Wow. I haven’t made a thread in a while. But as usual, I like to make threads on my travels because traveling is mind-opening and it’s nice to have more content in forums. Disclaimer: This thread will be pretty long and be filled with random history/trivia and pics and stuff. Oh, and no comics. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! This will be a four-thread series with two threads dedicated to one country since I went around a bunch of places this time. I’ll reveal the places as I make the threads but for now, we’re going with… Germany (part 1) I know, I know. The first thing that comes to mind when we hear Germany besides cars, beer and schnitzels … A little to the rechts, plz. Buuut, Germany is actually so much more than that! (And that dude there is technically Austrian.) It is a country rich with history and people so tough and dedicated to their culture as well. They’re a very blunt bunch which is kind of refreshing, too. Anyway, Frankfurt! No, not that. Like many cities in Europe, Frankfurt is ancient. Like, Roman Empire and Charlemagne kind of ancient. In 1585, they created a rudimentary form of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to prevent scams and stuff. Unfortunately, like many cities in Germany, it was heavily damaged by WW2 bombings. Its medieval city center was almost completely destroyed. But! Like I said, the Germans are tough. They’ve rebuilt Frankfurt to be the largest financial center in continental Europe. Now! This is the Kaiserdom At a certain period, they used to elect and crown emperors and kings here. It has several incarnations (this is the fifth one) and at present it is also known as the St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral. Probably because they supposedly have his, uh, skullcap as a venerated relic. Yeah, not creepy. Here’s the interior of it! Here’s another thing that caught my eye near the center of Frankfurt. This is a memorial to the Holocaust victims and I noticed that the names of concentration camps were etched onto the base. You actually see a lot of these memorials around Germany proving that they can own up to their mistakes. (Unlike a lot of people, unfortunately.) Now, this wouldn’t be a true wolfy thread without a picture of food! We sought out super authentic German nomz and we ended up in this tavern style restaurant. So. Much. Meat. And now, we will head on over to a little town called: Rothenburg ob der Tauber Little town, it’s a quiet village. With tourists. Rothenburg is a medieval age town and one of Germany’s most preserved ones too. The city was founded in 1170. The Bubonic Plague in 1634 and the Thirty Years’ War caused the town to lose much of its population and influence. It stopped growing which is ironically how it seems so preserved. Despite it being old, it was also pretty innovative! Check out the middle of the top portion of these houses. See, that piece of wood jutting out? That’s what he said, hardy har har. Anyway, people need water. You’d need to draw water and put them in pails but that was a pain to bring all the way up with all them stairs. So, they devised this method to pretty much hoist the pails up with rope over the…wood. Kinda like in Tangled. So now we move onto St. James’s Church in Rothenburg (AKA St. Jakob) built between 1311-1484 and check this out, it has a tunnel that goes straight through it! But that’s not what this church is known for. It’s actually known for this: This really intricate piece of art that was carved by Tilman Riemenschneider is called the Holy Blood altarpiece which primarily depicts the Last Supper but in a pretty unique way. We’re used to Da Vinci’s portrayal where Jesus is at the center. However in this piece, the center is Judas with Jesus being the tallest dude at the back. The reason for this is the interpretation that without Judas, the entire prophecy would not have been fulfilled so he is central (see what I did there) to the entire thing. Also, a lot of people tend to count if there are indeed 12 apostles. You may count 11 at first but if you look closely there are, indeed, 12 apostles. Cool stuff! And now for the final city of this thread. Whew. Cologne Now, we only had limited time here so I want to focus on its main attraction because you can’t miss it. This is the Cologne Cathedral. It’s really tall. I mean really tall. At 515 ft (157 m) tall, it’s currently the tallest twin-spired church and it was the tallest structure in the world from 1880 to 1890. I struggled trying to take a picture of it just because it’s so tall. Feel my struggle. FEEL IT. Now, let’s check out the inside. Oooh. You’re greeted by this haunting silence as tourists make their way around the cathedral. It’s easy to feel small in such a place with massive pillars and huge stained glass windows. Just look at how LITTLE the people are! Anyway, that’s it for now! Hope you enjoyed this thread and I’ll be seeing you again for Part 2 of Germany. Auf bald!
Beautiful pics, Nick. I'd love to to go to Europe. One day.... As you pointed out, Germany has some incredible history aside from the national socialist party and their high strung leader, Germania was the only mainland area the romans attempted but could never fully conquer.
When you get to Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, and Heidelberg, then you will have been to three of the 5 castles I've visited while I was in Germany. Very nice pics. A lot of the food I ate there was homemade too. Your pics make me miss it kind of... Can't wait to go back again for the 5th time next year.
Love your photos Nick. But I demand more food pics! and give me some of those appealing potatoes please