Day 3-Freidberg

Freidberg.  Or maybe Ockstadt.  Definitely St. Jakobus.

After breakfast at the Hampton Inn, we did as we saw others doing…got some extra sliced meat and cheese, and some rye bread, and made a big sandwich for lunch!  Added a few dates and dried figs, and off we go!!

We headed to, well, we tried to head to Freidberg, but I think we ended up in Ockstadt.  It was a quaint little town, and we noticed a sticker on a car celebrating 1200 years of Ockstadt, from 817 to 2017.  It was pretty cool thinking people had been there for so long, and wondered at some of the houses/buildings which might have been there half of the time?  As we walked around the town, we enjoyed the city walls, the ancient buildings, and all the things you would imagine of a little German town.  Then we headed out.

This house needs to be mowed!!

It's a perfectly good wall...why not make it part of your house?!

I wonder how many people walk through here with no interest?

Freidberg Tower.

But we got waylaid.  There was a really cool tower off in the distance, so we diverted over to check it out.  Turns out THAT was Freidberg.  Or, perhaps “another” Freidberg?  That wasn’t clear.  Anyway, that tower and the castle just fit almost everything you might imagine about a medieval castle.  We had lots of fun running around the structure, the various walls, on both sides of what must have been a moat or at least a gap.  It just gave such a sense of awe, and fit nearly all of my expectations!!  It added to the excitement the idea that my great-great-grandfather likely knew this castle well (who knows whether good or bad or indifferent, but he must have known of it).

On our way back to the car, we saw a little store with games in it.  We've found some really cool games from Germany, so we took a look.  There was one game about the castle in Freidberg, so we bought it and will try it when we get home.

Castle gate.  And driveway.

Running around the castle walls.  Pretending to have a sword!

Yeah, it looks peaceful, but it's a LONG way down on the other side of the wall!

Theresa made it past a few barriers, but still one wall to go!

One of the prettiest ditches I've seen!

Look!!  Another wall!!

Imagine standing here with your bow and arrows?

More walls!  Not very inviting.  But cool!!

The edge of the Roman Empire in Gaul.

Back on the road to Ober-Mörlen, and the “Limes”.  Back in the classical Roman era, there was a chain of forts and towers on the edge of the Roman Empire.  As it cut across Germany, the line of demarcation was called the “Limes”.  So, we drove and hiked to the site of one of the towers.  This tower was rebuilt in the 1920s, but on the site of the ruins.  After ascending to the top of the tower, and taking in the scene, we went back down and determined which way was North and South.  Then we stood in wild barbarian lands, and the civilized Roman Empire, and made the appropriate noises for each side (Theresa note -- Bill made the noises...Theresa did not)...until we noticed someone coming toward us and we hit the trail for home.  Sadly, the old man with a cane (ok, maybe a couple of walking sticks) passed us on the trail.  Not a proud day for us!

Inside at the top of the tower.

Someone was sitting down on the job!!  I won't mention names.

We left the area for our timeshare in Deidesheim, and had great traffic most of the way.  After check in and some grocery shopping, we grabbed dinner at a local place.  They served bread with…schmaltz.  It looked like, and after asking, it was, lard.  With onion mixed in, but bread and lard.  Bill then had the leberknödel (liver dumplings) with sauerkraut (it was AWESOME!) and Theresa had pork schnitzel (also very good) with a huge salad.  It paired nicely with her local Riesling, and my local dunkel beer!