We always have a wonderful time visiting our daughter’s family in Germany. This year they met us at the Frankfurt train station to tour a few German cities.
We walked to our hotel in Frankfort and the next day we visited Goethe’s childhood home.
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The house and gardens were lovely and the family was obviously wealthy. Although they moved from this early home while Goethe was young.
I’m always fascinated by the restored period kitchens. This one had an interesting fire place with an iron top. And there was a well under the house so a gravity pump was installed right in the kitchen.
The finest antiques were original furnishings. This clock belonged to an uncle but it was the kind of thing that was fascinating and beautiful. The three faces indicated the position of the stars, the time, and the moon phase. An animated bear in the middle will lie down when the clock needs to be rewound. The very top dial showed the year and the date which is amazing all these years later!
It was interesting to see the same families come up again as we visited Hamburg next. We took the train from Frankfurt to Hamburg.
Our first evening we went to see the Elbephilharmonie. It is a new building for the symphony that has an amazing top floor to view the city and the river.
We spent over an hour up on the top just enjoying the view and waiting for sunset over the water. It was worth the wait!
We walked around Hamburg viewing the beautiful city. We all liked Hamburg and it is the city that Clare’s employment has been based so she visits often even though she works from home.
We experienced a lot of Hamburg in a short time. We were within walking distance to the City Hall and the large square it is located on. And we saw it from the pinnacle of the bombed church building.
As part of the public transportation system, we took a relaxing ferry ride down and back up the Elbe, viewing towns and industry along the harbor way.
St. Nicholi church was bombed during WWII. Only the tower remained and it has been preserved as a memorial to all those who died in the bombing. The lower level also survived and it has been converted to a museum commemorating the tragedy of war.
The museum was a tribute to the losses of the bombing and also recreated the church wine cellar.
We also visited the Lutheran Church of St. Michael which was all white inside and found a quaint alley with a bookstore that sold the famous children’s book Struwellpeter about difficult children written in early 1800’s that was re-written as a parody of the bad Adolf Hitler. We bought a translation by Mark Twain and Rob found one written in Korean for the Dibble grandkids.
We took the train back to Aachen to stop at home for Easter. Rob prepared his traditional hot cross buns for Easter.
The next day we took the train to Bonn to visit Beethovan’s birthplace home. It was another lovely house with loads of Beethoven memorabilia. As his hearing declined he tried every medical intervention they had at the time, even shock treatments, but none were successful. There was an assortment of the ear trumpets he had to amplify tone. And a recording of what tones he had lost so what the fifth symphony sounded like to him. Writing that was an amazing accomplishment.
We walked to see the streets covered in cherry trees. The blossoms were just beginning to emerge but they were pretty. There was some shopping to be done which meant patient hanging out by some
We woke on Easter morning to a bonanza of treats from the Easter bunny and the bakery. And of course a large feast was prepared for the family. Alice did the beer pours of good German beer to accompany our meal.
One last evening at the fire pit with the family having snacks and enjoying the fire. The next day we hiked in the nearby forest and were jealous of their early spring. We would return to Denver with still more snowy days before the green started showing.
