Week 61: Where did that Castle come from?

We were looking for a bit of a day trip on a Saturday a few weeks ago and decided it would be interesting to check out Gerolstein, home of Gerolsteiner Bunnen, a very commonly seen brand of bubbly mineral water and related drinks in Germany. The town of Garolstein is located in the Vulkan-Eifel and the bubbliness is due to the same type of activity that we have seen more explosively on a couple of occasions.

As we were walking around, we found a public tap for the water. You can drink from it and the water is bubbly straight from the tap. It is a little disorienting. While we were in the park where the tap is located, at least two sets of  people came by to fill up their own bottles at the tap. It is a pretty neat idea, like the spring off in the woods of Maine where we would fill up for our stay at my aunt's camp, but with far more bubbles.

Jason with the Public Garolstein Tap

While walking around Gerolstein, we saw a sign: zum Burg (to the castle). We both said: "Castle?" and proceeded to follow the sign. What we found at the top of a hill over looking the city was the ruins of Loewenburg (Lion Castle). There wasn't too much left--mostly a few walls. The really neat part was that one of the houses we walked past to get to the castle, had the castle's outer-ring-wall as part of it. The only thing cooler than living in a castle would be to have part of a castle built into your house--you get the castle without the *outrageous* heating bills for the great hall.

Looking down from Loewenburg

Me on a wall at Loewenburg

For the second year in a row, Jason ran in a German/American road race in the town of Herforst. The race had a number of people from the base running, including the new head of the base and the new Chief NCO. In addition, there was a 94 year old man who had participated in the walking portion of the race--they had a separate Nordic Walking grouping--with, I believe, his son, who was in his 70s...man I hope I am that active when I am that age. Anyway, Jason had a good run. As each person crossed the finish line, their name was announced. Jason was identified (in German) as "the Runner with the hat".  

"Der Laufer mit dem Hut"

As with any activity that brings more than a few people together in Germany, there was a beer truck present.  I had some Kaffee und Kuechen (coffee and cake) while Jason was running, and listened to the German conversations going on around me. My German is slowly improving, despite the fact I work all day in English and rarely work with Germans in German and I am able to follow some of the incidental conversations going on around me.

After run drink? Don't mind if I do!

Later in the day, we went for dinner in Berkastel-Kues. There is an Indian restaurant there that was recommended by a few people on base and actually had something I would consider spicy, which, frankly, is amazing here in Germany. I am not a big fan of spicy, but, man, is the food here bland. After eating, we walked across the river to a bar that was showing the final EuroCup game between Italy and Spain. We watched the first half and it was a very exciting game--much more so than the game we watched between Germany and Portugal. Spain ended up winning the game 4 to 0. Jason and I joked that the winner of the match would get the bailout money...

Hooked on "the Karlsberg Beer Feeling"

Week 58: Wiesbaden and Mainz

In searching through Atlas Obscura, Jason and I came across the Nerogergbahn a water-powered funicular, located a couple of hours away in the city of Wiesbaden. (As a quick note, Wiesbaden is the location of the US Army's European base of command.) We did it as a day trip, driving our around lunch time, stopping briefly at a rest stop for some food and running across an entire row of fantastic cars in the parking lot. It wasn't clear if they were on their way somewhere or were on display at the rest area for some reason or another.

Fantastic cars...and an 18+ store...

We were very excited to see the funicular, our second in a month or so (the last being the Montmartre funicular when we were last in Paris), since, first off, funiculars are pretty cool from an engineering perspective, as they reduce the needed energy to raise any single car up a slope by having an opposing car attached to the other end of a cable. With the power of mgh (potential energy, not the T-stop), the first car assists in raising the second car up the slope.

Most funiculars use a powered cable system to provide the extra energy needed that is not provided by the difference in potential. The interesting thing about the Nerogergbahn is that it uses only the difference in potential to move the cars, by filling the uphill car with water, making the uphill car heavy enough to pull the downhill car up. The resulting speed of both cars is controlled by the brakeman on the downhill car. Once the formerly uphill car reaches the bottom, it dumps its water and the cycle begins again with the uphill car taking on water.

Passengers Disembarking (de-funicularing?) from the Nerogergbahn

The other neat thing about the Nerogergbahn was the tracks. For most of the run, there are only three tracks for the wheels--each car has one at the edge and they share the one in the middle. A problem, of course, would occur with this layout when the cars need to pass each other. This is resolved by having a section of track where there are two complete sets of tracks, so two for each car. Since the distance of the run is fixed, the cars always pass at the same point, so bone crushing injuries are avoided. The video below shows this point on the track.

We enjoyed some coffee and cake at the top of the hill, then took a walk in a nearby park once we returned to the bottom. We then drove to the city center and walked around for a bit, before going over the river to the city of Mainz. The evening we were there was Germany's first game in the European Championship soccer tournament against the Netherlands. We found a restaurant with an outdoor Biergarten and a big TV to sit tight, eat, have a couple beers and see what it was all about. Germany won, with, what we were later told, was a not a very exciting game, though in finding our way out of Mainz, we saw a large number of happy Germans.

Jason made a friend he never wants to leaf...