Enjoying Southern Germany...

We arrived in Frankfurt and traveled 2 hours south to Schwaebisch Hall, where our friends Gebhardt and Heike live. Heike is from SH and Gebhardt is from the Heidelberg area. They are guides extraordinaire and have been very generous hosts. We were able to participate in the Schwaebisch Hall Salt Simmerers Festival. This midieval city was known for salt, a very valuable commodity in the Middle Ages, which was gathered from wells and then simmered until the water evaporated. Festivities included gatherings in the town market square with dancing, marching, firing of arms and historical reenactments all in midieval costumes. A large cake made of cinnamon rolls was presented to the city and portions sold to attendees.


This is a reenactment of an historical event along the river bank and shows how the salt was simmered as well as the importance of the river. As a side note "hall" means salt in German.


We asked these two children if we could take a picture of them and the next day they were featured in the paper. They are twins who are descendants of the salt simmerers dressed in the traditional attire.



We enjoyed admiring all the unique and beautiful architecture...




...climbing lots of steps...



...walking along the cobblestone streets and walkways, peering into the shop windows that were closed for the holiday celebration.



We toured a very old Protestant church (1100 AD) that was part of the reformation with Martin Luther and Johannes Brenz with Nina and Ruwen (Gabe & Heike's children) joining us...


...and marveled that people so long ago could build such an ediface with no modern tools.