It’s another very hot day but we’re off to do more exploring around Staufen:
In the early 16th century Johann Georg Faust was brought to Staufen to produce gold for the town. He lived in Gasthaus zum Lowen experimenting with chemical processes and became the legendary figure on which Geothe based his character Faust.
It’s a steep climb up the vine terraced hill to Staufen castle ruins.
Before the climb, a salutary reminder of the effects of drinking to much wine!
The cemetery is beautifully tended and offered a peaceful and cool oasis in the busy town. We glimpsed a beautiful stained glass work through the glass of the locked chapel door.
Interestingly, Staufen was bombed on the 18th February 1945. There has been some dispute as to why a small town in the middle of the Black Forest was of any strategic importance. In fact the retreating German forces were in a number of towns in the area, Staufen included. The German forces were bombed by the French (it is believed) and a third of the casualties on the day were SS soldiers. When we visited the cemetery Angela noticed a row of graves all dated 1945 and all marked with a simple metal plaque with name and dates. There were 29 in all.
Staufen cemetery
Café Decker is world famous in Staufen for it’s amazing cakes and delicious chocolates. Time to reward ourselves with coffee and Black Forest gateaux .
Café Decker, Staufen
Unfortunately for a lovely little town there is a great controversy which has been ongoing for years about the project to renovate the town hall. This involved tapping in to natural deposits of hot water water in order to supply geothermal energy for the town hall. Unfortunately the drilling ruptured a anhydrous layer of gypsum, which is now sucking up the water like the proverbial sponge. The whole town is now being lifted and has been rising several inches per year, with no end in sight. This has caused major damage to a lot of buildings with massive cracks being visible. To highlight their plight tenants have fixed “sticking plasters” across the cracks
Sounds like you've been having a great time xxc
ReplyDeleteHi Lulu. We are having a wonderful time but miss you all loads. At last we have internet connection, albeit a bit slow, so I'll be emailing shortly. Love Mum and Roland xx
DeleteSo enjoying reading all these posts. We miss you! 😊
ReplyDeleteHi Geoff. Thanks so much for reading our blog. It's been a real problem publishing as we've been in wifi black spots so far and pretty much out of touch with the world. Love to you and Alison and hope you had a fabulous time in France. We'd love to hear about it. Angela and Rolans xx
DeleteWe miss you both too, but so glad you're having a wonderful time. Karen and Catherine xx
ReplyDeleteAnd we miss you guys too.. and would kill for a curry! Haven't seen a curry house for three weeks and we're starting to get withdrawal symptoms. We've just arrived at our new campsite in Switzerland, and it has internet connection - hoorah! It's been such a struggle up to now but I'm typing this sitting in an apple orchard with a view of Lake Constance some 5km away in front of us and the alps beyond. All this and internet connection too - can't bad. Love to you both XXX Angela and Roland
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