Hohenzollern Armory

The second part of the tour included a walk through the treasury and the armory. Outside one of the entrances was a soldier dressed like in olden days. He had an old time pipe and sword, but it didn't seem like his coat was keeping him warm enough.

 

Inside was a statue of Frederich the Great. It was sculpted when he was very old. Can you see his dog curled up down by his feet? This is the Emperor that really liked dogs.

In the storage section were shelves with the statues and carvings of previous members of the Imperial family. I guess once you die they shuffle the extra memories into the basement.

Next was a tour of the armory. There were several suits of armor. Some were fairly big and others were quite small. A lot of the knights from a long time ago were actually fairly short compared to people now. This knight looks like he was nervous about parts that weren't covered by the armor.

Behind the suits of armor were some examples of helmets. Most were fairly ordinary but some had funny faces, pointed noses or duck bills on them. Heinrich wasn't sure if they were real or joke helmets, but they looked like they had been used in the past.

The last part of the tour was through the treasury. There were beautiful gowns, fancy medals and beautiful artwork. The crown jewels were also on display. But since a burglar had recently tried to break in pictures weren't allowed for security reasons. For the walk down the path it was still very snowy and slippery, but Heinrich was feeling a little more adventuresome. He also didn't want to spend any more Euros. So going down he walked through the snow covered trees.

 

Hohenzollern Tour

When Heinrich finally got inside the castle walls, he found a row of statues. They were of the German Emperors for the last several hundred years. The last one had to stop being the Emperor in 1918, almost a hundred years ago. Heinrich had his picture taken with this Emperor's statue. They were both getting a little snowy.

Heinrich wandered around the grounds, exploring the little nooks and crannies. He found a palace garden with a spiral stair case tower to get to it. The garden must be very beautiful in the summer time.

When he got too cold to keep exploring he went inside the castle to take the tour. The doors to get in were carved out of some beautiful wood with carved people as decoration.

Inside the castle there were some very nice wood and stone floors. The people in charge of the castle were worried that the floors would get damaged if people walked on them with rough or dirty shoes. So inside everyone had to put on some over sized slippers to protect the floors. Since they were so big everyone had to shuffle their feet to keep them from falling off. Heinrich thought this was just a trick to have the guest polish the floors while they walked around.

The guides didn't let people take pictures, but there were some very nice furnishings and art work. Heinrich did take a picture out of one of the windows. The snow on the ivy looking out onto the courtyard was a very pretty sight.

Heinrich noticed one of the stain-glassed windows had a big dog with the family's shield. One of the most famous Emperors, Friedrich der Grosse or in English Frederich the Great, loved dogs and had them put into a lot of the decorations. There were dog windows, dog carvings in the support beams and dog decorations on the walls.

 

Hohenzollern Castle

When Heinrich arrived at the Air Base in Spangdahlem he saw a picture that has been very popular in the area. It is a picture with F-16s and an A-10 flying over one of the famous castles in Germany. Since the castle looked like a very nice one, Heinrich decided to drive down and see the castle for himself.

Unfortunately the day he choose to go down was a stormy winter day that was very overcast with some big snow flakes. The castle is way up on a hill and the road was pretty slushy.

There was a shuttle bus that would drive people up the hill to see the castle. Heinrich thought that it was worth the 1.80 Euros to ride the shuttle up to the top of the hill.

When he got to the top of the hill, the towers of the castle were looming high into the snowy sky.

At the entrance to the gate was a stone tower with the Emperor's crest above it and a carved knight on a horse. Heinrich had already grown a snow mustache. There was also a draw bridge over a very small rectangular moat. It didn't seem very impressive for such a large castle.

 

But as Heinrich started up, he found that the road to the castle made a circular curve until it came to a second gate over a second moat.

 

After that was a second winding curve up to a third gate with another small moat.

Looking back Heinrich realized that attackers would have to fight up to the first gate, Then fight along the first curve to the second gate, all the while with people shooting at them. Then around another curve to yet another gate, again being shot at the whole time. It was clear that the defenses to enter the castles were actually pretty impressive.

When he finally got to the top of the spiral ramps there was a family crest for the people who built the castle. This castle was a summer home for the German Emperor's family. Even though they had this big beautiful castle, they never really lived in it. It was mainly built just for show. Some people waste way too much money.

 

Aachen Exterior

The cathedral is actually in an opening in the center of the city surrounded by the shops and buildings of the city center. When Heinrich finally found his way to the cathedral he noticed that there were lots of different parts of the building. They seemed to just be stuck here and there.

 

Nearby he found a model that showed the design of the cathedral. It started out as a small church, but when Charlemagne became powerful the Church started to grow part by part. Later when the city was the capitol of the Empire, lots of people contributed to growing the cathedral bigger and bigger.

 

It was interesting to match up the pieces of the model with the sections of the cathedral. Some of the pieces were so high up they were hard to see clearly. There was actually a bridge that ran from the big man tower to the central dome.

 

Near the base of the cathedral was a statue of one of the saints. Someone had made him a very nice cloak out of gold material and draped it over him.

On the façade of the cathedral were many very nicely carved statues. These were too high for anyone to put clothes on them. Most of them looked like they were either new or very well preserved.

 

Aachen Center

Heinrich was on another of his adventures. This time he went to the town of Aachen or as its called in French Aix-la-Chapelle. This was the home city of Charlemagne or Charles the Great. In the 800s he united most of Europe into a single Empire that became known as the Holy Roman Empire. The little town of Aachen became the capitol for this huge empire. As Heinrich walked the streets he noticed one of the pavement tour markers that he had seen in other cities. This one was marked with a KS that stood for the German spelling of Charles and an R on top that stands for “rex” or king.

As he was walking around he thought for a moment he was in India. Next to one of the stores right in the middle of town there was a cow on the pavement. But unlike the cows in India that wander the streets this one was a plastic model.

It seemed a little more like India as we passed a nearby sweets store. There were fancy packages of candy on the window and some huge cookies that looked like Indian elephants.

By an old wall Heinrich noticed some impressive stone carvings. As he looked a little closer he realized they were actually gargoyles that were standing on their ends. A sign nearby said that they were from the famous Aachen cathedral. Heinrich decided he would follow the pavement markers and try to find this famous cathedral.

 

Right in the middle of town he spied a very tall spire through a small passageway. As he walked through the passage way he saw a huge and very impressive cathedral.

 

Berlin Zoo

When Heinrich travels in large European cities he really likes to take the metro or underground subway trains. They are fast and easy and usually the cheapest way to get around in a city. Lots of times the underground station will be decorated to remind people what is above the underground train station. As Heinrich was ending his visit to Berlin he stopped in a subway station with some wonderful murals on the wall. There were donkeys and walrus and kangaroos.

On the wall across the station there were more animals. This mural had antelope and pelicans and hippopotami.

When Heinrich climbed up the stairs he saw a utility shed that was painted with many animals. Heinrich saw a giraffe and a lemur and a bird of paradise.

 

But the picture he liked best was the picture of the tree frog. Frogs are one of Heinrich's favorite animal friends.

About this time, Heinrich was figuring out that he had found the Berlin zoo. The entrance was like a Chinese gate (even though it was in Germany). There were two large elephants guarding the sides of the gate.

 

The walls along the zoo had some interesting pictures and artwork carved in the bricks of the wall. Several of the images were of dinosaurs. There were triceratops and pterodactyls.

On another wall there were pictures of stegosaurus and plesiosaurus.

 

Right along the road were some pictures of a crocodile and some fish and, yuck, a snake. Heinrich no like snakes.

 

Neptune Fountain

Around the corner Heinrich found a very beautiful fountain. It is called Neptune's Fountain. The artwork in the sculpture is very detailed and creative.

A part of the fountain includes animals that are sitting in water when the fountain is running. One of these is a large crocodile. The detail of the statue is amazing. If you look past the crocodile at the base of the fountain you can see the care the artist took with the sculpture. There are beautiful images of a turtle and a lobster.

Around Neptune are four ladies. They represent the Four main Rivers of Germany. The Elbe, Vistula, Oder and the Rhine.  The lady for the Elbe has a sickle and several sheaves of grain representing agriculture. 

 

 

The Vistula is a place where lots of people earn a living from fishing. That statue has nets and fish in her lap. 

 

The statue for the Oder has a lady with a goat and several animal furs around her to remind people of the herding of animals in the region. 

 

The Rhine is a region very famous for its vineyards and wine production. The statue for the Rhine has a lady with a flask of wine and clusters of grapes.

The leg of the merpeople end in duck-like webbed feet. In the back ground you can see a sea lion. 

 

 

 But if you look in the front you can see a nasty looking snake. Always remember, Heinrich no like snakes.