#germany Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

September 9, 2025September 9, 2025

High on Heidelberg Castle

when you’re traveling to Germany Heidelberg it’s definitely one of the cities you should visit at the castle is very interesting. So remember when you get in this area make sure you get high on Heidelberg Castle.

River below when you are high on Heidelberg Castle — Beautiful views of the city below and the river

Nice view — One of the best views when you are high on Heidelberg Castle

Symbolism — Very iconic and important symbolism for the times when they were set on the entrance gate here

City clock — This is the old clock in the city center

Beer keg, a giant one — The giant Heidelberg beer keg

Dispenser — This is where they dispensed the beer

Chapel — You have to have a chapel in a castle

Heidelberg Castle pipe organ — Church pipe Oregon

Desk and chair — A very old desk and chair

Ornate hallway — And extremely ordinate hallway

Detailed ceiling — The ceiling of the hallway. Look at the detail

Room entrance — And ordinate room entrance

It was interesting to see Hebrew here. Obviously there was a lot of respect for the people who helped build and manage the castle

Marks in the stone — Builders’ marks in the stone

The old outside wall — This shows the old Castle wall on the outside which was built many hundreds of years ago

Cast model — The model of the castle as it is today

Complete model — Another model of the castle when it was complete

Great Frederick — This guy brought the castle to its peak architecture

Pharmacy inside the castle — There was a pharmacy inside the castle

Medicine creation laboratory — Were they concocted the medicines

This is a very old brand

August 27, 2025August 27, 2025

Walking Germany

When Walking Germany remember to look at everything and investigate interesting shops for some fascinating things for sale. But things to do are to watch and talk to people. You will meet some very interesting people wherever you go in Germany and they might be tourists or migrants.

dino insel — Bill Maher talks about “Insel” a lot. Well I found this advertising for the Dino versions

wheat ber — This is a very nice wheat beer

singers — The volunteer Heidelberg wandering chorus group

cheering on walking germany — Here they are cheering on some local business.

church walking gemany — A beautiful church inside

Toilet — This is what kids call a toilet.

Scary FIGUre — This could be very scary for a little child going to church

Not so scary figure — Not quite as scary from the front

Stained glass window — An interesting modern stained glass window

Ancient crests — Different districts represented with their ancient crestS

Cathedral model — Model of the cathedral

Spaghetti — Another wonderful spaghetti with pepper and oil with pine nuts

Vespa shop car — These are produced by the Vespa

Landshut pizza — a very tasty pizza in downtown Landshut

August 26, 2025August 26, 2025

Try Trier Germany

I recommend to try Trier Germany for several reasons. You will love some of the old architecture, the location next to the border with Luxembourg and the surrounding beauty. A one or 2 day visit would be sufficient.

August 9, 2025August 9, 2025

Relaxing Landshut

Relaxing Landshut is close to Munich and a less expensive community to park youself. Enjoy some of the very nice Italian and German restaurants here especially Ristorante Rossini at the foot of the castle. The make the best Olive Oil/Peperoncino spaghetti I have ever had. The recipe includes pine nuts and next to you on the veranda outside is some fresh basil growing you can use to garnish the flavors.

With a cigar — Enjoying a cigar in the Plaza

The European hit, the campari spritz with a new cigar offering by Toscano, the Robusto.

motorcycle group — Law enforcement officers (one here I met) formed a motorcycle touring group called the Punishers. It was a very nice and interesting discussion.

obama hat — My Obama hat on it’s Last trip. The brim disintegrated after 16 years

preparation for event — Getting ready for a holiday event

side dish in relaxing Landshut — A side dish

November 3, 2024November 3, 2024

Leipzig – Germany

OK, back to Germany. I wanted to stop over in Leipzig so here are some photos from a Sunday when everything is closed.

The church behind his statue is where he used to be the conductor. Here is what a description inside the church stated. “From 1723 until 1750, Johann Sebastian Bach was the highest ranking musician in Leipzig as Director Musices Lipsiensis and cantor at St. Thomas. Then, as now, the cantor at St. Thomas was an employee of the city. As part of his official duties, Bach was responsible for the musical education of the boys at St. Thomas School and for the music in services at the two main churches – St. Thomas and St. Nicholas – as well as the New Church (later called St. Matthew) and St. Peter’s Church. With his second wife Anna Magdalena Bach, née Wilcke, Bach lived in the old St. Thomas School on the churchyard. He went to this church for confession and to receive Holy Communion.
During his first years in office in Leipzig, Bach created new cantatas on a weekly basis – about 150 compositions in total. 30 more can be traced to later times. And these numbers do not include Bach’s Passions, cantatas on the annual occasion of welcoming a new city council or numerous compositions for special events. Bach also presented the works of other composers in the Leipzig churches as well as his own reworkings of some of them. The first performances of the St. Matthew Passion (1727) and the lost St. Mark Passion (1731) took place at St. Thomas Church, the St. John Passion (1724) and the Christmas Oratorio (1734/35) were premiered at St. Nicholas.
The interior of St. Thomas Church as it existed in Bach’s times has been removed almost entirely. This includes the two organs. The oldest parts of the large organ had been made in 1511. The smaller organ even dated back to 1489. Still remaining from Bach’s times are several pieces of Communion equipment, the portraits of superintendents in the choir, as well as the Löbelt cross and the baptismal font.

From an island in Thailand? Or is it cold in Japan?

This kid had a VR headset on to control his helicopter.

Spaghetti Aglio olio. It was pretty good

This restaurant seems to have pretty high standards

This little three squiggly mark above the door is the same I saw in the Pictish Tablet in the Highlands of Scotland and also in Ireland and also in Japan.

It seems his university was in this town.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe

October 10, 2024October 10, 2024

Regensburg & Göttingen Germany

Regensburg

there are some really interesting and beautiful cities in Germany. These are just two of them.

I was waiting months to try this pork specialty at a good restaurant. This was very nice

On the way back down the street we had coffee here on the second floor. Very nice view and relaxing

Gottingen

I have to have a Campari spritz sometimes with a Toscanello

September 25, 2024

Dacau Munich – a dark past

I did not realize how close this prison camp was to Munich but when I saw on the map I had to visit. Below is a link to information about this camp.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp

This place is massive. I decided not to walk around the whole area. Visiting the one main museum building and maybe one or two others is sufficient for the history. The rest is a walking tour.

These dots represent supporting sub camps. When I saw this map I found it a little difficult to believe after seeing even the massiveness of this main camp.

This photo above and the photo below are the infirmary areas which were also massive. But the infirmaries were not just for healing people they were for human experimentation as well.

Probably not a relative but the closest to where my family lived. I need to keep looking in other places.

This massive book contains every registered prisoner.

September 16, 2024September 16, 2024

nuremberg – The court and the city

This is the room where the criminal court for war crimes against the second world war government was held. It was built specifically for the trials

Is there any other good name for a hotdog stand?

Above the door you can see the individual panels of the different districts defined by the Lords or the church. This isSt. Lawrence basilica

Again the coat of arms of the different fiefdoms

A campari spritz which so many people seem to be drinking in the afternoon and the evening

Different from a Campari spritz but you get to know how they are made

Schöner Brunnen
Iconic fountain with Gothic church spire

This just strikes me as funny. It’s a Vietnamese restaurant advertising Japanese Ramen and avocados which are so popular, plentiful and cheap in Laos. Most of the Asian food restaurants we have seen in Europe are run either by Vietnamese or Chinese immigrants

Albrecht Dürer, sometimes spelled in English as Durer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints.

You see these extended rooms with windows and I was not able to ask anybody why they’re built this way but I suspect it’s for watching what’s going on

This one has a night in shining armor watching out for everyone

The view from the castle and the photo below explains the different sites

This was a very delicious orange sherbet with some fruit and …. just so delicious

August 4, 2024August 4, 2024

Landshut – a few notes

Landshut is a very interesting and beautiful place to visit. The old buildings, the rivers and all of the services that make it a very livable place as well. Here are just a few parting notes.

You can tell from this I like wheat beers in Germany. This is a very nice one

On the way to the castle, going up the steps, you will pass Ristorante Rossini. It is exceptional food and the service is more than you could expect from any restaurant. Just look at the fresh basil picked from the garden. In addition they are growing basil on the table so you can pick it off and put it in your food. This pizza was very delicious and the Vegetarian ravioli with the beautiful cream sauce, almost like a four cheese, was very rich but not overly.

The pizza at Pizzeria Pomodoro & Mozzarella is also exceptional. We ate here three times it was so good.

The neighboring town of Freising had some amazing history associated with one of the popes, the retired one, along with some important political stories for Bavaria.

There is constant improvement in the city. It’s such a nice place to walk around.

July 14, 2024July 14, 2024

Pride Munich 2024

The Pride March was right in the center of Munich. It was interesting to see the first parade since the Phuket vegetarian festival when people stuck sharp things in their bodies (1995) and the first stage event since Tony Bennett in 2000. No, wait, Dinah Ross in 2017. There were tens of thousands of people and kilometers of people in the parade. It was quite a fun event.

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