On to Mannhiem

What better way to start my visit to Mannheim, after adjusting to the news about Karl, than to sit across from a beautiful Fraulein, Karl's grand daughter Elena. She even needed some help (very little help) with her French homework, so we worked on that after dinner.

But first, about dinner. We ate (for my third time) at a wonderful restaurant in Moelhenbach, known for its schwienhaxen (pork hocks), and yes, for my second time, I did have the schwienhaxen Siegfried, named after one of the great knights of the Nibelung, who hunted in these woods, known as the Odenwald, or old woods. What a great meal. Of course I could not help but thinking of some poor pig named Siegfried stumbling around on a wooden leg, but the eating sure was great.

After dinner, we went to Michelstadt, which is a lovely old Odenwald town, pretty much unruined by modernization. Of course that makes it a tourist destination, and things were hopping in the main square near the Rathaus and the hotel where my mother kept my uncle from falling on top of Kaiser Bill back in around 1911. The town is beautiful, even when it was filled with tourists (yeah, yeah, including me), and as we were leaving, I counted over 50 large tour buses before I really got tired of counting them, and I think I was only about half way there. But they did have a lovely Christmas market, although most of the things were factory produced, which is a shame. And of course there was gluwien wherever you turned, and I could not avoid getting at least one mug of gluewien, with the name of the town stamped on the mug. A warming and inexpensive souvenir of the trip there.

Along with all of the tourists, and all of the booths trying to sell things to tourists, there were some really worthwhile things that were on display. There was an old mill that served as a museum in the town, and they had an exhibit of the types of grain that had been milled there. There was also a wonderful couple cranking away on their automated hurdy-gurdies, or at least that is what I would call them. I normally do not like to give out euros to street folks, but this couple certainly earned a few euros from me for making the wonderful music, and displaying the marvelously kept old instruments. I wonder if Wagner heard them when he was writing the Ring Cycle Opera?

Speaking of opera, it would be hard to imagine wandering through this beautiful old German town without bursting into song, and so it was no surprise when I turned a corner and ran into a bunch of carolers. That is Klaus on the left, and Lutz on the right.
Despite the sadness surrounding the death of Karl, it was a wonderful first day in the Mannheim area (actually, Klaus, Lutz and Petra all live and work in Viernheim, just outside of Mannheim.)