Outgoing Journey to Germany - June 7-20, 2023​ (#23140)

Ambassador Coordinators - Karen Vingiello, Baton Rouge & John Wilheim, Atlanta
Host Coordinators - Ina Bornheim & Sigrun Seyer-Nielsen, Lubeck & Andrea Schonherr, Bavaria

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For our 2023 Outbound International Journey, five of our members (Jiji and Larry Jonas, Lin Ashton, and Karen and Art Vingiello) joined 6 folks from the Atlanta club and a couple from Adelaide, Australia, to travel to Lubeck and the Bavaria/Nuremberg area of Germany. More of our members were interested, but space was limited by host capacity and plans for rigorous walking city tours on cobblestone streets.
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Welcome to Lubeck

Fellowship in Host Coordinator garden

Rooftop happy hour welcome

We began our trip in Lubeck on Wednesday, June 7, by meeting our very welcoming hosts. Co-Host Coordinators, Lubeck club president Ina Bornheim along with Sigrun Seyer-Nielsen organized a very interesting and fun program.

Entrance to Old City

On walking tour of Lubeck

One of the gothic buildings on the tour

St. Peter's Church - one of 7 spires in Old Town Lubeck

​After lunch, there was a reception in the town hall before the second walking tour.
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Main staircase in Lubeck town hall

​Thursday, June 8 began with the first of two city walking tours of the old town island led by Ingrid Alexander, a Lubeck FF member who has been a city guide for several years. She outlined some of the city's one thousand year history and pointed out significant buildings and monuments while we took in the beautiful gothic architecture and scenic waterways. Lubeck is described in the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the best examples of a brick Gothic city, with the center especially showing many buildings in that style. On June 9, we visited one of the inner German border museums, reminding us of the deadly tension between East and West Germany from the end of World War II to 1989. Lubeck was the only West German big town situated directly at the border and the border crossing Schlutup. We also learned about two native sons Thomas Mann and Gunter Grass who each won the Nobel Prize for literature and about Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt who grew up in Lubeck. 
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Exhibit in border museum

Lubeck town hall

Red roses blooming in Lubeck

Beautiful poppies in Lubeck

At inner German border museum

Lubeck town hall

On Friday, June 9, we explored Hamburg, Germany's 2nd largest city, which has 2,306 bridges (more than Venice) and is a major port by its location at the river Elbe. Sites included the town hall, old warehouses, new harbour city, boat trip on the river Elbe, and the Elbphilharmonie Opera House.

Elbphilharmonie Opera House in Hamburg

Saturday, June 10, was a free day with our hosts and some folks took a trip to Plon northwest of Lubeck.​

Plon Castle

On Sunday, June 11, we visited Travemunde, a world famous resort on the Baltic coast, where we saw many yachts, huge tanker ships, the four-mast tall museum ship "Passat" and the oldest lighthouse in Germany.

Walkway by Baltic Sea in Travemunde

Lin views some of the many ships in the harbor

Escalator from top of opera house

Sweet treats & coffee in Garden in Plon

Four-mast tall ship "Passat" now a museum

Art and Karen stick their toes in the Baltic

Ina Bomheim - Gardening

Savine von Kugelgen - hand-made arts

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For our last full day in Lubeck on Monday, June 12, we visited in rotating groups with three Lubeck FF members who showed off their special skills: Savine von Kugelgen (arts), Sigrum Seyer Nielsen (fossils from the Baltic), and Ina Bornheim (gardening). Our stay in Lubeck ended that evening with a farewell party at a local club with a delicious dinner including white asparagus soup, sausages, and other German treats.
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Celebration of Louisiana's 2nd line tradition at Lubeck farewell party

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View near Nuremberg train station

Near Nuremberg train station

Heroldsberg - Lovely decor of pristine buildings

Arrival in Nuremberg

Next, on Tuesday, June 13, we traveled by train to Nuremberg where we met our hosts. Several of us used the rest of this free day to explore the picturesque town of Heroldsberg. The day ended with a potluck dinner in Sportheim Eckenhaid welcoming us to the beautiful Franconia area of the northern part of Bavaria.

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First stop - Bavarian bakery with Host Coordinator

Heroldsberg - Tour of historic castles and churches

On Wesneday, June 14, our next Bavarian day trip was to the mill town of Lauf which was settled in the 11th century. Many mills were powered by the strong current of the Pegnitz River. Lauf got the right of a city in 1355 from emperor Charles IV who built Wenzel Castle on a small island in the river. Lauf was destroyed by a fire in 1553 but then rebuilt.

Approach to Imperial Nuremberg Castle

Our group entering the castle

Tour at Albert Durer house

Actual photos from Nuremberg trials

We returned for a full day on June 16 to Nuremberg, which dates from at least 1050 and was a hub of trade and craftmanship in the 14th and 17th centuries. We 
started with a guided tour of the Imperial Castle, one of the most important fortified palaces of the Holy Roman Empire. Fun fact: Germany has more castles (around 25,000) than the U.S. has McDonald's (about 14,000). We then toured the house of renowned painter and artist Albrecht Durer guided by a woman who portrayed his wife while describing his life and works. After a filling lunch of German food specialties, beer, and wine, we went to the site of the 1945-46 Nuremberg Trials for an audio guided tour of the main courtroom and museum.

View of Nuremberg from the castle

Karen with hostess at restaurant "Heilig-Geist-Spital"

Courtroom of Nuremberg war crime trials

Saturday, June 17, was another diverse, busy, and fun day. It started with a tour of Castle Schloss Greifenstein in Heiligenstadt which was the home of many important prince-bishops, politicians, and diplomats and holds thousands of paintings, photographs, wild beast trophies, and other artifacts giving visitors an insight to their lives. Probably the most notable owner was Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg well known as a leader of resistance against the Nazi regime. He was executed in 1944 after a failed assassination attempt against Hitler and was portrayed by Tom Cruise in the movie Valkyrie.

We then rode to Buttenheim and toured the home of Levy Strauss which has been converted to a museum honoring his life and the history of jeans. After a filling lunch at the brewery Pfister in Weigelshofen, we moved to Forchheim and toured a series of historic beer cellars (kellers).

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Levy Strauss House/Museum in Buttenheim

Group enters Greifenstein Castle in Heiligenstadt

Lunch at the brewery Pfister in Weigelshofen

Pictures here and below are tour of beer kellers in Forchheim

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Saturday, June 18, began with us independently touring Bad Windsheim, an open air Franconian museum village. More than a hundred buildings have been reconstructed to portray in detail the past 700 years of life on Franconian farms and villages.  We ate lunch on site at "Kommunbrauhaus" with our hosts guiding us through the German menu.

Bad Windsheim museum village

Bad Windsheim museum village

Bad Windsheim museum village

Lunch at Kommunbrauhaus

Bottoms up!

Rothenberg town square

​Our next stop was the beautiful city of Rothenberg in the Tauber Valley where we were greeted by the city band of 20-30 musicians playing a concert in the town square. A local guide took us through the city pointing out significant landmarks and describing the city's turbulent history brought on largely by Catholic-Protestant conflict peaking with the Thirty Years' War.

Tour guide in Rothenberg

Rothenberg band in concert in town square

Monday morning June 18, the mayor of Eckental hosted a reception at the town hall and spoke about the government of the area which is a combination of 17 districts and includes villages that had been founded in the middle of the 11th and 12 centuries.
She outlined the effort to balance social, education, and cultural particiipation to promote well-rounded communities. From there we traveled to the medieval market town of GoBwenstein for a hilltop picnic followed by an organ concert in the pilgrimage Church of the Holy Trinity.

Ambassadors and hosts with Mayor at Eckental town hall

Our tour group at GoBweinstein

Open air picnic at GoBweinstein

Mayor of Eckental

View of GoBweinstein castle from picnic area

Past President of Bavaria FF club and wife in front of pilgrimage Church of the Holy Trinity where we listened to an organ concert

That day ended with a farewell party at the Gasthaus Reif in Kaswasser. At both farewell parties in Lubeck and Bavaria, FFBR President Jiji Jonas gave a brief description of Louisiana's Cajun culture and presented gifts to our host clubs. The Baton Rouge ambassadors then led our hosts and the ambassadors from Atlanta and Australia in a lively second line.


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FFBR ambassadors at Farewell Party - Art Vingiello, Jiji Jonas, Lin Ashton, Karen Vingiello, Larry Jonas

Bavaria hosts celebrate 2nd line music & ceremony

FFBR Coordinator, Karen Vingiello, thanks hosts

On our final day on Tuesday, June 20, we were treated to a train trip to Regensburg and then a guided tour of the Princely Castle of "Thurn & Taxis" (family still lives there). That was followed by lunch at Furstliches Brauhaus. The group then rode a boat down the Danube River to Walhalla, one of the most important German national monuments of the 19th century. It is a Neoclassical building in the form of a temple surrounded by a portico with columns and was created by order of the Bavarian King Ludwig 1. In late afternoon, we retuned by train back to Nuremberg to prepare for final departure from Germany.
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Castle of "Thurn & Taxis"

Lunch at Furstiches Brauhaus

Interior of St. Peter's Cathedral (2nd largest in Germany)

Walhalla