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| On a mountain looking down on a town near the plain: always raining--good for grapes |
Since Alsace is a twin we just had to visit her twin sister. For that we had to cross the Rhine River and go into Germany. Presto, Baden, who shares Alsace’s geological birth and human history. Each province is composed of a matching wide plain and a mountain range on either side of the Rhine. Geologists are quick to point out that these mountains are not normal ranges--rock pushed through the earth, but the result of a great cave-in. This produced a long depression where the Rhine flows. The rocks were pushed to either side to form mountains: in France, Les Vosges; in Germany the Schwartzwald, or Black Forest. Besides giving both of these provinces the same topography, it gave them people sharing the same surnames, language, & agriculture. Both are wine country, par excellence, & many tourists come mostly to follow the famed wine circuits. However, industry separated them as Alsace chose textiles and Baden chose clockmaking. Who hasn’t heard of the Coo-Coo Clock of the Black Forest?
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| A market view at noontime to show the variety of products sold; notice that in June people are still wearing jackets, hats & hoodies. |
At one time there wasn’t so much difference between Freiburg and Colmar. As a matter of fact, I have a hard time distinguishing my photos between these two cities. Although Freiburg (pop. 230,000) has a much larger population than Colmar (65,000), its old town is really very much an identical twin: a central cathedral, open market, old university, museums, winding narrow streets, similar architecture, and flowers everywhere. Perhaps one of the biggest differences is that Freiburg and surroundings is catholic, whereas, (as mentioned previously) Colmar is protestant. This is because for 4 + centuries Frieburg was a satelite of the très catholique Habsburg Holy Roman Empire (1368 to 1806), which left its indelible religious mark.
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| Detail of the Great Portal of the Cathedral: Notice how beautifully restored, painted,& gilded the saints are. |
These look-alikes have historically shared the same events, although on opposing sides with France and Germany pulling them ragged. For now, though, I think these two provinces are happy with their sort, side by side, French Alsace west of the Rhine; German Baden to the east.
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| Grilled wurst stands at the marketplace next to the cathedral; notice scaffolding. Freiburg is in a state of constant repair. It has been the "victim" of war many times. |
(It occurs to me that in all these blogs I might not have mentioned that Alsatians of a certain age, WWII vintage and their children, speak a German dialect. It is dying out now. Alsatians speak good French without any trace of German accent.)
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Totally planned, totally late 19th century
From Freiburg we drove north in tandem on the autobahn to Baden-Baden, which I translated as “Bath-Bath,”* but which JJ translates as “Baths (in the province of) Baden.” With a population of about 55,000 it nestles in the western foothills of the Black Forest on the Oos River. It has a completely different look than Freiburg or Colmar. This small city is a creation of the mid-19th century when the rulers of Europe went to Baden-Baden for the baths, certainly, and for various treatments to restore health & morale. The baths were most likely an excuse to play at the casino, enjoy musical concerts, & other cultural events.
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| The Casino: The Real Reason |
Known then as the “Summer Capital of Europe," this city is still beautiful, elegant, and luxurious. It is a planned city with wider streets, & modern, tall buildings. There are a host of sights that we did not have time to take in, but we thoroughly enjoyed walking part of the 2-mile long Lichtentaler Allée. We imagined the sight of expensive horse-drawn carriages and richly dressed people. Were we born too late?
*Surely a reflex of Malay language which doubles a noun to create a plural.
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| Luxury Hotels on the Oos River |
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| A canal runs through the Lichtentaler Allee which is bridged at intervals by these handsome wrought-iron walkovers. |
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| .....like this one |
Oooooh... perchirk perchirk.. SHE LURVES Baden-Baden... jurst had the best time in early summer of 83 with friends from Stuttgart.. lucky you and all your crew, what a great trip this has been and your knee has been amaaazing! Clever medics to make you able to walk with no pain and well done you on getting your muscles all in gear..
ReplyDeletePhotos are good.. wish SHE knew how to put photos on MY blog.. sore point, I think SHE is being idle.. don't care if SHE knows it, it is true!
More Posts please.. what happened when you left Singapore.. come on, tell us!
Love from avid reader of La Vie en Rose.. GeeGee
While driving on the German roads and navigating the signs with his German speaking ability, #4 actually had a slightly opposite impression of Baden. He was struck at how different it was to Alsace, just across the Rhine river. The rural landscape in Baden was much less manicured compared to the French side, which looked as if a Cartesian grid was overlayed over the valley. It seemed that ownership patterns in Germany betrayed a kind of hodge-podge of tracts derived from Germany's past as an amalgam different little kingdoms.
ReplyDeleteFreiburg's cathedral was impressive, but its city center was very different from any of the French cities in Alsace. For example, there were no colorful half-timbered buildings to be found anywhere like in Alsace. Also, it was obvious that Freiburg sustained a lot of damage from World War 2 bombing, and the entire city center looked as if it were rebuilt rather quickly employing a rather simplified traditional German block design, sprinkled with a few wrongheaded 70s urban experiments. Fortunately, Baden Baden's lovely 19th century townscape was spared. Whatever the period or style, everything in Germany was immaculate and clean!
I wasn't really referring to the rural landscape as much as the topography. It's strange to be driving down the middle of one side of elongated Alsace on the plain backed by the mountains, & then the same driving north on the other side of the Rhine. The history goes together, as well. As for the twin cities...yes I did notice that Colmar & Frieburg differ a bit architecturally, but for me the layout of the old town was similar. (I am not an architect.) The cathedral in Freiburg is paradoxically more ornate than Colmar built out of the same, but rosier grès de Vosges. Didn't you read that I mentioned that poor Freiburg has suffered much destruction from not only WWII, but also wars previous. I thought the buildings were colorful, just not as loud, but of course, less ornate because of reconstruction. Who was going to do those half-timbered buildings in modern times? And yes, let's give credit where credit is due: Germany is always pristine. But, I thought Alsace was, too. As I said, these are the same people, essentially.
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