Home Decorating Ideas: medieval town

Kamis, 26 Januari 2012

More from my European summer 2010 trip..Regensburg, Germany, and Salzburg, Austria

08.53 Susanto No comments

Yikes! It's been a long time since I've posted images from my Summer 2010 trip around Europe, and I still have a lot to go! Today I'm sharing some pics from Regensburg, Germany, and Salzburg, Austria. Unfortunately it was raining most of the time we were in both cities, so our pictures aren't that great. Regensburg is located in the region of Bavaria. Saying that it's a charming medieval city is an understatement. The city has seen it's fair share of history, in fact the first settlements found in the city date back to the Stone Age. Radasbona, the Celtic name, was the oldest name given to a settlement near the present city. In 1135–1146 a bridge across the Danube, the Steinerne Brücke, was built. This stone bridge opened major international trade routes between Northern Europe and Venice, and this started Regensburg's golden age as a city of wealthy trading families. Regensburg became the cultural centre of southern Germany and was celebrated for its gold work and fabrics. (via Wikipedia)

An amazing Baroque church we happended to stumble into. The exterior was very unassuming.

Talk about a window seat. How beautiful is that?

The stain glass windows in the gothic Dom Cathedral were gorgeous

Salzburg is probably best known these days for the setting in "The Sound of Music." However it was also the hometown of Mozart, boasts amazing Baroque architecture, and is framed by the amazing Alps.

We probably got the worst weather of our whole trip in Salzburg. It more or less was a steady hard rain throughout the whole day.

The three above view are from the hike up to Hohensalzburg Castle

Views from inside the Salzburg Cathedral (you can see it's green domes in the above city view images)
I thought the capital detail was really unique.

Mirabell palace

Amazing gardens abound

Possibly one of the world's most elegant McDonalds

Closer to the cathedral

St. Peter's Cemetery and Catacombs is a really special site. You can see the catacombs built into the rock face.

A few of the Cathedral from within the catacombs.

St. Peter's, the Cemetery, and the Cathedral as seen from the catacombs.

Rabu, 09 November 2011

Cute HOUSE Overload - the charming medieval homes of Germany's Romantic Road

11.22 Susanto No comments

I thought by now I'd be much further into Chris and my Summer 2010 backpacking trip through Europe - but the Romantic Road tour was on July 22 - so we still have more of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Holland, Belgium, and France to go... whew.

The "Romantic Road" is a name coined by travel agents, but it is actually a road used by traders in medieval times. It runs through the south of Germany - through the Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg regions. It's call to fame are the quintessential German towns - complete with half-timbered and pastel houses, steeply pitched rooftops, cobblestone streets, and the occasional remains of city walls. You can read about each individual town along the route here.

We took a bus tour, which, I hate to say, was a mistake. We spent about 8 hours on the bus, and saw four towns - the first two for only 20 minutes, and the last two for only 15! We were really disappointed because the short amount of time was just enough to tease us into feeling like we were really missing out. I HIGHLY recommend renting a car to do this - or thoroughly researching the bus company route, or planning to stay in certain towns overnight and pick up the next day's bus.

The four towns we stopped in were Augsburg, Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber

A map of the Romantic Road
Map via LosApos.com
I've done my best to match up each photo with the correct town - but as you can see, some of them look pretty similar. If you see a mislabeled photo please let me know and I'll correct it!
We don't have pictures of Augsburg, because the highlight is the Fuggerei, which sadly, we didn't have time to see.

The below are from Nördlingen

Isn't this the cutest little pistachio-colored house?

Check out the tiny birdhouse at the top of this home

Dinkelsbuhl - this was our favorite of the towns. It wasn't overly touristy, and all the colored buildings were unlike anything I'd seen