German Trip Day 4: 26 April 2010
As always, we had to get up really early. We said goodbye
to our fancily decorated B&B:
We made a detour to Jülich, home of the
Jülich Supercomputing Center. I work with these
people through my job, and it was coincidental that I was only
going to be a few miles away. So I stopped and visited for a few
hours. I managed to navigate things there OK, once I remembered that
in Germany the "first" floor really means the second floor. I got
to see Jugene, the fastest computer in Europe, and at one point the
second fastest in the world.
Meanwhile J and K toured Jülich, which is on
the Rur river. Here's a picture of the old gate:
After this we drove back to J's home in Schweinfurt.
It was a long drive on the A3 Autobahn. Before getting there
we stopped at Würzburg.
Here is the Würzburg Residenz, where the Franconian Bishop-Princes
lived. It was fancy inside, Kristina and I took the tour. Sadly
the side wings were completely destroyed during WWII, but the center
part with the world's largest single fresco survived. Here's
the view from the outside:
After eating a doner, we went through the town. Here's the
Marienkapella church:
Overlooking the city is the Festung Marienberg (fortress) where the
Bishop-princes lived before they built their fancier palace.
Yes, as always, when something is high on a hill we get to hike up to
it.
We crossed over the Main river on a bridge from the 12th century.
There was a barge going through the canal locks:
Here is Würzburg from halfway up the hill:
After walking back down we had the traditional Eis.
Ordering ice cream is about the one thing I can do properly in German.
Always remember, Kugel (scoop) is feminine, the Germans will call you
on it if you get it wrong:
We then went on to J's fancy house. She cooked
weise Spargel (white asparagus) for us. Germans love white asparagus,
and it's in season right now.
We were supposed to get to bed in a timely fashion, as we had to wake
early for our trip to Bavaria the next day.
On to Day 5
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