The Road Goes Ever On

Monday, July 30, 2012

Freiburg Augustiner Museum

I really liked this museum. It is just a city museum, but it is superbly well done. It has collected much of the old regional art, much of it 14th and 15th century, so old that we will never know the artists, apart from "Master of the Upper Rhine," or "Master of Lake Constance," etc. It makes wonderful use of the very old Augustine monastery. And it preserves most of the great and very old art from the Freiburg Cathedral. I could post scores of pix...

Main hall, statues, gargoyles, etc. from the cathedral

A beautiful 14th century Pieta

A Hans Bladung Grien madonna and sleeping child, 1520

Grien's Cupid and Flaming Arrow; early 16th

Martin Schaffner Last Judgement, c. 1500

Cathedral stained glass: "the sorrowful man"was a genre
piece in the later middle ages; here's Mary as the
sorrowful Madonna; ouch!

From the cathedral treasury, a giant silver altarpiece

A marvelous tapestry on the sins of women; Vicki insisted
on individual pix of each sin

Higher view of the hall; the statues various saints and
biblical figures; the gargoyles (later), the seven cardinal
sins, etc.

Old organ

I never miss a circumcision; such a large knife?

A buxom 16th century Eve; interesting how tastes change;
this is about midway between the skinny maidens of the
16th and Rubens' full-figured beauties of the 17th; FWIW;
AND, Vicki asks, how come Adam gets a fig
leaf and Eve doesn't?

French-frying St. Vitus

More cathedral windows preserved now in the museum

And a final view of the hall, with gargoyles

Freiburg Cathedral

We briefly toured the Freiburg cathedral, spending a bit more time with the surrounding market day and downing a last couple wursts, but enjoying the cathedral nonetheless.

The cathedral as it appeared in the 1820s

In July, 2012; sorry about all the trucks; market day was ending

The construction was largely sandstone and in
need of ongoing renovation

1295, right?

The usual Last Judgment tympaum at the stern, unusually painted; the Hell
section, of course

Nave view

Altar panel, coronation of the Mother Goddess; alas, I didn't catch the artist's name

Because the putti peering out from under Mary's robes is as cute as any of Rafael's

Speaking of putti, this is only the 2nd cathedral we have seen in Europe that
provided work space for the little ones

Very old medallions in the window here

And a nice sandstone Fall tympanum

Freiburg

We drove on to Freiburg and found the modestly-priced stellplatz, where we stayed a couple of nights. The first was an administrative day--the wash--the second we ventured the 20 minute walk into the old city.

On the walk in, a wild flower lawn at one of the apartment
complexes

Downtown scene

I like public transportation as much as the next person, but
when the sculpture is entrapped, it's a bit much

In one of the fast-flowing canals, a sculpture, The Crocodile

Soap bubble blowing machine outside a toy store; we're
very attentive to toy stores these days

Frau Merkel lemon press

Market day in the cathedral square; the marble merchant;
when was the last time you saw marbles for sale like this?

One of the beautiful burgher houses on the square

As elsewhere in Germany, outdoor sculpture everywhere

Leaving town the next day, a Goggomobil...cute, small 50s-
ish coupe; when it pulled away, it sounded much like a
lawnmower; further research revealed Goggomobils were
powered by 2 cylinder, 2 stroke engines, capable of 18.5hp;
a very powerful lawnmower; sorry, VW won that race

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Bad Wimpfen

Having concluded our business in Rothenburg obT, we headed south and west, aiming for the Black Forest and then Freiburg, before entering Switzerland to see Basel. We were drawn to Bad Wimpfen by its promise of a free stellplatz, which we found right by the train station, overlooking the Neckar River. Bad Wimpfen turned out to be a beautiful medieval town, something of a resort now, full of more half-timbered houses, towers, a wall, and a major surprise as we strolled about in the early evening.

The Neckar, from Bad Wimpfen, near our campsite

More beautiful old half-timbered buildings

Thus

And thus, which is actually a local bank, advertising "off- line banking" and
a logo of shaking hands

The steeples of the city church

I was so proud to get this great shotof the steeples on
a wall of a nearby tower

And then staggered to see that said tower had been built in 1200

The Blauer Tower

Walls of the fortress, built in 1200, we learned, just following the reign of
Frederick Barbarossa, who had stayed in Wimpfen some years before; part
of his Holy Roman Empire