July 9- Ehrenberg and …Merklingen???

For the first time in this trip, we didn’t have reservations for a place to stay tonight. That meant that when we checked out of our pension this morning after breakfast, we didn’t have a clear idea of where or when we would stop, except that we were headed west, towards the Black Forest.

We stopped first in Garmisch Partenkirchen because we knew of a great little shop there that sells second hand dirndls and lederhosen and other authentic German paraphernalia. It’s the place where Scott bought his zither back in 2001. We found the place with no problem but it’s doors were locked. The sign said that it should be open, and at least one other customer came to check the door, but she wasn’t there. We decided not to wait and headed on. We stopped at a supermarket called Aldi’s where he picked up items for a picnic. We drove past the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, but its top was covered in thick clouds. We quickly decided not to go up, since we had seen such nice views at the Eagle’s Nest two days ago and we knew from out 2001 trip that it’s an expensive trip up just to see the insides of the clouds.

We headed on through a bit of Austria, since that is one of the easiest ways to curve around the mountains. As we rounded one bend there was a very picturesque castle in ruins at the top of a hill along the roadside. Scott had enough time to whip out the camera and start it rolling. Anna asked, “Dad, why do you take video of castles when you see them?” He told her it’s because you can’t just drive around a corner in Western New York and see an unexpected castle on a hilltop.

As we drove past the castle, we wondered if this was the castle ruin that Rick Steves had recommended so highly. We decided to stop either way, since we had no particular time schedule that we were on. As we entered the building at the foot of the mountain for tickets, we were only slightly surprised to find a sword in a glass case inscribed to “Sir Rick Steves.” It was indeed the place he had been, and they had built up a whole display about his visit there, including pictures of the ceremony in which he was “knighted” with this sword. We felt proud that we recognized the place as one of his “Back Door” treasures, but the European visitors to this park must really be puzzled about who this guy is.

The park is the called the Burgenwelt Ehrenberg (Castle-World of Ehrenberg). It actually consists of the ruins of three castles that were built on three separate nearby hilltops and a museum complex at the foot of the hills. We started in the museum and were surprised to see a very interactive, hand-on, and engaging museum about the life of knights. The museum exhibits loosely follow the story of the fictional Heinrich who wants to be a knight, and who goes on a Crusade to Jerusalem and fights a joust for the hand of the woman he loves. There are lots of things to touch and see along the way. Anna got to try on pieces of knights armor. We all were amazed to see a 600 year old picture of St. Mark’s square in Venice in which we could recognize the buildings we had seen and the places we had stood less than a week ago. Emma was spooked by the room that told about the effects of the black plague. The climax of the exhibits is a 3-D movie of the joust. Julie and Scott were both thinking that this museum would be a perfect place to bring 5th or 6th graders when it’s part of their curriculum in New York.

Then came our own journey-- a half an hour walk up to the ruins of the castle of Ehrenberg. The walk was up-hill all the way, and quite steep and rocky by the very end. There were a few signs that told stories along the way. One told the story of the Schnurfler, a gnome that didn’t like people on this mountain, and who often allegedly pushes rocks down on un-welcome visitors. Anna and Emma both laughed that his nickname was “Butz.”

When we had finally climbed all the way to the top, we found the ruins of the castle that had originally been built in 1296, over 700 years ago. The castle really is in ruins, and is quite a contrast to the 19th century fantasy castle of Neuschwanstein from yesterday. Many of the walls are crumbling (although we saw the scaffolds and concrete of workmen that must be trying to stabilize them). You enter the ruins at your own risk, but are allowed to climb on the piles of rubble that take you to the higher parts of the ruins. This scene was quite a grueling hike for us to get to, but it was worth it to explore. We remembered that Rick Steves had sat in these ruins on two of his programs and said what a great spot they were for a picnic. Umm… Our picnic stuff was still in the car back at the bottom of the hill. Oh well.

We worked our way back down the hill. Anna was looking hard for fairies in the woods this time. She took pictures of many mossy little holes under the trees that may be fairy homes. Who can tell for sure that they are not? At one point, a rock rolled down the hill behind us, and it must have been Butz trying to make sure we didn’t come back.

There were two more castles on higher hills that overlooked Ehrenberg. No one but Julie wanted to climb to them. It could certainly take up the entire day if you did. Instead, the girls bought souveniers- treasure chests of polished rocks, and we went to the car for our “picnic.” It might not have been the top of the mountain at the castle, but we still got a view of the Alps as we ate our sandwiches.

We drove on, with the girls asleep in the backseat after our long hike, and easily found the little town of Merklingen, not too far from Stuttgart. Merklingen is the ancestral home of the Pfaeffles, on Julie’s paternal grandmother’s side. We have an account, written by one of the German members of her family, that traces the Pfaeffle’s line back to 1535, 14 generations from Julie. For several of those generations, the family life was supposed to have centered around a specific church that we have both old and new pictures of. The church’s architecture is unique, because it was part of a small medieval fort to protect the townspeople. Nearby that church is a building that has been a tavern, and which was owned by an ancestor of Julie’s at one time.

The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be a church like that in the town we were in. We’re not sure why, because we have found references to it recently on Stuttgart region websites. We showed pictures of it to two townspeople and Julie asked them about the church using the little bit of German she knows from high school. They directed us to the next town over.

Rural German towns in this region are set up slightly differently than American farms. In America, farmers lived in a farmhouse surrounded by the fields they owned. In Germany, because of their feudal background, the people lived in towns, and the towns were surrounded by the fields which people went out to in order to work. That land use can still be seen in this region today. As a result, Merklingen is a very small town, and the town that we were directed to was literally a hill away, over the fields, and was also quite small.

We found the church there, and the steeple certainly is similar to the one in the picture that we got off the Internet and the one from 1980 in Julie’s family history. However, when we studied it, it was quite clear that it was not the same building. Julie went into the church offices where a secretary was working. Again, using her high school German, Julie was able to ask about the location of the church in our pictures. The secretary studied them and said quite definitively that there was no church like that in the area. We were certainly puzzled by that, because the German relative that wrote this history had been to the church itself to look through the ancient records when he did his research. This bit of a search for family roots came to a dead end pretty quickly.

We pushed on, deciding to try to get to Freudenstadt in the corner of the Black Forest. (Scott suspected that Julie was just trying to get to a place where she could get some “real” Black Forest cherry cake.) We got a little lost at one point, but Julie made use of her German again. A couple gave her directions and actually led us for the first part of the way. We caught a late dinner at McDonalds and made it to Freudenstadt, and found a hotel on the town square. We’re paying a little more for it than we have for some of the others, but that’s part of what you get when you wing it without reservations. Even so, we’ve got a relatively large suite with two bedrooms, so the girls get their own room for tonight. It’s décor is set a little later than the place we stayed in Oberammergau-- perhaps 1960s? It’s our spot for the night, anyway.