Tag: Germany

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Bacharach, Germany – Model Medieval Town

On a bend of the Rhine River above Mainz sits the small town of Bacharach. Nestled among the varied and many castles of the west bank, its row of buildings and high walls demonstrate historically how important this part of the Rhine was in the Middle Ages.

Bacharach – Above Burg Stahleck – August 2021

The walls of the Rhine River valley provide an ample perch for the many castles and fortresses that were built to protect the towns along its banks. The Stahleck Castle sits above this small town and extends it length of walls, turrets and towers around the small community like a net from above. The curtain of walls is formidable in both height and width, being its strongest at river level, where perhaps most of the attacks (if any) would probably originate.

The Town

There is no real center of town, since it is more of a stretch of houses and building along the Rhine. Points of interest include the main street called Mainzerstraße, where all of the shops are located, Blücherstraße which starts at Saint Peter’s church and continues up through the Steeger Tor, a smaller street called the Langestraße which parallels the main street and the beautiful park along the banks of the Rhine.

A main attraction here is the beautifully preserved Altes Haus. It is here where Robert Stolz wrote his operetta Wenn die kleinen Veilchen blühen, or “When the little violets bloom”, which was eventually performed in the Haag in 1932. Aside from that, it is an excellent example of Half-Timber, or Fachwerk framing.

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The hillsides in this area are dominated by vineyards, the area being a major wine producer for Germany. There are many Vintners here and many, if not all, sell directly to the public. Unfortunately after taking so long to eat, we were not predisposed to try and visit any of them.

Restaurants

There are several restaurants in town to choose from, all of which appear to serve a mixture of traditional German fare and some Mediterranean. It is probably preferable to find something on one of the side streets, since traffic is still allowed through the main thoroughfare.

Restaurant Burg Stahleck

We choose this restaurant based on its menu and amount of outside seating. Plus we were just lucky to get the last table with its advantage at being in a very strategic corner, in order to view the goings on in town.

Bacharach is indeed a great place to spend a day or afternoon. The combination of the town, the banks of the Rhine and Castle above it provide more than enough to do for anyone in the area looking for a day trip.

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Dreieichenhain, Germany – Fachwerkhaüser Allesamt

I considered a title in English, however none appeared fitting to me, or at least to my ear. The above essentially translates to Timbered Houses All or all of them. Most, if not all (I didn’t take a census) are built in this style, at least within confines of the ring wall.

Half-Timbered House – Dreieichenhain, Germany

The exemplary example shows all the features of a timbered or half-timbered house in this region of Germany. In fact, Dreieichenhain lays on a three thousand kilometer (appr. 1800 miles) long Deutschen Fachwerkstraße of timbered framed houses in Germany. This virtual road runs through Niedersachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Hessen, Thüringen, Bayern and Baden-Württemburg. This town lays on the portion from the Rhine to the Main and Odenwald.

As you walk along the Fahrgasse, the main street in Dreieichenhain, there are several signs explaining the history and method of this type of construction. In typical German fashion, each timber has its own name and in many cases they may have multiple names, depending on their actual purpose.

These include the Rähm or Rähmbalken for the top beams and Schwelle or Grundschwelle for the beams located on the bottom. Echpfosten, Eckstiel and Eckständer may all be used as names for the column posts used for the corners of the buildings.

Here are some additional examples of this construction practice, which many tourist find to represent the idyllic German town. All of them have very restrictive auto and driving rules, many of which require you to park outside the town and walk in. Though we parked outside the town and walked in, the walk was rather short, even though there were two small traffic circles that we had to walk through. While doing so we discovered the town also has its own parking area a few hundred meters from one of the town gates.

The Untertor Gate – Dreieichenhain

Aside from the interesting houses the town is surrounded by the typical Roman wall. This wall has only three gates, through which anyone approaching or leaving the town must pass. The rest of the wall is sparsely populated by lookout towers. The wall is also supplemented and takes advantages of some the buildings in the town to supply part of its construction. For example the church and several stone buildings that were incorporated and included in the wall in order to remain part of the town proper.

The Ruins

Near the Untertur entrance are the ruins of the Burg, or castle, which was rather small, but probably adequate for a town of this size.

The Castle Ruins – Church In The Background – Dreieichenhain

The castle has had a lot of work on it to stabilize its structure and to make it safe for tourists to enter. There is not much to see, but you can enter the ruins and discover the old main hall chimney and other construction items of interest.

Ericka And Patti – Dreieichenhain Castle – Dreieichenhain, Germany – August 2021

Below is another view from outside the ruins and one of the main hall with chimney.

Restaurants

La Table

Though actually a restaurant, it appears as a rather quaint little boutique coffee shop that sells amazing cakes and desserts. We stopped at La Table for some refreshment, after we had completely discovered what this little town had to offer, and what the local weather kind of forced us into sitting under some kind of cover. Our attempt to sit outside under the coffee shop’s awning was dashed, when what started out as a shower turned into a full blown thunderstorm. We persisted in our belief, along with another cute little old lady from town, that we would be able to sit it out under the awning. But soon enough it rained harder and harder and then the wind picked up and drove us all inside.

Gabi And Ericka – La Table – Dreieichenhain, Germany – August 2021

Luckily, most of the other guest had been driven home by the inclement weather so there was plenty of seating for the rest of us inside, including the little old lady who turned out to be quite the chatterbox. So we ordered up some glasses of Martini Rosso, Prosecco, and hot chocolates along with some cake and had a nice little Kaffeepause out of the rain and eventually hail.

The Burgweiher – Dreieichenhain, Germany

Above a parting shot of the castle’s water source from the nice little town of Dreieichenhain on the Deutschen Fachwerkstraße.