Bad Durkheim

So we went to Bad Durkheim yesterday, which is a little old German town known for it's wine and the large wine festival there every summer. We got off the tram (took about an hour) and went on our way.


Throughout the city there are these sculptures and other "art" things, created in the 70's as part of a beautification project. Most were actually quite beautiful, but there were some weird ones as well!


This town fits all of the German stereotypes of a traditional town. Although here they really push the wine, marketing the 'bier' as plebeian, and the wine as aristocratic and fancy.

Here's the town square, directly by the tram stop. It must look pretty in summer though!

We walked to a church, and although now Protestant, it was once Catholic. (It changed to Protestant after the Protestant Reformation and they have a picture of the only Martin Luther they care about in the church.)

The outside of the Church--it is a gothic style (which is simpler), with a Neo-Gothic tower (fancier).

I believe this is a newer creation, but it shows the devotion of the Prince and Princess...apparently this family is the 4th most important in Germany, behind the Hamburg line, etc.

The inside...kind of reminds me of St. Therese!

So then we walked some more...it was pretty, but cold! But my coat is nice and toasty, and I wore my boots. :)

View from the Church

One of the weirder statues...

Why they insist on ugly churches...can't know

This next house was a wine barron's house...it would be pretty awesome to live there!

The villa behind the Main House

After this we started to walk...to that distant place on the mountain called Limborg.

But along the way, I did get to see some pretty sights.

These are frozen snow pears...I believe that's what the guide called them!

The cliff wall is pretty impressive

Snow, ice, and a bridge...doesn't even look real

Houses along the street

I love the mountain views!

And of course the Netto...how could anyone live without this discount supermarket?

After this, we began our real trek. I don't know why the guide thought this was a good idea...but he kept going on about how beautiful it was during Summer Academy...just to note, it's Winter Academy. He probably should have adjusted his plans.

And we keep going up...there is a somewhat trail (with two steps at each end) that zig zags up the hill. Cardio!

The view from the top--totally worth it! Although there's easier ways to get up here :P

 After some more walking, we finally got to Limborg. It was built in the 11th century as a convent, and was extremely powerful. It controlled thousands of hectars of land, both around Bad Durkheim and in other countries. It was self-sufficient, and only relied on the royal family for protection.

This was originally the Cathedral. It was quite large because there was over 600 people living here, and around the main building had been 20 smaller buildings. Limburg was the town on the mountainside, looking over the valley.

During summer there is a lot of Shakespeare productions that take place here (German on Saturday, English on Sunday) and they are apparently quite fun to watch.

This had been the Kitchens and private rooms...

From there we went back down the mountain, ate lunch at some Italian place where they spoke better English than German (but I had a good Calzone!), and then went to see the massive wine barrel (which althoug never had wine in it, was made with the same technique that smaller barrels are...but also know as a marketing campaign to drink wine, not beer.

Where we ate

Park on the way to the wine barrel--also known as beautiful in the summer, but extremely icy in the winter

The wine barrel...now home of a restaurant! And apparently parties.

This is the Salinarium...water runs down the branches, bringing out the salt to help the lungs. It was originally built to help miners with black lung, etc. It burned down about 10 years ago, but they rebuilt it.

After that we went back to the tram station, discovered the entire tram system was down because of the ice (which meant when the trams moved, it sparked and there were big bursts of flames) so we had to walk back across town and catch a train. But we made it! And we didn't get stuck on the tram (and got home earlier) than the people who left directly after lunch. Success.