I was pretty fortunately this year to meet Melanie. She is from Germany but has been living in the US. When she moved back to Germany for a bit I decided to take a vacation to not only visit her, but also to check out where she is from, you know, get the guided tour from someone who lives there. So I got a ticket and headed off to Germany.
My flight was great, direct from Denver to Frankfurt. I got off the plane and walked on through customs and waiting at the other side was Melanie. It was great to see her! We headed off to see the country she grew up in… Of course, we started by getting some coffee since I was kinda jet Lagged.
The first morning I woke up Melanie was making breakfast and asked me to go to the pet store to get some feeder crickets for her brothers frogs. We were taking care of his apartment and his pets while he was on vacation and in exchange we also got to use his car. I agreed but in a small village in Germany, English isn’t exactly easy to come by… How exactly would you ask for crickets if you don’t speak any German? Melanie wrote me a note and I headed down the street to see what I could do. I walked in the store and looked around. Every where I looked I didn’t see any crickets… So finally I resorted to the note. After a quick greeting a woman took my note and grabbed some crickets and I was on my way.
We headed out to the world and over the next two weeks we were able to see Heidelberg, Sinsheim, Mannheim, Grombach, Bad Rappenau, Bad Wimpfen, Speyer and several other places along the way. We were able to see the Porsche Museum, The Auto & Technic museum and the Hockenheim ring. Yes, I know I am a nerd with the car stuff, but Melanie was very patient with my Car addiction and may have even enjoyed some of the experiences.
Melanie was great at showing me the area, we rode bikes to her families orchard, we explored Churches, castles and borgs. We ate all the local delicacies and we met people and saw what the towns had to offer. It was a great trip, a relaxing trip as well! We took photos of everything so how about I let you just check out each of the photos rather than ramble on!
Bad Wimpfen Germany
Bad Wimpfen
Borg near Sinsheim
Melanie outside of the borg near sinsheim. You can see the Vineyards in the background
A view of the Vineyards at the Borg near Sinsheim. I will have to find out what the name of this place is again.
The sunset over the Borg
a panorama of the Hockenheim ring, Melanie is sitting in the seats on the right.
A audi racing at the Hockenheim ring
Melanie had told me that Germans really like to bring their own lunch wherever they go. These guys brought an entire spread, it was quite impressive and they may have had enough for us to join them, though we didn’t ask…
The Hockenheim Ring Museum
Mannheim Wasserturm
Speyer Dom
Chris’s frogs that we were taking care of. Yes, I have a note that can get me crickets at a german zoo shop…just in case.
Sinsheim Auto & Technik museum.
Porsche Museum in Stuttgart
Daimlers first workshop, this is where the first car was created.
Melanies Grandmothers Barn and courtyard
Heidelberg Castle
Heidelberg
The old bridge in Heidelberg
I will put up another post soon of my favorite photos from the trip. I guess this one is more of a quick tour through my trip to Germany.
Josh,
Having spent 18 months in Germany courtesy of the U.S. Army—back in the Dark Ages—I really enjoyed your photos taken there. I particularly enjoyed the Wasserturm in Mannheim since that’s where I was stationed. Heidelberg was my special “respite”—enjoyed many a bier there !!! Keep up the great work—your Dad wss recently telling me about the device you created for taking the auto racing action shots—I was glad to see the photos of the real thing.
Take care,
Dick
Hey Dick, Glad you found my site. I don’t know if you found all the Germany pictures on Flickr or not, but if you click on any of the photos on my site they will take you over there. Mannheim is a very interesting place, it is incredible to see the switch between inexpensive, quickly built post war buildings and the more ornate stone buildings that were pre-war. Great place to visit and it was an awesome trip.