Germany travel NOTES
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Southwest: Black Forest
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West: Mosel and Rhine Rivers - border of Baden-Wurttemberg with Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse.
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Central west (northern): North Rhine Westphalia: Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bonn
Margarethenhöhe - Garden City - at the edge of Essen in the Ruhrgebiet - developed by the Krupp family in 1912.
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Central (western): Hesse: Frankfort
Frankfort: Museum of Ethnology & Museum für Volkerkunde
(Praunheim and Römerstadt, garden suburbs - small, spread along the valley of the river Nidda northwest of the city. Römerstadt cut by motorway. Area now called Nordweststadt.

Odenwald: Odin's wood - two routes: the Nibelungenstrasse & the Siegfriedstrasse - Siegfried was mortally wounded by Hagen's lance at a well in today's Gras-Ellenbach, reached via the Siegfried road from Heppenheim. The Niebelungen road (a few miles to the north) passes Mt. Melibokus. Beautiful hikes through fields and woods lead from Lindenfels to the medieval towns of Michelstadt and Erback. (Southern Hesse, southwest of Darmstadt). [Pilgrim's Guide]

Rosicrucians --> "It was not long before the whole area of southwestern Germany, which had become "the region of the magicians," could more accurately be described as the "region of the witches." In 1477 a coven of witches had been routed from the city of Heidelberg, and twelve years later publication of the infamous "Malleus Malificarum" in Cologne gave the witch-hunters a bible with which to persecute the innocent for centuries to come.

"The lovely city of Heidelberg today, at whose university (Germany's oldest) Johann Faust studied more than four and a half centuries ago, offers delightful walks along the banks of the River Neckar or on the grounds of the medieval red sandstone castle on the hill. Not far from the old town hall, built in 1701, is the Market Place with its charming eighteenth-century fountain. The cheerful fruit and vegetable market, held in the open here several times a week, obscures the past history of this square, which is where witches were once publicly burned.

"In the worst years of the witch persecution few of the small towns and villages around here, or elsewhere in Germany, were free from the investigation of witch-finders. The chronicler of Treves recorded that the diocese was so "scourged, scoured and purged" of sorcerers in 1586 that in two villages only two women were left alive. In the village of Lindheim [northeast of Frankfurt on 521] on the banks of the River Nidder . . . the Witch Tower is a grim reminder of the trials that took place in the seventeenth century when men and women were hanged inside and burned alive. Today the tower of Lindheim sits on a lovely flower-filled park, but a writer who examined it a century ago described it as "supremely horrible. It is impossible to gaze into the shadows without a shudder." [Magical & Mystical Sites]

Rothenburg ob der Tauber - Most beautiful Christmas market: Reiterlesmarkt (500 years old) - inside castle.

Hesse & Lower Saxony: Fairy Tale Road

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Bavaria: Munich
Murnau (one hour by train from Munich) - cows + end of Staffelsee, then woods & snow-covered Alpenvorland in background + Münter house - yellow - Gabriele Münter painting "The Russians' House" in the Lenbach Gallery in Munich. Kottmüllerallee 6 - She lived there with Wassily Kandinsky 1908-1914, later returned there to live out her life. Blue Rider school. Also in Lenbach: Münter's "View of the Murnau Moor" & Alexei von Jawlensky's "Summer Evening in Murnau" both painted 1908.

(gourmet center 1998)
Gasthaus Glockenbach - Kapuzinerstrasse 29 $111
Hippocampus - Mühlbaurstrasse 5 $77
Ritzi - Maria-Theresiastasse 2a $72
Straubinger Hof - Blumenstrasse 5 - $52
Most famous Christmas market: Nuremberg - Christkindlesmarkt - world's top producer of children's toys. Home of Nurnberger Rostbratwurste (roast sausages) & Lebkuchen (spiced gingerbread) - medieval.

Biggest Christmas market: Stuttgart (Swabia) - in pedestrian centre. Porsche & Mercedes-Benz factories.
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East Germany
border: Elbe River - cruises (1990) - between Hamburg and Dresden.

Berlin (in Brandenburg, close to Poland): (Onkel-Toms-Hutte & Britz - ugly)

Most historic Christmas market: Dresden - Striezelmarkt - oldest (1434) - Czech & Polish borders closer than East German. Zwinger Gallery.

Hellerau Garden City - (5 miles outside Dresden)
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CHRISTMAS (through December)
http://travel.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4552341,00.html - 1/2/2003 - Travel I Stollen moments
Stollen moments - by William Cook, November 23, 2002

Smallest: Bad Windsheim - between church, town hall, & terrace of half-timbered houses.
+ Frankisches Freiland-museum - 70 reconstructed and furnished buildings, 100 acres, plus animals.
bad-windsheim.de

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Expressionists:
- Die Brücke (The Bridge): Kirchner, Heckel, Nolde, Schmidt-Rotluff
- Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Knight): Marc, Macke, Klee, Kandinsky
Museums clustered in northwestern part of Germany, linked by Autobahn:
the Kunsthalle in Bremen
the Folkwang Museum in Essen
the Kunsthall in Bielefeld
the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen & the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf.

Hamburg - stay at the cozy, centrally-located little Prem for inexpensive.
At Seebüll, north of Hamburg on the Danish border, is outstanding small museum devoted to works of Emil Nolde, including the "Life of Christ," considered his masterpiece.
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