Half-Timbered Houses

 

Our final stop on our trip was to Goettingen, a medieval town in central Germany. I was finally able to see excellent examples of half-timbered houses, a building style popular here which exposes the wood frame of the house. We even ate at a restaurant founded in 1500.

A Great Town

 

More beautiful Weimar...

Two Faces of Germany

 

Weimar was the home of Goethe, Schiller, and the Bauhaus architecture movement. When the Nazis kicked out this school of revolutionary thinkers in order to begin their thousand year reich, they could have never imagined that Bauhaus is now the city's pride and joy. Weimar is an extraordinary city (I liked it as much as Heidelberg and Dresden) and should not be skipped if visiting Germany. What strikes me time and again is the richness of German culture and the horrible destruction it inflicted on itself between 1933 and 1945. Pictured above are Goethe and Schiller holding a sign that reads, "Art needs time, Comrade."

Abraham is an Austrian Last Name

 

Photo of an office supply store in Salzburg, Austria. Founded by Ludwig Abraham (brother of my grandfather Tibor Abraham) in 1950.

Bizarre Germans

 

Two experiences at German spas have acclimated me to the German obsession with being naked. But I never expected to see an advertisement promoting naked pregnancy photos. Let's say you did get the photo taken, where would you put it? On top of the piano?

A Shrine to German Engineering

 

Munich is home to the Deutsches Museum which is a gigantic temple glorifying the German obsession with engineering. There are exhibits dedicated to bridge building, tunnel digging, and (naturally) model trains. Pictured above is a 2-story piston from a diesel driven ship.

Beer

 

From Karlsruhe to Munich to Goettingen, the beer in Germany is fantastic. We even had a chance to visit the world famous Sapten brewery during the trip.