Ladenburg

A small, quiet and peaceful town along the river Neckar

I never heard of this place before. Actually to be honest, places like Worms and Speyer were unknown to me before I came to Mannheim. I only heard that Heidelberg is near Mannheim, and Mannheim lies between Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen. And when I came here, because of the free semester ticket, we could travel to nearby places, and hence I got to hear about places like Speyer and Worms. Only a few mentioned Weinheim, no one whom I spoke to mentioned Ladenburg. And I do not remember seeing it in Lonely planet. And so I actually came across Ladenburg on the train on my way to Weinheim about 2 weeks ago. It was this image from the train that made me decide to take a look at this small town:

This view can be seen when the train crosses the Neckar river, however this shot was taken in Ladenburg when I was at the pedestrain side of the bridge itself. Those houses you see houses that people live in, and the tall tower the right hand side is the Wasserturm (water tower, which Mannheim also has one, a landmark that Mannheimers seem to be proud of)

Karl Benz (the Automobile designer, founder of the Benz company) lived here from 1901 till his death in 1929.

Certain parts of the city walls are still preserved, although the well below is obviously not in use.

Dalbergschule (Grundschule - something like primary school)

Markplatz und die Fachwerkhäuser (Market place and timbered houses)

Frankly speaking, most German cities have the same landmarks and street names, places like Markplatz, Bismarkplatz, Berliner Platz, Altstadt or street names like Hauptstraße, Bismarkstraße or Bahnhofstraße. And at the same time, most cities' Altstadt have about the same designs and things to see, such as the Rathaus, (city hall), Stadtbibliothek (city library), some Doms and Churches, a fountain or two, and the main street in which shops line up. Ladenburg is no exception. What caught my eye that day was however, I noticed that on almost all of the Fachwerkhäusern have the year in which they were constructed on them.

Markplatz with the St. Gallus Church behind

1598 - today an entrance to a bistro

1750 - today a shop (can't remember what it was selling)

1689

1603

1541

1577 - today a Apotheke (pharmacy like Guardian)

erbaut 1480 - constructed in 1480

Ladenburg is quite a small town with a population of less than 12000 people and not much activity taking place. As I walked around, I did not notice establishments like fast-food restaurants, cinemas, Spielothek (shops containing jackpot rooms or coin slot machines), Porn movies shop or discos. I admire the simplicity and slow pace of life there. As I was there in the late morning and walking around in the early afternoon, school had just dismissed and the students were all riding home on their bicycles. They were havin fun running around, guys chasing after girls, some kids going into the tall lalang grass to look for some insects to catch while another group of teens were trying to do flipovers by kicking on the treetrunk to flick themselves. Along the river, people were walking their dogs unleashed. In fact the dogs here were often unleashed and you see their owners bringing them everywhere - inside shopping centres, cafes, even on the buses and trains.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/12FebLadenburg