Yesterday I completed the first round of my forays into the great unknown. I took a train to Worms, where Martin Luther had his say. The cathedral (Der Dom) is an imposing structure, symbolizing the "Don't mess with me" attitude of the Church. It is interesting to see how the different Cathedrals reflect the different temperaments of their builders: Westminster Abbey, for example, creates a very different impression.
The other significant point of interest in Worms is the Jewish cemetary. Apparently there had been a very old Jewish community in Worms that was wiped out by the Nazis. I'm surprised the cemetary survived. It was a beatiful place, with shady trees, and tombstones scattered around. The earliest ones were entirely in Hebrew, but German inscriptions started appearing from the early 1800s. The latest date I spotted was 1932.
From Worms I chugged over to Heidelberg to get a better understanding why locals generally don't care much for American tourists. Even during the off- season, the place was crawling with all manner of loudly-dressed, corvette-driving bozos. The town itself didn't disappoint, though.
I left Heidelberg in the afternoon and headed south-east through the Neckar valley. I wanted to get to Bad Wimpfen, an alleged pretty place. The train conductor (who would have made -- maybe was -- a good SS officer) told me to get off at a certain station, from which I and two liederhosen-clad Bavarians who spoke no English took a cab to the town. It cost me 10 DM, which wasn't so bad. What was bad was that they dropped me off in some place other than my final destination. In fact, it was just about the middle of nowhere, as far as I was concerned. I wandered around (in the dark), looking for the Youth Hostel that wasn't there. Finally, I went into a restaurant to ask for directions. Instead of directions, I got a ride (in a Mercedes 560, no less) to a hotel I had considered staying at.
Around 8:30pm I left the hotel in search of Altstadt (old town). I was walking along a path by the river bank in the dark, and almost walked by the entire area! I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a castle, back-tracked and took another path. This lead me to a cobble-stone court yard of, yes, a castle. Two obligatory GTIs were parked there, but otherwise the place was deserted. I took one of two alleys leading out of the square, and wandered around between the houses. There wasn't alot of light, except for a twinkling bluish glow emanating from the attic windows of a 3 story building next to the castle. The evil wizard must have been doing something in his workshop.
I continued down these streets making a (judicious?) turn here and there, until I saw some light coming from between two houses. Upon closer inspection, I found a three foot wide staircase flanked by two buildings descending toward the light. I could hear some people's voices as well. When I reached the end of the steps, I found myself in a little square, with a fountain, shops with brightly lit windows, people in the streets, etc. It was somewhat magical, considering the dark, deserted streets I had just come from. I tooled around, found a place to eat and drink, and went back to the hotel to sleep.
I woke up to a deep valley completely shrowded with fog. After a large German breakfast (free, too), I set off for the town to see it during the day, and to find out how to get to another castle not too far away. The Altstadt of Bad Wimpfen was enclosed by heavy walls, some of which still survive. The views from the walls were quite impressive, but didn't match the panorama from the main tower. I enquired about a bus to the town near which the other castle was located, but was told (in English) that it being Sunday, the locals were either in church or in a pub. (This was around 10am!)
I wandered around some more, and finally sat down in a cafe, had a beer, and wrote some postcards. After studying the map, I decided that the only sensible thing to do was to walk/hitch there. I wanted to get to the place before 3pm to see the birds of prey show they have there. The trip (9km) took roughly 1.5 hours, assisted by two lifts. The second guy actually went out of his way to drive me up to the castle. I think yesterday was the first time I had ever hitched anywhere!
The castle was duly impressive, as was the bird show. The castle had never been sacked or burned, and thus contained a record of its history. The museum was small, but quite nice. One of its owners must have been a good shot -- there are lots and lots of antlers on the walls.
To get home, I walked to the town across the valley from the castle (about 2km) and caught the train back to Darmstadt. Next week, I'm going to tour the Rhine region with one of the guys who works here. It'll be a somewhat different experience -- I'll be with someone who speaks German and we'll have a car. That should eliminate (unfortunately) most of the sorts of adventures I had this weekend. Stay tuned, though.
March 1993.