Weinheim an der Bergstraße

The first time that I sweated since I arrived in Germany

Starting to get addicted to the idea of hopping into a last minute train and going to another city without any map, I went to the Hbf again and took a train to Weinheim, which was about 20 minutes ride. Previously I have read that Weinheim is a beautiful town as well as I decided to have a look. I wish I'd have been more prepared because it turned out to be unexpectedly tiring which left my whole back aching. But it was worth it actually. Armed with a waterbottle and 3 bananas, I walked up the path of the hills leading to these 2 castles. And I did perspire.... although the weather was quite cold and it rained quite heavily as I attemped to walk up the hills.

Windeck Castle - My first landmark

Armed with zest, I acutally managed to reach the top with ease. Perhaps it is because this was the first landmark I approached and diminishing marginal returns have not set in.

This castle is located on top of a 222 meter hill.

Can you see a rainbow? took this shot along the way while climbing up.

I risked my life for this shot... went off the track, tried to balance on the slides and took the picture of the Altstadt (old city) and Markplatz (market place)

View of the city once I reached the castle

It was originally construced in the 12th century, although much of it has been destroyed and continuous efforts have been made to safeguard the castle.

Climbed up the tower with much difficulty cos there was no light to guide me! And the stony steps were very high and slippery.. due to the rain.

Wachenburg Castle

Acutally this is not really considered a castle but more of a Korporationhaus (Fraternity house) built by the Weinheimer Senioren-Convent, which is like a Student Association Corps. It was built somewhere between the time 1907 to 1928.

This building stands 402 metres high above the ground. Can you actually see it? Nowonder I walked this one up like mad.... after descending from the first castle.

Finally I reached!

Check out all the colourful coat of arms of the Corp.

Going down to the Altstadt and Marktplatz

After having enough of the Wachenburg, I took a slow walk down and found myself in some fairy-tale lookalike houses. In German they are called "Fachwerkhaus" - timbered house. Most of them are built during the 17th century and such houses are commonplace in Germany, and cities which are fortunate enough not to be bombed in WWII still preserve such houses. If you notice carefully, the front door is very short. I had to bend down a little to make my way through one of the doors, which made me wonder how tall people were at that time.

Can you still see the Windeck castle on top?

Marktplatz (In old Germany, every town has a marketplace which lies in the centre of the innercity)
Rathaus - Town Hall

Schlossgarten - Palace garden behind the Rathaus

Weinheim is beautiful because it still retains its flavour of a few hundred years ago, especially in the Altstadt and Markplatz. You still see the old buildings which were built long ago and continue to exist today, in which businesses like cafes and boutiques can be found in these old buildings. I have a feeling if you continue to read more of the posts coming up, you'd see castles and castles and more castles. I once heard that there are > 300 castles in Germany!

Along the way back to Mannheim, I passed by Ladenburg... hmmm looks nice too.. Shall add this to my list of places to go.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/06Feb08Weinheim

Feiern auf der Straße (Street Party - Mannheim)

Today happened to be the last day of the celebrations of the Fasching in this region, and as a result most of the shops were closed by afternoon time, to make way for the street party. After coming back from Worms, I dropped my stuff and went out again, to check out the street party within the shopping district of Paradeplatz in the Innenstadt of Mannheim.

And boy it was quite happening. Babies, Kids, Teenagers, Adults and even the Elderly could be seen dressing up in costumes and dancing away! Every stage blasted music and the people just danced on the street as though Germany has just won the world cup. It seems to me that whenever there is a party everyone knows how to dress up and be real crazy. Even the aunties, possibly the age of my mother, are also dressed up!

German teenagers on top of the telephone booths.

In terms of costumes I thought this one was reallly cool. (The Military Uniform of East Germany)

Horny German girls?

Hmmmm......

No German party is complete without Sausages and Steaks stuffed in Bread. I had one myself too....

..... as well as Beer and Alcohol.. however during this period of the time, because of the cold weather, Glühwein (Mulled wine) is also very popular. Basically it is wine that has been boiled hot. I am not sure if any other things are added but it tastes to me like boiled wine. I'll still stick to beer.

When will the next party be? When school starts?

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/05Feb08StreetpartyFinaleOfFaschingMannheim

Worms

A blend of yesterday and today

Its not the kind of crawling worms that I'm going to blog about here. Rather it is about possibly the oldest city in Germany. Worms is a city that is in Southwest of Germany along the Rhine. It therefore lies closeby to Mannheim. It took me only 20minutes to get to Worms from Mannheim via train.

It was actually a last minute decision to visit Worms. Overly-excited over my free Semesterticket and that I have just finished lunch at the Uni Mensa (canteen) and decided to head to Mannheim Hbf (Hauptbahnhof - Main Train Station, every city in Germany has one), I saw on the Departure Schedule that there would be a train going to Worms leaving in 1 minute time. I rushed to the platform and was lucky to get into the train before it started moving. And I did all that without thinking if I really knew how I'd navigate myself at Worms without any map or any knowledge of what I'd be expecting to see.

But it turned out to be quite a surprise. Upon alighting from Worms Hbf, I did not see any signs of ancient buildings except the Hbf building which looked quite ancient to me. I ventured far out of the Innenstadt and made sure I could still remember where I came from. I was also lucky that there were signs showing the places of interest, and I followed them, which led me to some very beautiful sights:

Cathedral of St Peter, was finished by 1181. Unfortunately most of it ceased to survive history through wars. I bought 5 postcards of the Dome from the caretaker in the Cathedral.

This monument was used to mark the entrance to Worms. Leaving Worms using this road would lead to Bürstadt.

Unfortunately much of the old buildings of Mannheim was destroyed during the 2nd world war. In fact Germany is well known for such medieval castles, churches and historic buildings......

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/05Feb08Worms

Spazieren gehen im Waldpark, Fasching in Ludwigshafen, Schwetzingen

Spazieren gehen am Sonntag im Waldpark (Strolling on a Sunday in Waldpark)

Waldpark is a nature reserve that is somewhere south of Mannheim, and today we woke up really early to take a walk. In fact it is a common German pasttime to walk on Sunday. I was introduced to Ian's friend who also just arrived in Mannheim and he will be attending German preparatory courses like Ian before studying full time in Germany.

as you can see from the exhaled air as we speak, you can imagine how cold it is.

Nature trail
It was meant to be a puddle of water, but well... it got frozen and my shoes crushed it.

Verrücker Fasching in Ludwigshafen (Crazy Carnival at Ludwigshafen)

The march possession which I saw on Saturday in Mannheim (earlier post) was just a mini appetizer to what I was going to experience in the afternoon. Ludwigshafen is just seperated by a river away from Mannheim, and so we went there in the afternoon to catch the parade. It was something like a chinggay festivals, with march past by kids, adults and even the elderly. Each mascots were actually by different German firms or associations. And as they marched past, they threw sweets, popcorn and other snacks at the people watching, and everyone scrambled to grab them. Most people even brought along their bags they use for shopping (in Germany you do not get plastic bags when you shop) to fill them up with sweets. And as the paraders marched past, they greeted us with Ahoi!

Ahoi!

They came in trucks like this and threw sweets from the trucks at the watchers

And some crazy people who lived along the streets used their fishing rods and umbrellas to catch the sweets!

My stash for the day.. not bad considering I spent a lot of time on videos n snapping away instead of picking up sweets

And I also videoed some of the very interesting costumes and march past by different groups. All can be found in the picasa online folder. All in all it was a crazy day. Kids dressing up in different mascots. Even adults and some eldery are in wacky costumes. The policeman on duty were disturbed by the march past people and their cars sprayed with streamers. You'd never see this in Singapore. No wonder Steffi, my German friend who is now in Singapore said that Fashing is when hell break loose.

Eislaufen und Schloß in Schwetzingen (Ice skating and Palace in Schwetzingen)

After having enough of the parade, we hurried down to Schwetzingen before it got dark.. yeah the sun sets at like 5.30pm here in Germany during this period of the year. Schwetzingen is a small town which is about 20minutes via train from Mannheim. And like almost every German cities, you see castles/palaces everywhere once you step into the inner core of the city. The streets in Schwetzingen gave me the feeling that this is an expensive place to live in. At the same time, what caught my attention was the outdoor ice-skating rink. It was interesting because the temperature was like 2-3deg but not 0. According to Hong Keat, it could be due to because chemicals were added to make the water freeze at a slightly higher temperature.

Sun was about to set when we reached there at 5plus

The snow on the floor is real. It was just being showeled off the skating ring so that it is still skatable for the next group of people.

Schloß (Palace) in Schwetzingen next to the skating ring. Actually it looks very common and you see palaces almost everywhere in Germany. Shall blog about the one in Mannheim next time.

Schwetzingen at 6pm

Ok, time to sign off. I am going to cook dinner now. I bought dried Pasta with white sausages which I am going to have for dinner. Hopefully I am still able to blog during this time as school has not yet begun for me.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/03Feb08StrollingAtWaldparkFaschingAtLudwigshafenAndSchwetzingen

http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/WaldparkFaschingSchwetzingenCharmaine

First 2 days in Mannheim

Sunrise in Mannheim - View from my room window (07: 27am)

NeighbourhoodHi everyone, I have started an online photo album and the pictures can be found at this site: http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/

It is now 7.54pm in Germany, which is 2.54am in Singapore. I am still suffering from Jetlag actually. The first two days was well... very very tiring although there were lots of things to carry, do and see.

In terms of sightseeing, I spent the 2 days walking around my neighbourhood and in the innercity of Mannheim. Here are some pictures of my neighbourhood, and I liked the botak trees effect, it gives a very nice feeling to the whole thing.

Innenstadt (Innercity)

The guy above is Hong Keat, he studies Chem eng and also arrived yesterday from Holland, where he spent 1 semester on exchange there. Now he is in Mannheim on one semester of internship with BASF. He's staying 1 block away from me and so the four of us went out walking within the innercity today.

Fasching (Carnival)

Actually Mannheim is not that ugly as what everyone claims, at least I found the innercity to be quite colourful during this weekend, because of a Carnival and parade that was going on, although it was not as grand as those Carnivals in Köln or Mainz, but still it was not bad after all. At first I thought it was a wedding because of the first pic below, but it turned out to be actually a march-parade. There were also games stations and rides.

Essen (Food)

I have not started shopping for groceries yet, so I am still eating out.. looking for cheap eateries. The cheapest solution is of course to cook, I'll do just that once I have visited the supermarket. Today I have the chance to eat my favourite currywurst (curry sausage) again. It was much better than the one I tried in Münster 2 years ago. The container was also very interesting. If you look carefully, its actually an waffle cone which can be eaten. The other thing you see is the Turkish Döner (Kebab) with beer of course, and the garguantuan bread is from a Turkish bakery. And check out the varieties of sauages, which I snapped when I walked past a shop selling only sausages.



http://picasaweb.google.com/mannheim08/First2DaysInMannheim