The Residenz Ansbach has a massive garden and an Orangery which today serve as a backdrop for concerts and music festivals. A garden was first mentioned in the 16th century in the herbal accounts of Leonhart Fuchs. Between 1723 and 1750, it was designed as a Baroque garden. Severely damaged during World War II, it […]
The church St. Johannis (St. John) in Ansbach in Middle Franconia is a Lutheran parish church and a concert venue of the Bachwoche Ansbach. The parish was first mentioned in documents in 1139. It was given by the Bishop of Würzburg to St. Gumbertus. Construction began in the second decade of the 15th century. The church […]
The church St. Gumbertus is one of the central city churches of Ansbach, together with the neighboring St. Johannis. Located in the old town of Ansbach, St. Gumbertus, now a Lutheran church, was originally the church of a monastery that was founded by St. Gumbert around 750. Today it serves as a venue for concerts and […]
Today we set off to Ansbach which is about 40km from Nuremberg. Ansbach is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia with about 45,000 people living in the city. The city started off in the 8th century as a Benedictine monastery, it later became the seat of the Hohenzollern family in 1331. Later […]
Truth be told we did not have a lot of time to celebrate Germany’s win of the FIFA World Cup. We finished watching the game, we grabbed out suitcases and went downstairs to catch the cab to the airport. The city has gone absolutely mad. I am glad we were going to the airport and […]
We have boarded and waiting to take off and get there. Flying out in the middle if the night maximizes vacation time.
We are setting off to Antalya for a week long holiday. After a long year in school we are off to seek a bit of sunshine in an all inclusive resort where we plan on doing absolutely nothing at all, other than eating, drinking, sleeping and lazying by the pool.
Germany has gone crazy! We can’t think of a better place to be right now than here in Nuremberg, Germany. Everyone is celebrating, no one is getting any sleep – people are going absolutely crazy!!!! What a party this is going to be!!!
It is summer! No matter where we go there is a bachelor or bachelorette party. Evelina got to participate in one when we were in Wurzburg today. The premise of these parties is as follows. The bride or groom to be is the object of constant ridicule in public as his entourage is getting drunk. He […]
No visit to an old European city would be complete without an obligatory visit to a church or two. We visited a lot of churches on our last excursion here but there are some which we did not get to. Particularly the church at the Merienberg Fortress, the Cathedral Cloisters which were closed last time […]
We are back to Wurzburg. There are a few things we did not get to see on our first visit here and since the city is so beautiful, the weather is great and we have time before our holidays we drove out for a second look. Marienberg Fortress is a prominent landmark on the Main […]
It is still raining a bit which is not a big deal because there are still a number of museums which we are planning to visit. Today we are setting off to visit the Museum of Industrial Culture. The museum is not very huge and it has a bit of everything in it, none of which is in […]
Today is our last day at Ai Casoni and in Italy on this trip. We started off with a lovely breakfast at the agriturismo and on the way out we got a case of Prosecco to enjoy at home then off we went to a shopping outlet just outside Treviso. After a bit of shopping a nice […]
We are going to call this an Italian adventure in Germany on the way to France. We set off to Metz about 2 hours later than we though but we got going at a really good pace, at least initially so we were not worried. We knew that there would be some traffic just outside Hockenheim because […]
We are setting off to Metz, France for the weekend. Metz is a very old and beautiful city with a lot of history. This time we are staying right in the centre of the old town – should be a lot of fun.
Today is a big game – Germany vs. Ghana. We have set up a soirée with Kasia and Volker to watch the game in German at their house. We started off with a nice dinner and some wine then more vine and some desserts. Everyone has World Cup fever and we are not different. It was […]
It is hard to capture the beauty of this road from a moving car. The views are simply breathtaking and spectacular, and I think for this reason alone we prefer to drive to these destinations. Tuscany is gorgeous, with its golden hills and winding roads, cypresses and vineyards and villas and towns perched on the top of […]
We are off for another road trip. This time we are going down south – Italy, Arezzo and beyond. Boris and Evelina have two weeks of Spring holidays so we are going to explore a bit more of the enchanting Tuscany that we all love and see where else the road takes us. We are […]
Happy Anniversary to Kasia and Volker. We are out celebrating their 17th Wedding Anniversary today. Kasia and Volker suggested we go to one of their favourite restaurants just outside Nuremberg. Once again we did not manage to get all the pictures of the food for the blog but we did manage to get the desserts into […]
It is hot! Depending which application you look at on the phone it is somewhere between 32C-36C. Even in the shade by the water it is hot, hot, hot. Even after 3 scoops of great gelato, it is still hot, so we are off to the city beach. The city beach is in the […]
Girls’s day out today is in Pottenstein. Evelina’s best friends Lisa is at our house for a sleepover. These two girls really hit it off at school and have been great friends. Today is Lisa’s turn to stay at our house. As a little treat and for a bit of a break we drove to a […]
Not far from where we live, right across Dunkin’ Donuts and St. Klara church used to be St Martha’s church that was undergoing extensive renovations. We never got to see this church inside and now it looks like we won’t. It appears that durning the renovations, the roof being the only flammable thing on the church caught […]
After less than a stellar day behind the wheel yesterday today we are back to travelling on foot – true and tested. It looks like there might be a thunderstorm later on today so we are getting out for gelato early. These are some of the beautiful homes on the same street where we live, […]
If I don’t hear Embassy and Munich in the same sentence ever again it will not be a moment too soon. Today we set off to pick up kids’ passports at the Polish Embassy. Munich is about 180km away – door to door, from our house to the embassy and this we can usually manage […]
Today we had 3 entertainment options on the table. City Park which we still have not been to, inside tour of the Imperial Castle or the Nuremberg Zoo, overwhelmingly the kids decided on the Zoo. The Zoo is located in Nuremberg Reichswald, which is an old imperial oak forest, southeast of the old town. With an area […]
Earlier this week it was no flight for you! Today an earthquake. Technically, I think it was a tremor but since we never experienced one we are calling it an earthquake. Boris and Evelina were getting ready to go to the old town while we were sitting and relaxing like we do most of the days, […]
Sandy beach and a 5 start hotel in Abu Dhabi! Check Tickets and transfers – Check Suitcases, swim shorts and sun block packed – Check Train tickets to Munich and back – Check No line up at the business class check in at Etihad Airlines – check …but the computer says NO to the passport requirements ! […]
Fearless exploration comes at a price. This is a simple account of the last 7 days of our trips starting with Wurzburg. Seven days of aimless wondering around different cities and Nuremberg of course – fueled largely by gelato twice a day and a few sausages here and there!
A bit of a different perspective on the city. Out in the evening for some gelato to enjoy a slower pace of the city.
Know as the little Venice, Bamberg has its share of bridges and canals. There are quite a number of cities in Europe that try to make that claim but we all know there is only one Venice and everything else is just a town with a bunch of canals and bridges. Bamberg is a nice and […]
We are back to Altenburg Castle in Bamberg. It is such a beautiful and secluded site that offers phenomenal vistas of Bavarian countryside. This time for the first time we decided to climb the watch tower. There are two places where you can get some spectacular views. One of them is mid way through the tower […]
Today we did a tour of Nuremberg starting in the morning with a visit to the Imperial Castle and the lookout tower, then we worked our way down through the Old Town and in the evening we took off to see the sunset over the Colosseum and the Zeppelin Field.
And now for something completely different. The Walhalla is a hall of fame that honors laudable and distinguished people, famous personalities in German history – politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue. The hall is housed in a neo-classical building above the Danube River, east of Regensburg and is based on the Pantheon […]
This is the last church on the agenda for today. Although, on the way to the car, we did try to see another monastery which was closed. The Church of the Holy Trinity, located on the Gesandtenstrasse, was built in the midst of the Thirty Years War. This was one of the first evangelical churches […]
Right in front of the Cathedral, no more than 50 meters from the front door and slightly to the left is St. Johann Monastery. The Monastery of St. John in Regensburg is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist and was founded in 1127 by bishop Konrad I of Regensburg.
The Regensburg Cathedral dedicated to St Peter, is the most important church and landmark in Regensburg. It is the seat of the Catholic diocese of Regensburg. The Cathedral is an example of pure German Gothic and counts as the main work of Gothic architecture in Bavaria. It was founded in 1275 and completed in 1634, with […]
We continue our holy week and with it the required visits to as many churches as happen to be on our way from point A to point B. Niedermünster Abbey was built and rebuilt on the foundation of the first church which was built in the year 700. At the height of its power it […]
Today we are travelling about 100km south east to Regensburg. This small city is nothing like Nurember or Wurzburg which we visited a couple of days ago. The city dates back to the Stone Age. The Celtic name Radasbona was the oldest name given to a settlement near the present city. Around AD 90, the […]
First stop, after we pared the car, is Scots Monastery from 1070. The full official name of the actual church, the most prominent building within the abbey complex, is The Irish Benedictine Abbey Church of St. James and St. Gertrude. Like many other churches and abbey this one too was burnt down, demolished, rebuilt and […]
We went out to see the sunset from the castle walls. Unfortunately the best view is from the lower gardens which together with the rest of the castle grounds closes at 8 pm. Undaunted, we set across the city in search of interesting sights and eventually a place to sit down and have a drink after […]
Wurzburg is a wonderful town. We did not quite know what to expect and we were nicely surprised. Wurzburg is a small city of 135,000 and dates back to the bronze age. It has a vibrant university and over 100 churches. Wurzburg is home to the oldest pizzeria in Germany, the oldest printing press manufacturer […]
Eleventh Century Romanesque Basilica Constructed over the stone coffin Of St Kilian, The Irish Missionary murdered here in 689. The Baroque facade was added between 1710-1716. This church is not huge but it is very interestingly decorated with vibrant way of the cross paintings which are very modern as well what appears to be a four Blade […]
The present cathedral, built from 1040 onwards by Bishop Bruno of Würzburg, reckoned to be the fourth largest Romanesque basilica in Germany, is the third church on the site: the previous two, built in about 787 and 855, were respectively destroyed and severely damaged by fire. After Bruno’s accidental death in 1045, his successor Adalbero […]
When we finished at the Wurzburg Residence it was 33.5 C in the car. There were a few lucky people who had the right car for this kind of weather.
The Prince-Bishop of Würzburg resided in the Marienberg Fortress until the early eighteenth century. This was not a suitable residence and in his opinion did not measure up to his position as an absolute monarch. Having won a small fortune in a court case, the Prince Bishop of Wurzburg decided to built a residence that […]
With Maciek here for a visit we are hitting all the big spots in Nuremberg to show off the city, get some exercise and see some beautiful sights. Today on 3 separate walks we managed to walk almost 19km in total. We walked the permitter of the Imperial Castle defence walls and moats, we walked […]
Koenigsbourg Castle is located not far from where we are hanging around today. Since we elected NOT to take a 2.5km hike to see the towering ruins of the 3 castles above the village of Ribeauvillé we decided to make the 20 min drive to see this castle instead. Koenigsbourg Castle dates back to […]
We are going out for brunch today, not the one filled with endless lines of chaffing dishes filled with food – we are thinking something more simple, less filling but equally as delicious. Sunday Brunch is more like Parisian Breakfast and no one does this better than the French themselves. We are not sure which of the […]
After dinner is gelato time and a quick look at what is what in Nuremberg so that we can plan lots of walks and photo sessions. Summer is coming and we should be back to 28C by Monday or Tuesday – we can’t wait.
No trip to Frankfurt is made without a quick stop at the Wertheim Village outlets for some uber cool – Super Dry… Contrary to deceptive Ninja writing on the store sign to make it look like this line is Japanese, it is actually a British store….
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