Day 2 had us getting up and taking a stroll around Michelstadt to get an idea of what it looked like during the day. Very cute little German town. Had a nice big breakfast buffet at the hotel, then loaded up the car (I drove it up to the hotel so no more big long luggage lugging trips!) and set off to our next destination. Rothenburg ob der Tauber would be our home for the next several nights but we decided to drive past it and go to another little walled Medieval village, Dinkelsbuhel.
Dinkelsbuhel was adorable, surrounded by an old wall and ramparts, but obviously still a fully functioning town. There is a decent bit of tourism, which I always assess by the number of restaurants around the town square, but also lots of shops both kitschy and practical. We had a nice late lunch at the Golden Rose across from the church, since it was the only place still open after 2pm. Nothing to write home about but our first schnitzel :) Afterwards we strolled down the town's main street until we arrived at the Christmas Market which was held on the grounds of the town museum. A lovely little open-air village kind of feel, with hay on the ground, plenty of gluhwein and some great stalls. I especially enjoyed the fact that so many of the artisans were truly local; one woman I spoke with has a regular office job but spends her spare time all through the year makign christmas crafty things while watching TV, stockipiling them and selling them at the Christmas market. She said almost everyone comes from the village or within an hour or so drive. Mom and dad got their first mug for their "Christmas Market Gluhwein Mug" collection, and we picked up a couple knicknacks. We also happily bought some tickets from the local school children for their "Tombola" which is kind of like a raffle. We ended up leaving with a Christmas ornament made from ribbon and a Kermit the frog plush from an old Happy Meal. Gotta love people's ingenuity :)
It being December, it gets dark pretty early, so when we finally left around 6:30 it was dark and had been for quite some time. We made the 30 minute or so drive back up to Rothenburg and parked at the parking lot southeast of the old town wall. From there it was a very short walk to our hotel, the Goldenen Rose (same name as our lunch place!) which was a restaurant below with some rooms upstairs. Our "family apartment" was perfect! Very old, "grandma's house"y, with a large bedroom with two twin beds at the front, then a doorway (with a curtain instead of a door) into a bedroom with a large double bed (both bedrooms had wardrobes and a chair), then it continued into a little living area with some threadbare furniture and a lovely little Christmas tree complete with decorations. There was also a small television that we never really figured out how to use; the buttons seemed to at times control the channel, other times the volume, other times the brightness...and often it was stuck on one channel. But everything on German TV is in German anyway so it was oK :) The bathroom was off of this living room, which wasn't ideal but we made do. Nice deep bathtub, and oddly a gigantic painting of a naked man, shown from behind drying himself off. Given my tendency to book gay owned and gay friendly B&Bs when I travel my family giggled and said I had a way of picking them even when I didn't mean to :)
This was a spectacular value, something like 87 euros a night for the room.
The only bad thing about this place is it is VERY far out of the center of the action, if there is such at thing in Rothenburg. Which is nice for the peace and quiet but a little of a pain when you've got people in the party with bad knees, bad back, etc and dont relish walking 500 meters uphill to get to the center. It's waaay far south, which makes it kind of a pain to just run back to the room to get an extra scarf or something while you're shopping, or drop off your bags. But we made do.
We missed the Rothenburg Christmas market; it had closed up before we made it up to the center. So we window shopped in the closed stores for a while, then had a lovely dinner with the best potato soup in the history of the world at the hotel Glock. Found out that at least in this area, potato dumplings are made with mostly raw potato and they're sticky and taste like papier mache.
Nice day.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Christmas Markets - Michelstadt
This was a trip that my mother (who is 62) has been wanting to do for several years; we spent Christmas in Innsbruck in 1992 and even though it culiminated in her breaking her leg and being hospitalized in Austria for a week, she has such fond memories of the rest of the trip and the wonderful Christmasy feel of the towns and villages. So I was happy to be able to plan this trip for her. I was a little nervous about it becoming tedious, I mean, how many Christmas markets can you see before it gets tedious? I am happy to report, however, that every day brought a new experience, and I never got bored.
Day 1, I drove to Frankfurt from Belgium and picked them up at the Frankfurt airport around 3:00 p.m. Drove approximately 1 hour to Michelstadt, which had been recommended on another travel board. It was right next to Erbach, which someone on the Zine had recommended. We stayed at the Drei Hasen, a Hotel/Restaurant right in the center of the old town, across the street from the church. Location was perfect, price was excellent (90 euros for a double, 54 euro for a single). Due to the Christmas market we were unable to park in the hotel parking area; rather we had to park in the large parking lot on the outskirts of the altstadt. Not a bad walk except that we ended up with a spot waaaaaay in the back of the parking lot which doubled our walking time :) Only a problem if you bring a stupid amount of luggage as my parents did. "Drei Hasen" means "3 rabbits" and it was a lot of fun looking at all the different knicknacks, signs, etc with this motif on it scattered about the hotel and restaurant. Our rooms were spacious, bathroom was small with shower but adequate. We did not get a chance to try the restaurant, but the breakfast buffet was extensive and well done.
We dropped off our bags and wandered around the market, which was spread throughout the old town. Michelstadt definitely was a top winner in the FOOD category, as far as variety per square foot. They had every imaginable yummy German "market food" treat....pork sandwiches with grilled onions, bratwurst, spatzle, some other kind of pasta with sauerkraut, roasted chestnuts, crepes, other sausages, candied nuts, gingerbread, potato pancakes, you name it. The stalls selling things were pretty lame but there were some very nice shops, and many of them were open late into the evening as well. It got cold, rainy and windy as the evening wore on, which made it less enjoyable but as it was our first day we were determined enough to have fun that we enjoyed it quite a bit. We made a dinner out of sausage and spatzle, each sampled a baked good for dessert (gingerbread, macaroon, and a "Rothenburger schneeball" which was unanimously disliked). There was one nice stall selling hats and I got a really cute one; I never did see another one like it on the trip. I felt like Eliza Doolittle, and it was easy to pick me out of a crowd. Another thing to add to our "improperly prepared for inclement weather" souvenirs, including raincoats, jackets, hats and umbrellas from Amsterdam, Paris, and London.
The town itself was a joy to wander around in. Very small and compact, but full of little alleys, courtyards, etc and typical half-timbered houses. We found an interesting statue of santa with 6 reindeer, some with recognizable names and others not so much. There was Blitzen, alongside Willi, Kasimir, and Otto?! A web search resulted in finding this story http://www.kidsweb.de/weihnacht/weihnacht_2004/geschichte/kasimir_das_rentier.html but i'm still not sure what that means, as I do not speak German :)
Things shut down at all the markets a bit earlier than I'd like, since I really like the feel of them at night. Luckily because of the short days it gets dark at like 4:00! :)
Anyway we wound back up at the hotel around 8:00, where we relaxed, planned our itinerary for the next day, and got a good nights sleep under those lovely feather beds. We decided that instead of trying to stop at Wurzburg en route that we would just drive on to our next destination which was Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where we would stay for 4 nights.
2 thumbs up for Drei Hasen, 2 thumbs up for Michelstadt, 2 thumbs down for rainy cold weather.
Day 1, I drove to Frankfurt from Belgium and picked them up at the Frankfurt airport around 3:00 p.m. Drove approximately 1 hour to Michelstadt, which had been recommended on another travel board. It was right next to Erbach, which someone on the Zine had recommended. We stayed at the Drei Hasen, a Hotel/Restaurant right in the center of the old town, across the street from the church. Location was perfect, price was excellent (90 euros for a double, 54 euro for a single). Due to the Christmas market we were unable to park in the hotel parking area; rather we had to park in the large parking lot on the outskirts of the altstadt. Not a bad walk except that we ended up with a spot waaaaaay in the back of the parking lot which doubled our walking time :) Only a problem if you bring a stupid amount of luggage as my parents did. "Drei Hasen" means "3 rabbits" and it was a lot of fun looking at all the different knicknacks, signs, etc with this motif on it scattered about the hotel and restaurant. Our rooms were spacious, bathroom was small with shower but adequate. We did not get a chance to try the restaurant, but the breakfast buffet was extensive and well done.
We dropped off our bags and wandered around the market, which was spread throughout the old town. Michelstadt definitely was a top winner in the FOOD category, as far as variety per square foot. They had every imaginable yummy German "market food" treat....pork sandwiches with grilled onions, bratwurst, spatzle, some other kind of pasta with sauerkraut, roasted chestnuts, crepes, other sausages, candied nuts, gingerbread, potato pancakes, you name it. The stalls selling things were pretty lame but there were some very nice shops, and many of them were open late into the evening as well. It got cold, rainy and windy as the evening wore on, which made it less enjoyable but as it was our first day we were determined enough to have fun that we enjoyed it quite a bit. We made a dinner out of sausage and spatzle, each sampled a baked good for dessert (gingerbread, macaroon, and a "Rothenburger schneeball" which was unanimously disliked). There was one nice stall selling hats and I got a really cute one; I never did see another one like it on the trip. I felt like Eliza Doolittle, and it was easy to pick me out of a crowd. Another thing to add to our "improperly prepared for inclement weather" souvenirs, including raincoats, jackets, hats and umbrellas from Amsterdam, Paris, and London.
The town itself was a joy to wander around in. Very small and compact, but full of little alleys, courtyards, etc and typical half-timbered houses. We found an interesting statue of santa with 6 reindeer, some with recognizable names and others not so much. There was Blitzen, alongside Willi, Kasimir, and Otto?! A web search resulted in finding this story http://www.kidsweb.de/weihnacht/weihnacht_2004/geschichte/kasimir_das_rentier.html but i'm still not sure what that means, as I do not speak German :)
Things shut down at all the markets a bit earlier than I'd like, since I really like the feel of them at night. Luckily because of the short days it gets dark at like 4:00! :)
Anyway we wound back up at the hotel around 8:00, where we relaxed, planned our itinerary for the next day, and got a good nights sleep under those lovely feather beds. We decided that instead of trying to stop at Wurzburg en route that we would just drive on to our next destination which was Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where we would stay for 4 nights.
2 thumbs up for Drei Hasen, 2 thumbs up for Michelstadt, 2 thumbs down for rainy cold weather.
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