Schwäbisch Gmünd from a different view

Even though we are spending time in and around Schwäbisch Gmünd, there is still so much to explore.

We began our day today going back to Ludwig Tomas Strasse to Felix and Steph's former home. We can help out doing a few chores that will give them more time on the weekend. While Michael spakfilla's the holes left by nails and screws, I give the house a good sweep out.  Its dusty more than anything, and the three rooms in the basement have plenty of evidence of previous spidery residents - although there is only one still there. I guess without the human presence, the eight legged variety lose interest!
Thought to take this photo as we left - the garage is the iron door and you are looking from the front door through to the back year.

Once done, we went back to Xavier Bader Strasse and the new house - which is really only about 4 blocks away to get changed and go into Schwäbisch Gmünd to have a look at the church being renovated and to have some lunch.

We lunched at Mauritius, which Steph later tells us is a chain restaurant.  We were thrilled to find that they make a fresh lemonade, but with limes, so it doesn't quite have the tang of those we had in Romania.

The St Johannis Kirche was just closing when we came in on Monday, but a quick look inside and we knew we had to come back to have a proper look. Turns out that this former church has a tower and for the princely sum of 2 euros, Michael can climb it. This is all the more special as the tower at the Schwäbisch Gmünd Minster has collapsed and no longer exists. 

The tower exists over 5 levels and climbs to a base height of 30.36 m - high enough to get those really interesting shots of the rooftops and the layout of the old centre as well as some close-ups looking down on the Munster and the nearby 'Mouse Tower' as well as the surrounding area.

There has been a recorded church on this site since 1210 AD. The current form of the former church dates predominantly to the 15th century when in 1429 the high altar was added to complete the church. In 1706 significant changes saw the church take on a more baroque form and from 1842 it was re-reromanised. It fell into disrepair and has been almost constantly under repair since 2008.

The bell tower dates from the early 13th century and was the first free-standing and tallest structure in the city. 

Found under the chancel in 1972 is the 12th century Romanesque Pomeranian, also called Staufische Madonna. This is considered the most important sculpture in the City. The amazing wall and ceiling paintings were re-created in the 1870s and re-make the original. Today, these are all under constant restoration.
The side ships of the church store the collection of carvings and statuary from this church and the Minster.

They include saintly bodies, characters that would adorn the roof-lines known as grotesques and even the odd green man.  
While looking at these, and during his climb into the heavens, Michael managed to identify three mason marks - they have not stood the weathering of time too well unfortunately.

Surrounding the church and framing Johannisplatz - the square outside the church are some really well maintained examples of early architecture dating back to the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. These buildings have each been restored over the past century. This square was once a cemetery site, and later was paved as a parade ground for the barracks that were converted from the former preacher's convent.

We finished off our visit back into the City with coffee at Cafe Margrit - too bad we sat in the plaza - Steph tells us that they have the best cakes in Schwäbisch Gmünd - in cases inside!

Still, didn't matter - it meant that we were ready to eat grilled steak with herbed potatoes, mushrooms and salad that I cooked for dinner tonight. We ate in the balmy night outside and chatted until it was time for Steph to head for bed. Felix had caught up with an old friend in Schorndorf tonight and comes in after 10.  We chat very briefly before he heads to bed with us not too far behind him.

In a place out of time?

Ah yes, that glass walled shower on view for all the room to see was interesting to say the least! Breakfast at the motel was expensive to say the least so Michael took a walk to the train station and came back with great coffees and pastries. Graz like many other cities is having road works done so we dodge them to get across the river and closer to the old city that we want to see.

Parking is not too much of a problem here - while there is no street parking nearby, there are plenty of parking stations that have been located underground. And these parking stations are like none others we have come across - spotlessly clean, very well lit, plenty of space with the spots marked by a sensored pad on the ground, piped music etc etc etc! And affordable!

They are all located at the peripheries of the main tourist areas, which makes it easy to get to things to have a look. The city sits in a valley and up the slopes of a steep hill that is crowned by the Schlossberg (castle hill). We will finish our time here with a trip up to there. But we start down in the main square, which is just around the corner from the car park. The tourist office here has put out an excellent brochure that is divided into three walks through the old city allowing you to tailor your time.

We begin our stroll in the Hauptplatz (main square) near the town hall with its domes, statues and clock. In the Square in front of the town hall there is a market place with permanent stalls selling souvenirs, food, flowers and newspapers. They are set all close together so that along with the modern settings, you still get the atmosphere of the markets places of old. There is the Archduke Johann fountain just outside the town hall. All around the sqaure (on the outer sides of the tram lines) there are a number of buildings with amazing facades of stucco or sgraffito high on their walls (including the amazing 'Painted House') and with arcades from the streets into inner courtyards. Many of the facades date back to the early 1700s!

Around behind the town hall lies the Landhaus - a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance that looks like it should be sited in Venice. Turns out that it was designed by a northern Italian architect so no wonder it looks like it does. Not only is the facade beautiful, the inner courtyard with its lamps and wells and its arched porticos is just as stunning. The Styrian parliament (the State that Graz is capital of) sits here.

From here we head up. The streets are not too steep, but the cobblestones are painful - how I hate them. And no, even after almost a year, my feet have not grown accustomed to them! And to add insult to my injury, we enter into a medieval courtyard where the cobbles are made from river stones that are laid on their edges - ouch ouch ouch! We see the Glockenspiel and buildings that have operated as various enterprises for hundreds of years, including a bakery with an amazing carved and inlaid timber store front.

I pass the shop of a tailoress who is selling traditional clothes. There are hand knitted jumpers and cardigans on a rack out the front and I can't resist buying a special little girl a special little one. It will come in very handy - no not in Darwin, in Kapooka! We heard from Antony this morning that he has been promoted to the rank of Bombadier and is being transferred to Kapooka near Wagga Wagga on the New South Wales / Victoria border as of early January as a Cadet Instructor! Anyway, back to Graz - this seamstress must be pretty good, there are three couples in there buying clothes - all Austrians!

We continue to walk up and come to the Cathedral built in 1438 - 1464 and the close by Mausoleum. Neither are open so all we can so is admire them from outside. In the architectural gems of the surrounding areas there is a Jesuit College and the 'Old' university that was founded in 1585. There are more squares with statues and more churches including the Parish Church that is a nice mix of old and new. We are now winding our way back down to the main square through narrow pedestrian streets filled with narrow shops selling all many of goods from sporting equipment to jewellery, from confectionary to eye glasses. People walk or ride pushbikes here - though not too many of them are riding uphill, just a couple of very fit young men - most people get off and push their bikes!

Now its time for lunch. Well, I'm not sure what you call the meal that covers both lunch and dinner - lunner? Kind of like brunch at the other end of the day. Anyway, whatever it is, we are having it now. We walk away from the main square looking for somewhere that takes our fancy and we find the Keller Restaurant through an alleyway and a courtyard. We are hungry, but boy, these meals are huge!
Entrees:
Champignon gebacken mit Sauce Tartare (Deep fried champignons with Tartare sauce) Michael
Emmentaler gebacken mit Preiselbeeren (Deep fried Emmentaler cheese with Cranberries) Maria
Mains:
Gemischter Grillteller mit Reis, Bratkartoffeln und feinem Gemüse (Mixed grill with rice, pan-fried potatoes and vegetables) Michael
Fiakergulasch mit Ei, Gurkerl, Würstl, Servietterknödel (Beef goulash Fiacre style with egg, gherkin, sausage, white bread dumplings) MariaWe had been eyeing off the breaded apple slices for dessert, but the meals are so big that we can't finish either of them, so there is definitely no room for desserts! Our hunger pangs put away, we head back out into the afternoon sun to head towards the Schlossberg high on the hill overlooking the city. There are three ways you can get up there - on foot up the hundreds of steps, using the funicular or via a lift that goes up through the centre of the mountain - our preferred choice today. For the tiny sum of €2.80 we both get return tickets!

Now this has been my eagerly awaited highlight of the day. The clocktower that sits high above the city and is visible from almost every part of it is the best known symbol of Graz. Trouble is that the clock's hands are back to front with the small hand showing the minutes and the large hand, the hour! And while we don't have time to climb all the way to the castle, we do spend some time at the clocktower, admiring the scene over the rooftops of Graz and the Mur River. The hoarding around the top of the tower was erected as a lookout for the fire brigade. And then there is the bell tower just a little further up the hill that Michael dashes up to see.

But dont think for a minute that Graz is trapped in some time warp. Just as the old city shines, there are a number of very futuristic buildings that have been commissioned. Most notable are the Kunsthaus Graz built in 2003 to host exhibitions, and the Mursinel - a floating structure in the Mur River connected to the banks by two weaving footbridges. It houses a restaurant and an amphitheatre. They sit shoulder to shoulder with the architecture of times long past, complementing rather than competing with them. And their wierd shapes seem very much at home amongst the myriad of towers that were there long before them.

And so our time has come to leave Graz and head for Munich. We have a four hour drive ahead of us which means that we won't get there until after 8 pm. As we are leaving the city, the afternoon light is fading fast. Gosh, it wasn't all that many weeks ago that it was light until the late hours of the night!

As we travel across Austria we are heading back into the land of the high snow capped mountains (and yes, they have already had snowfalls high on the peaks)! For quite some time we are actually travelling throug the mountains in a series of tunnels - the longest being 8.3 kms long is the longest we have travelled on our trip. When we see the last breath of the sun gently washing the wispy clouds with a soft rosy hue, and the mountain tops gleaming in that last light of the day, with small villages burrowing down for the cool night in the valleys below (it is now 4°C), I understand why my Dad loved this part of the world so much and kept coming back.

We are travelling the motorways and as soon as we reach Germany, just past the city of Salzburg, the speed limit free Autobahn sees the traffic take off in a frenzy of fast paced racing. Honestly, some of the cars are travelling well in excess of 200 kph - in the dark. Not us though. We keep to a much more sedate 120 kph! We make good time and hit Motel One in Putzbrunn just outside the main centre of Munich about 8:20 pm. Oh for a bed. On checking in, the receptionist Consuela, remembers us from our last stay here in July - now THAT is what you call great customer relations! She does say however that friendly guests make it easy to remember them!! Ain't she sweet.

A trip through Tuscany

Now that Helen has gone home we plan to slow down for a few days. The last five weeks has been pretty tiring for everyone, but we really did want her to see as much as she could with a good variety of experiences thrown in.
We have ten days before we meet up with Donna in Zagreb and so have been pouring over Earth Google and through the Lonely Planet guides trying to decide which way to head. In the end, we have decided to stay a little longer in Italy and try to see some more of the interior.

On Booking.com where we make many of our accommodation bookings, we have found a traditional family run working farmhouse, offering bed & breakfast. Azienda Agrituristica Il Sarale in Montone is near Perugia and Assisi and supposedly ideally situated to explore the beatiful landscape and hilltop towns of Umbria. And to cap it all off, there are lots of great comments about the authentic homegrown Umbrian food cooked by the owners Sarah and Alessandro. So we have made a booking for 2 nights and will head off via two really intriguing looking little towns to the south of us - San Gimignano and Colle di Val D'Elsa.

It never fails to amaze me how resourceful people can be. I mean just look at how the washing is hung out in the apartment blocks behind ourhotel. Leaving Florence was easy - the Vivahotel Fleming Novoli was close to the airport and the motorway - just two turns and we were headed south east back past Perugia again and into the hills of Umbria.

The colours of autumn are shining through the trees everywhere now. Even though it is still unseasonally warm (so everyone says) it has cooled off enough for the leaves to turn. We come upon Colle di Val D'Elsa first - travelling through the floor of a narrow valley that is heavily treed with groves of olives - and yet the soil looks thin and lacking. Up on the ridges are the towns and villages that we all have a picture of, in our heads - these are the towns of Tuscany and Umbria and if you have ever seen the movie 'Under the Tuscan Sun' then you will know exactly what I am referring to.

As we come up the hill to the town, we get our first glimpse of San Gimignano a couple of hills away and we know that we were right to come this way! Colle di Val D'Elsa on the other hand seems a much larger town. We enter it through quite a bit of new housing developments that include some large residences with all the trimmings, multi-car garages, pools etc. Hmm, some money here we think. And then we round a bend towards Il Centro and see the outer walls of the old town. Can't turn down this road, but its not long until I find one I can take. Heaps of traffic rushing - away from the Centre?? Gosh, its lunch time - again! Everything seems to be locked up as tight as a drum including the couple of crystal shops we see (the town is known for its crystal) - that is everything except the restaurants - and we are not hungry yet. So we take a drive through the back streets to get a bit of a feel for the place. We won't stop now though as we don't have time to wait for things to re-open.

So we head back down the road to the turnoff for San Gimignano. Siuated in the Siena ara of Tuscany, this is certainly one memorable town. It is visible for miles due to its towers that loom above the rest of the town, and over the surrounding landscape. It has something of a magical draw, pulling the curious tourist closer and closer. Parking is a premium and this shold have been fair warning to us that there were plenty of people there today. In the end, Michael takes the car to park it and I alight at the middle of the ancient gates. There is no way that I want to add any more of an uphill walk to the day - we already know that inside the town walls that there is a climb to the top!

And yes, there are plenty of tourists wandering the streets. There is a storm brewing and true to form, as soon as we are up in the main square, waiting for the tourist office to re-open at 3 pm (its now 1:40 pm), that storm hits. We have to feel some pity for the poor market vendors who are in the middle of packing up when the rain arrives. The two main squares are emptying of traders and are now quite filled with rubbish. Its not long before they are all gone and the council workers arrive to clean up after them - in the rain, and in their little trucks and sweepers - although there is one fellow with a twig broom studiously sweeping everything into the path of the mechanical sweeper. Michael goes to the City Hall to climb the Torre Grande - the tallest tower in town. He reports that the tower is filled with the remnants of painted walls and that the views over the town and the surrounding countryside are marvelous - marred only by the rain. While he is up there the storm hits with all its might. No lightening, but plenty of thunder bellowing around the ridge and echoing off the stone buildings like a ball thrown by some petulant child. It feels trapped, and those of us waiting it out in the lee of the small building overhangs feel just as trapped!

Given that we have to wait and decide now is as good a time as any to have some lunch. So we walk through to the Piazza and stop at the Bar La Cisterna which looks out across the square with its covered well. We browse through the menu that is very reasonably priced and finally settle on:
Zuppa Toscana (Vegetable soup with bread [in the soup]) Michael
Mediterranea Insalatone - insalate miste, pomodoro, uovo sode, tonno, acciughe, olive nera (Mediterranean Salad - mix of salad, tomato, eggs, tuna, anchovies and olives) Michael
Panini Boscaiolo - speck e provola (Robusto bread roll with speck and provolone cheese) Maria
Matched with hot coffee it was the perfect lunch on a dampish day.

Lunch done, the rain has eased a bit but not before it has chased a good number of the tourists off. So we figure that its a good time to go and have a look at the church. We had not originally planned to do this, but I was looking through the local book while Michael was climbing the tower and it really looks like something else. We pay the entry fee and walk into a space that is fully covered in frescoes of the Old and New Testaments. These churches are few and far between and were painted so as to educate the masses as to the messages of the Bible. It includes (behind a sneezing Michael) frescoes depicting the horrors of hell.

That done, we venture back into the main Piazza to find that the storm has completed its venting and left in its wake a crystal clear afternoon with no hint of the haze that had been apparent that morning. Michael goes back to the Tower and begs another climb - the same sentry is on duty and he winks and ushers Michael back inside without him having to buy another ticket - thank goodness for common sense and decency!

Back down he comes for the second time and it is now time for us to head over to Città di Castello in the Umbria region where we are spending the next two nights (we might even extend it if we like what we find!) The drive is about 2 hours 15 minutes and as there is no exact address we have Kate programmed with the latitude and longitude coordinates. We pass quite close to Perugia again (where we stayed en-route to Assisi a week or so ago) and to Siena. We pass lots more of the walled towns on ridges and castles and other strongholds. Seems like there has been a bit on conflict in this region over time!

Just after 6 pm we turn off the motorway and on to the back roads travelling along rich crop areas with lots of decaying sunflowers (god how they stink) and believe it or not - hectare after hectare of tobacco! We climb ever higher into the hills around Lake Trasimeno until finally Kate directs us in to the middle of a field. Well, at least that is where she thinks the coordinates I have input are. We just continue up the road following the signs for Azienda Agrituristica Il Sarale. At first we actually go passed it and on turning around, find ourselves tapped momentarily by a shepherd moving his flock of sheep. There is a lame one at the rear - don't rush girl, I know just how you feel!

We wave as we pass them on the run back to the farm. Sarah and Alessandro and their two young sons greet us warmly and Sarah offers a glass of wine on the patio at the back of the house as we watch the last of the suns rays setting. We are shown to a ground floor family room, just off the dining room. Lovely, no stairs!
Dinner is served at 8:30 pm - an antipasti plate of local cheeses and home cured meats folowed by a primo plati of Maltagliati pasta with heted vine ripened tomatoes, then a secondi plati of thick slices of roast pork served with spinach. Dessert was a rich chocolate cake served with coffee and liquers (grappa). And yes, the reports on Booking.com and their claims on their website ring very true - great provincial food! We share our meal with other guests who are staying for as little as one night right up to ten nights. And yes, we have booked for another two days!