Today we had a slightly lazy morning and then went off to Ruddesheim, a small town across the Rhine from Bingen, the nearest major town to Bacharach. Once we reached Ruddesheim we headed off to ‘Siegfried’s Mechanisches Musikkabinett’ (or Siegfried’s mechanical music cabinet, if you hadn’t picked that up).
Once we reached the museum/collection, which was housed in a large house that was possibly as early as the 1500’s. Inside the house they had an AMAZING collection of mechanical instruments like pianos that could play by themselves, a mechanical instrument involving an piano and six violins, an original Thomas Edison manufactured gramophone and a large set-up designed for a merry-go-round in Budapest, which was the only one like it in the world and was completely powered by compressed air, requiring someone to ‘pump the bellows’. What I thought was the most impressive, though was the Maestro, which was a combination of 11 or so (maybe even more) instruments like piano, violin, trumpet, xylophone, various horns and a small drum kit with a symbol and a few drums.
After Siegfried’s we went to find some lunch in a Christmas Market. Once we did that we went to the Ruddesheim toy museum, just for want of something to do and somewhere warm to go. It wasn’t all that exciting and wasn’t nearly as good as in Nuremburg, though it did have different types of toys. It was fun just going around and saying “we saw that in Nuremburg”.
When we had finished in the toy museum we caught the ferry back to the railway station and travelled back to where we were staying.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Bacharach – Day 1
Sorry I haven’t posted for a while but I haven’t had time due to Christmas celebrations with distant Dutch relations and also issues with Wi-Fi (including a time limit, so I am pre-writing entries). I'm excited about Paris too, Alexander, and we are going to Versailles. Will take heaps of photos. We are there 1st to the 4th of January.
While we were in Bacharach we stayed in the local youth hostel, which was situated in a castle. We arrived in the late evening and spent the remaining daylight trying to figure out how to get up to the castle. In the end we resorted to calling a taxi and getting driven up to the tower with all of our luggage. We quickly dumped our stuff in our room and set off to find some dinner and to explore the village.
We walked along the wall for a bit, but all of the restaurants that were on the wall were closed so we descended and went to a bar-restaurant that we had seen and had a very nice dinner of different things like schnitzel, goulash soup or an omelette.
After this we walked back up to the castle and settled down to sleep.
While we were in Bacharach we stayed in the local youth hostel, which was situated in a castle. We arrived in the late evening and spent the remaining daylight trying to figure out how to get up to the castle. In the end we resorted to calling a taxi and getting driven up to the tower with all of our luggage. We quickly dumped our stuff in our room and set off to find some dinner and to explore the village.
We walked along the wall for a bit, but all of the restaurants that were on the wall were closed so we descended and went to a bar-restaurant that we had seen and had a very nice dinner of different things like schnitzel, goulash soup or an omelette.
After this we walked back up to the castle and settled down to sleep.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Really sorry, but I've got to be quick again
Because of time restraints I'm going to reply to your comments now and post about Bacharach later.
I was really disappointed about the lack of LEGO to, Alexander, but, well, if it's not German then it's not German enough, sorry. I love the way the city is set out as well. The old cities have so many beautiful little alleyways and there is a church/cathedral nearly on every block. Christmas will be different here, but still nice as we have relatives (grandmother's cousin) in Holland (Rotterdam) to spend it with.
Great to hear about your turfed yard, Tom. When I get back we need to christen it with a back-yard cricket match. Which brings me to the cricket. In answer to whether I've been following the ashes or not, my brother is Jonathan, so of course we are following it. My Cricket Australia shirt is sitting in the bottom of my pack waiting for us to hit England. Sorry to hear you're working Christmas Eve but you'll probably earn a bucket load of money.
Big news is we've booked a place in Paris for 3 nights, meaning we'll get 2 whole days and 2 half days.
Anyway, will write more on our 5 hours of train journey tomorrow and will hopefully post tomorrow night (for me).
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you have a great time.
Bring on the Boxing Day Test!!!!
Posted at 8:39pm
I was really disappointed about the lack of LEGO to, Alexander, but, well, if it's not German then it's not German enough, sorry. I love the way the city is set out as well. The old cities have so many beautiful little alleyways and there is a church/cathedral nearly on every block. Christmas will be different here, but still nice as we have relatives (grandmother's cousin) in Holland (Rotterdam) to spend it with.
Great to hear about your turfed yard, Tom. When I get back we need to christen it with a back-yard cricket match. Which brings me to the cricket. In answer to whether I've been following the ashes or not, my brother is Jonathan, so of course we are following it. My Cricket Australia shirt is sitting in the bottom of my pack waiting for us to hit England. Sorry to hear you're working Christmas Eve but you'll probably earn a bucket load of money.
Big news is we've booked a place in Paris for 3 nights, meaning we'll get 2 whole days and 2 half days.
Anyway, will write more on our 5 hours of train journey tomorrow and will hopefully post tomorrow night (for me).
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you have a great time.
Bring on the Boxing Day Test!!!!
Posted at 8:39pm
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Pictures of Nuremburg
Here are some pictures of Nuremburg
Jonathan and his half a meter Bratwurst (sausage and bread)
The tower in Nuremberg castle
A large scale model railway outside the toy museum. Nothing was working.
Nuremberg castle and a part of the old city.
Hope to hear from all of you and hope that you are all having a great holiday.
Posted at 9:12pm
Jonathan and his half a meter Bratwurst (sausage and bread)
Hope to hear from all of you and hope that you are all having a great holiday.
Posted at 9:12pm
The Toy Museum
On our second day in Nuremburg we went to the toy museum which was easily the most impressive museum we went to. There were only really two annoying things, which was that we weren’t allowed to take any photos of the toys and because it was all based around German toys, so there was a noticeable absence of LEGO.
The first room we went to was a special exhibition dedicated to the first wooden toys that were made in Nuremburg. These included moving toys and building blocks including a set with special blocks so you can build the big tower in the castle.
Then there was a room that had educational toys and other toys designed to teach children things like how to behave in public or to watch for cars on the road.
Then, there was a section dedicated to dolls and doll houses/ play kitchens. Even though I wasn’t all that interested in the dolls, some of the kitchens and houses were amazing. There was even a kitchen made for the Bavarian royal family’s children and had a working stove where you could boil water and cook!
The next area was dedicated to Lehmann toys and optical toys. Lehmann is a German toy brand which produced metal wind-up toys. Some of them were really amazing and there was also the very politically incorrect Momo he Dancing Coon, which was a black man who danced when you wound him up. There was also a small exhibition of LGB trains, a branch of Lehmann designed to combat the model train market, but using very large model trains to open up a new market.
Next there were toys like pedal cars and bikes including a car that dad identified as one he had when he was young and also one he identified as like one he wanted as a kid. Some of these were really intricate and they were all really well preserved, without much rust and not many dents.
Then there was a section of tin-plate and metal toys like cars and trains. There was also some Meccano and other systems a lot like Meccano. There was also a large model railway which was unfortunately not running.
We were all disappointed that we couldn’t spend more time at the toy museum, but left fascinated by all the toys and the whole museum.
Posted at 8:53pm
The first room we went to was a special exhibition dedicated to the first wooden toys that were made in Nuremburg. These included moving toys and building blocks including a set with special blocks so you can build the big tower in the castle.
Then there was a room that had educational toys and other toys designed to teach children things like how to behave in public or to watch for cars on the road.
Then, there was a section dedicated to dolls and doll houses/ play kitchens. Even though I wasn’t all that interested in the dolls, some of the kitchens and houses were amazing. There was even a kitchen made for the Bavarian royal family’s children and had a working stove where you could boil water and cook!
The next area was dedicated to Lehmann toys and optical toys. Lehmann is a German toy brand which produced metal wind-up toys. Some of them were really amazing and there was also the very politically incorrect Momo he Dancing Coon, which was a black man who danced when you wound him up. There was also a small exhibition of LGB trains, a branch of Lehmann designed to combat the model train market, but using very large model trains to open up a new market.
Next there were toys like pedal cars and bikes including a car that dad identified as one he had when he was young and also one he identified as like one he wanted as a kid. Some of these were really intricate and they were all really well preserved, without much rust and not many dents.
Then there was a section of tin-plate and metal toys like cars and trains. There was also some Meccano and other systems a lot like Meccano. There was also a large model railway which was unfortunately not running.
We were all disappointed that we couldn’t spend more time at the toy museum, but left fascinated by all the toys and the whole museum.
Posted at 8:53pm
The Castle in Nuremburg
The castle in Nuremburg wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be because we couldn’t take a tour because there were no tours in English. Because of this we had to settle for the castle museum and the watch-tower, though that wasn’t all that disappointing.
The museum was only small and was pretty much all taken up by various displays of weapons, both offensive and defensive. They had displays from the 12th century to the (supposedly) 19th century, though it was more like the 15th-ish century. It included different suits of armour, helmets, swords and halberds, bows/crossbows and early gunpowder weapons, all found in the Nuremburg area.
We then clambered up the tower in the castle and got a nice, although white-dominated view of Nuremburg. It was quite nice to look out over Nuremburg, though we couldn’t really see much because of all the mist and falling snow. The city was really clustered and tight and all the houses were very small with little or no space around them.
Posted at 8:52pm
The museum was only small and was pretty much all taken up by various displays of weapons, both offensive and defensive. They had displays from the 12th century to the (supposedly) 19th century, though it was more like the 15th-ish century. It included different suits of armour, helmets, swords and halberds, bows/crossbows and early gunpowder weapons, all found in the Nuremburg area.
We then clambered up the tower in the castle and got a nice, although white-dominated view of Nuremburg. It was quite nice to look out over Nuremburg, though we couldn’t really see much because of all the mist and falling snow. The city was really clustered and tight and all the houses were very small with little or no space around them.
Posted at 8:52pm
The German Rail Museum
As I said earlier, I will talk about each of the museums/attractions we went to separately.
The rail museum was really interesting because it talked about the history of railways all over the world, not only in Germany. They also had a replica of the first German steam locomotive, which was actually made in England. It also had some other original locomotives and Emperor Maximilian the 1st's personal carriage, which was so richly furnished. There was one 'room' with two beds and another with a lounge and some armchairs. There was even a small carriage that had a kind of sunroom in it that was attached to the main carriage.
There was also a lot of information of how the trains were used in the Second World War. This included things like trains carrying troops to the western front, transporting Jewish people to concentration camps and how the English would target the German railways in bombing missions.
Lastly there was an interactive area including large model railway outlining all of the German railway operations, a series of model railways showing how a station might have changed over time and various interactive things like a driving simulator and a mock junction where you can change the signals and other tings.
In all, the rail museum was really interesting because of the variety of stuff in it ranging from the begging of the railways in Germany, to the two World Wars and then modern times.
Posted at 8:46pm
The rail museum was really interesting because it talked about the history of railways all over the world, not only in Germany. They also had a replica of the first German steam locomotive, which was actually made in England. It also had some other original locomotives and Emperor Maximilian the 1st's personal carriage, which was so richly furnished. There was one 'room' with two beds and another with a lounge and some armchairs. There was even a small carriage that had a kind of sunroom in it that was attached to the main carriage.
There was also a lot of information of how the trains were used in the Second World War. This included things like trains carrying troops to the western front, transporting Jewish people to concentration camps and how the English would target the German railways in bombing missions.
Lastly there was an interactive area including large model railway outlining all of the German railway operations, a series of model railways showing how a station might have changed over time and various interactive things like a driving simulator and a mock junction where you can change the signals and other tings.
In all, the rail museum was really interesting because of the variety of stuff in it ranging from the begging of the railways in Germany, to the two World Wars and then modern times.
Posted at 8:46pm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)