/6452/karlsruhe34ea0.jpg

35. However, some of the apartment and townhouse blocks did have their own, English-style gardens in their backyards.
http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/2431/karlsruhe35tj0.jpg

36. And some of the Schrebergarten abutted much bigger "gardens!"
http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/274/karlsruhe36as5.jpg

37. This was a newer development which also had their own gardens as well as a nice, formal layout.
http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/2940/karlsruhe37cw5.jpg

38. But of course, back in the center of town, most people don't have a garden at all.
http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/5908/karlsruhe38dm3.jpg

39. I couldn't think of a good caption for this picture.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/8845/karlsruhe39hz6.jpg

40. But I got more of my big-industrial building fix with this picture!
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/1936/karlsruhe40ma7.jpg

41. And this one, too!
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/676/karlsruhe41yq0.jpg

42. Late in the afternoon we took one last drive through some neighborhoods and had sauerkraut and bratwurst at a neighborhood restaurant.
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5800/karlsruhe42oq8.jpg

But early the next morning our time was up. Once again we need to move on. Next stop is Mannheim. All aboard!
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/1583/karlsruhe43ls3.jpg

-----------------
Moderationshinweis: Bitte kein Hotlinking von Landkarten (Info)! Danke
Due to copyright problems no hotlinking of maps please. Thank you.