Winter Wunderland
- krolesh
- Feb 10
- 16 min read
Updated: Mar 1
January 2025
Anna Lena, Julien and I had big plans for the day. We were going for a hike in the Fränkische Schweiz (Franconian Switzerland), a very funnily named but extremely beautiful region not too far from their home in Erlangen, near Nuremberg in Germany.
So after a delicious breakfast we set off.
They actually have a van, and have been on some long trips in it, including to many beautiful places in Scandinavia.
But I met them cycling in Central Asia.
It was cold, but not too cold.
The forest was beautiful, and the geology really unusual
And the sun was out. Just.
Local resident prints
Bunnies and cats probably
Dare ya
We climbed up to some castle ruins, it was beautiful up there.
Someone took this for us. Ummm, thanks, but you're a little far away.
Guess I'd better zoom
We did our own photo shoot
Amazing cold spot
Our Winter Wunderland
I am the Iceman
Waiting for Julien, after a shop
It was cold, but of course Anna Lena and Julien had already wrapped me up in their warm cosy blanket of hospitality, had provided me with delicious food and a comfy place to sleep, and treated me to the best company ever.
And by the way, they're famous. Their cycle tour, which started from their home, went all the way to Singapore, and then returned halfway back (to Kyrgyzstan), made the newspaper here in Erlangen.
In case you're a German speaker, here it is.
And guess what?
Told you I was a famous photojournalist
The view from my floor
And out the window
Unbelievable breakfast spread, supplemented by a morning visit to the Bäckerei by Anna Lena and I.
Complete with coffee from Laos. They carried it all the way from there, on their bikes, and only opened it when I got here.
A good old fashioned German egg boiler. Lots of people have them, there's a little measuring cup which you fill with water, marked according to how long you want them to boil for. It dings when it's ready. So efficient.
The problem is, if you then put them in egg cups and lazily chat away for ten minutes before making your way to the table, they overcook.
Bavarian flavoured cream cheese. It's delicious.
Today we decided to ride into the old town centre of Erlangen. We needed to rug up and glove up, as cycling in winter in Europe is bloody freezing.
Erlangen is a beautiful city of 120,000 in the state of Bavaria, although locals would rather say they live in Franconia, the name of this region. It's the same for Bavarians actually, who like to say that they're Bavarians first, and Germans second.
In the Middle Ages the town of Erlangen benefited from its larger neighbour Nuremberg's trading status, and it also became a haven for religious refugees in the late 1600s, after the French King Louis XIV stripped Calvinists of their religious rights, and huge numbers of them were forced to flee.
The city not only became the home of these Calvinists, (also known as Huguenots), but alsoLutherans, and followers of the German Reformed Church. There's a lot of evidence of the Huguenot presence in the town.
The city is also famous for its huge university, and for the presence of the huge multinational German tech conglomerate Siemens. Uni students and Siemens employees make up a fair chunk of the local population.
One of the founders of the big uni, Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
We wandered around the beautiful old town, and then eventually made ourway to the Botanical Gardens.
It was beautiful in there, with quite a few subtropical and tropical conservatories.
Ah, I miss this type of vegetation from the subtropical east coast of Australia.
There were even crocs in there. Crikey!
As it began to get cooler we found the warmest sunniest spot, which Anna Lena and Julian both know well. See all the people warming up along there?
And what better place to have a little jam. It was so good, and really brought me back to our beautiful days camping and jamming together at Issyk Kul lake in Kyrgyzstan, back when we were young (last year). It was absolutely perfect. All of them.
But those annoying fan cams were out again, as usual
Eventually the sun became rarefied, so we escaped, and strolled back to our bikes.
Modern unis look pretty much the same everywhere. At least inside.
This poor dude got stuck in his sleeping bag. I know the feeling mate.
I borrowed their fold up bike.
There's an election coming in Germany soon. Political advertising is up everywhere, much of it untrue, or misleading at best. But this is a good one. It translates as "Debt: children are responsible for their parents."
It's a variation of a sign often seen outside construction zones or dangerous areas in Germany, which says "Parents are responsible for their children."
The incredible debt that many governments around the world have incurred in order to gain votes is a debt our kids will have to repay. Or already are.
But the party that produced this poster, the FDP, are one of the worst in Germany, only really supporting billionaires and the huge industrialists
And look what we had waiting for us at home?
These are Krapfen, basically donut balls filled with jam.
The local variety here is filled with rosehip jam. I can't put into words how good it is.
Our delicious pasta dinner was washed down with Radler, a German version of the shandy, a mix of beer and lemonade. And with more delicious conversations. It's been so amazing to hang out with these guys, I'll be really sad to leave them.
To Frangers
So the next morning Anna Lena and Julien headed off to work early, and after a little breakfast off I went, on the train back to Nuremberg, and then on the bus to Frankfurt. I'm still friend-hopping.
Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof
Yes, surprise surprise, I'm on another bus.
Beautiful medieval buildings
Bye bye Anna Lena and Julien. Bye bye Erlangen. Thanks for everything.
The trip was only a few hours.
Germany's gone solar and wind big time. Renewables contribute over half of the energy mix here. In Australia it's about 40%, which is pretty poor, given our solar and land resources. The power of the coal and gas lobby is huge in Oz, of course.
Just as an aside, in case you've been wondering why the Libs are pushing nuclear power in Oz, it's not because they're particularly pro-nuclear. Nah, they're way too smart for that. They know that new nuclear power stations are hugely expensive, and consistently cost three or four times as much as the original budget, and sometimes take at least twenty or thirty years to build.
And that's in countries which already have nuclear industries.
No, the reason they're pushing nuclear power is because a commitment towards nuclear power in the energy mix will create a huge gap in energy supply while power stations are built. And how will this gap be filled?
With coal and gas of course.
Check this out:
It'd been snowing, and Frankfurt was dark and cold.
But I was happy!
It was great to see Edde and Ali again, friends I first met in Sighnaghi in Georgia, and later in Yerevan, Armenia. They also came to visit me in Esslingen, at the Christmas markets.
They live in a place called Bad Nauheim, a well-known German spa town, famous for its Belle Epoque architecture.
The area where Edde lives used to be a US army base. Hence the street name. The US soldiers moved out in the early 2000s, when many were sent to Iraq, lucky guys. The land was then re-zoned for residential development, and housing lots sold. Edde and his Chinese wife Shao-li bought one, and built their house there.
We went to Ali's for dinner. His Vietnamese wife Lily had this sitting on the kitchen table.
Yeah I had one. Eating it made me imagine I was eating thick dried skin, skin which had just been peeled from the bottom of my next door neighbour's grandfather's dry foot. Spiced with lemon grass and hot chilli of course.
It's actually chicken feet, in case you didn't know, but looks like it could also be spiced human baby hands.
We had an absolutely delicious fondue, compliments of Edde, who bought it in Davos, Switzerland, recently. Fondue was born and bred in Switzerland, so it was a really delicious one. The Swiss eat it a lot in autumn and winter. We washed it down with beer and Kirschwasser, of course - cherry Schnapps.
Google Translate was useful for Lily and I.
The next morn I had company in my lounge room day bed. It's been awhile since I've had anyone in my bed, and another mammal is a step in the right direction, I guess.
Well, it's better than bed bugs.
Ha Bai, the cat, refusing to be kissed by Shao-li. She did the same to me last night.
Edde and Shao-li have two teenage kids, Tsatsa and Felix.
18 year old Tsatsa was super keen to learn some guitar tricks. She's an amazing player already. She's seriously good for her age and guitar experience, and picks things up immediately.
We played for hours while I stayed there.
That night the Bad Nauheim ice hockey team had a home game, so we went. It was amazing! It was a league game in the national second division, so it was a real game, with real professional players, just like you'd see on tv if you had any interest in such things.
The players may be professional, but they're also crazy. The game is super fast, and the players crash into walls and each other on a regular basis. It's so entertaining watching people injure themselves just so they can get a puck before anyone else does.
Sounds like my teenage years.
The referees got crunched on a regular basis too, and sometimes had to suddenly jump or duck, to avoid the fast moving puck. The players definitely did give a flying puck.
Quite often in fact.
The whole thing was generally pretty pucked up.
It was a fabulously entertaining game. The local Bad Nauheim team went 3-0 down pretty quickly. But then they came back! It was 3-3 close to full time, and it looked like both teams would need to play golden goal extra time, but then the home team scored twice in quick succession. Yay! The stadium went crazy!
And we went crazy too.
When in Rome.
We dressed up for the occasion.
Yeah I know, I've put on loads of weight lately, it's probably related to all those fondus and spiced chubby baby hands I've been tucking into.
It was bloody freezing outside, as we strolled home along the river and through the local park.
Spa Town
Bad Nauheim is famous for its hot salted mineral springs, which are used to treat heart and nerve diseases. A Nauheim, or "effervescent" spa, is a type of spa bath where carbon dioxide is bubbled through the water.
Wow! Now that's an idea. Finally a use for all this carbon dioxide in the atmosphere! Just cover the whole world with spa baths, and pump all the carbon dioxide bubbles into them, so everyone can just relax all day and get healthy, instead of killing each other and working too much and getting sick and killing the planet by shopping and eating too much.
Despite its proximity to Frankfurt, Bad Nauheim was spared bombing by the US, because President Roosevelt himself had been there with his family when he was a kid. He loved the place because the spas cured his dad, and so on a whim he decided not to drop massive amounts of bombs on the place until everyone was dead. Lucky for Bad Nauheim.
The other famous person who lived there was Elvis Presley. Yes! The King lived there, from 1958-60, when he served in the US Army, in the days when he was still healthy and handsome, and didn't hate life and himself so much that he escaped into drugs and alcohol. Of course there's an annual Elvis festival here.
Hotels and apartments built in the 1800s and early 1900s, for the nobility and royalty to stay in. They all came here on pampering holidays and spent their time getting wellness health and beauty treatments in the spas.
Edde drove me up to the snowy hills. It was beautiful, and freezing.
The airport. Ridgy didge, it is. A grass landing strip. It's not the first I've seen in Germany.
Ancient church tower.
Looking back into town
The Romans settled here way back in 70AD, and created a huge protected area fortified with walls and watchtowers, which contained small settlements and extensive areas of fields for cultivation.
Brand new public swimming pool and spa.
The old spa complex. It's being renovated, and some new parts are already open.
Belle Epoque and Art Nouveau. Belle Epoque was a period between the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It was characterised by peace and optimism in Europe, after the horrors of the Napoleonic Era, and included a huge cultural resurgence, scientific and technological breakthroughs, and economic prosperity, particularly in France.
The artistic style prevalent during the Belle Epoque period was called Art Nouveau (Jugendstil in German), an art form commonly characterised by natural shapes and forms, like the curves of flowers and plants. It was especially prevalent in the decorative arts, in glass and ceramics, and also in the architectural styles created during the Belle Epoque period.
You'd recognise the style from the poster. It's pretty hip these days, even if the term hip isn't hip anymore, not even to hipsters.
One of the old buildings has been converted into a museum.
The spa café. It's magnificent.
No, don't even ask. I wish.
Classic Art Nouveau
The old spas were made of Australian and NZ ironwood. Bloody ripper mate.
These were completely crotchless. They were so advanced in those days! But I guess they were pretty big, for knickers. These days the same amount of material could probably string the whole Women's Philharmonic Orchestra.
Social life in the Grand Duke's family garden. The rich and famous, back in the day.
This guy made the woman's dress fall down just by playing his pipe. Very clever.
The poster claims the baths can basically cure pretty much everything, including heart disease, gout, rheumatism, and even "women's diseases," whatever they're supposed to be. Whatever they are, we can't talk about them can we.
Elvis Presley lived in this nondescript building for a couple of years. There used to be a plaque outside, but his fans kept stealing it, and the local council got so pissed off that they stopped replacing it.
Now there's a memorial at the end of the street. With fresh flowers from fans, of course. He'll be back sometime to see it anyway. He's not dead, he's just missing.
Bad Nauheim had a system for transporting the salt water to the spa baths, but it was quite time consuming and eventually became costly, so they introduced a water wheel system to improve the efficiency of the flow.
This is one of the largest water wheels in Europe, and measures almost ten metres in diameter. It's made of oak, and, believe it or not, still operates, and is maintained by a group of volunteers in Bad Nauheim who are into that sort of thing.
Different strokes I guess.
This is a salt graduation tower. The slightly saline water was pumped to the top of the wall, which is made of blackthorn, and then dripped through it, much of it evaporating along the way. This increased the salt content from 3% to 22%. People would hang out down there and breathe deeply, as the salty air is good for respiratory diseases. They still do.
Germans are so smart and efficient.
Later that night we went around to Ali's again, and, despite the fact that we'd just had dinner at Edde's, we had dinner.
Look at this. It was hard to resist. Lily did cook it first though, thankfully, and there were no chicken feet/baby hands involved.
Edde happily prost!ing his beer. We had dried sweet potato snacks too. And Kirschwasser.
The crew
Me playing with little Li. She's so bloody smart, speaks fluent German and Vietnamese already, and can dance to pop like a seasoned performer.
Shame they put a phone in front of her sometimes.
This, by the way, is my luxury bed. In the lounge.
One morning I went with Tsatsa to the dentist. It was so easy. Because I'd worked in Germany I had medical insurance, and, even though my insurance hadn't been processed yet, they let me leave without paying. They're good like that. Luckily my teeth are all good, although they could do with a good straighten.
Tsatsa and I went off for coffee and cake afterwards. Eating super sugary stuff is apparently perfect after you've just been to the dentist. It was interesting chatting to her about her plans, as she'll be finished school soon, and will turn 18 in a few days. She wants to go to uni at Cambridge and travel the world.
Well, she's already travelled the world, and lived in a number of countries already. But there's always somewhere else you could go, I can tell you a thing or two about that.
To Swizzyland
Eventually it was time to catch my night bus. Edde, Ali and I went off to a pub for some food and one last beer, before I took a train back to Frangers, to catch my coach to my next destination - the city of St Gallen, in northeastern Switzerland.
That isn't Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart up on the wall by the way. It's Audrey Hepburn and Johannes Heesters, a famous Dutch actor, singer and demigod.
It was really amazing hanging out with Edde and Ali and their beautiful families. They were so hospitable, so friendly and super interesting.
When I was younger I always wished I could just go inside people's houses and be a fly on the wall, see how they all live. Well now I'm getting the chance to do it.
It's so interesting!
Every family is so unique, with their own ways of living and their own peculiarities and own rules. I find it all so fascinating.
The clean and empty train to Frankfurt.
Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main station).
This is a shop that sells Speck (bacon). Yep. The whole shop. Imagine all those different brekkies you could have. There was so much bacon in the shop that it turned the whole pic bacon-colour.
Again I needed to wait for my coach in the freezing cold. I've done a lot of that lately. At least it wasn't too long this time, and at least it wasn't 5am, or some ridiculous hour like that.
Yeah, the ridiculous 5am stop came the very next morning, at 5am (believe it or not), when I had a three and a half hour wait in Innsbruck in Austria. It was bitterly cold.
Well, it was just cold, and it was me who was bitter.
I actually shouldn't complain. I just walked for fifteen minutes to a nearby railway station in the dark, and luckily there was a warm waiting room inside.
And then later there was a beautiful mountain backdrop, which appeared with the light, and that cheered me up a lot.
My next bus was even early, so I could sit inside and stop my slow freeze.
The views were pretty amazing through the Austrian mountains, I gotta say.
There were millions of tunnels.
Well ok, that was a bit of an exaggeration. There were hundreds of thousands of them.
My first view of Bodensee, or Lake Constance, a large lake pretty close to St Gallen, the southeastern part of which straddles the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Kurt and Darina
Yay! I got to hang with my dear friends Kurt and Darina again! I met them in Kyrgyzstan, cycling, they were on their bikes too, and we decided to cycle together for awhile. We ended up spending nearly a week together there, before we went off in different directions.
Now if you think I'm a crazy cyclist, well baby, you ain't seen nothin' yet. B-b-b-baby no you ain't seen nothin' yet. These two have been everywhere. On their bikes.
They've been to countries you've never even heard of. They've been to countries that haven't even heard of themselves yet. Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, they've been everywhere.
Check out their YouTube vids.
And please subscribe and like their videos.
No pressure, it's worth it.
You'll even get to see me towards the end of this Kyrgyzstan video, (at around 29 mins in), jamming with Kurt, who's playing the gas canister. I apologise for my poor Portuguese. It was all from memory.
But of course the most important thing about Kurt and Darina is that they're super super nice people. And interesting. And generous. And great cooks. And funny. And just great to be around.
As soon as Kurt met me at the coach stop and we strolled to their apartment he said, "what do you need first, a shit, a shower, or food?"
He knows what it's like to be a guest.
I don't even remember which option I went for first, but eventually did all of them .
Kurt and Darina's front door.
The view outside my bedroom window. I had my own room!
Then Kurt and I hit the streets, to check out the city.
The city is stunning, especially the old part of town.
PKZ - Papa kann zahlen (dad can pay). That's not what it really stands for, but what the locals say.
St Gallen and the urban areas around it support a population of around 180,000, and it's the main economic and education hub for eastern Switzerland. The university is famous for its business school, and the city also has a number of amazing UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites.
The Irish missionary Gallus founded a monastery here way back in the 8th Century (hence the city's name), and the abbey became a magnet for pilgrims, and grew to become not only a pilgrimage site, but also a manufacturing and trading centre.
In 1526 the Reformation came to town, and the city converted to the new religion of Protestantism. The abbey remained Catholic however, and tried to entice people into their church by providing free beer. Even back then they knew how it all works.
In the 15th Century St Gallen became known for producing quality textiles, and the industry grew to be huge in the region, reaching its zenith in the early 17th Century. In the early 19th Century the region became known for its exquisite embroidery, and by 1910 St Gallen was producing half of the world's embroidered goods.
These huge sales brought great wealth to the town, and it's evident in the architecture. The old town has some exquisite buildings, and is particularly famous for its unique balconies.
Prepare yourself for some balcony porn.
Switzerland has a famous fascination with bears, for some reason. Statues of them abound, and there's even live ones hanging around the capital of Bern.
This is the entrance to an amazing concert hall designed by famous Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava Valls.
There's a number of amazing creations by him around the city, as there are around the world, in places such as the World Trade Centre transport hub in New York, a huge arts complex in his home town of Valencia, the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, and the "Turning Torso" skyscraper building in Mälmo, which Kurt and Darina happen to have a picture of in their hallway.
The Turning Torso
Another Calatrava skylight in St Gallen
The magnificent old town.
The Catholic Cathedral. It's really something else.
Kurt and I then climbed a hill, which is pretty much necessary if you wanna walk anywhere in St Gallen. There's a funicular up this little valley, called the Mühleggbahn (the mill area train).
We walked up alongside the track, it was very icy and slippery in places
And the views were definitely worth it.
One of a number of frozen lakes that are used for recreation purposes in the summer months. Look closely at the right side of the lake.
There was a guy swimming. People are pretty crazy here sometimes.
We strolled past an old monastery, now a nunnery, where there is nun. Officially anyway. This is their notice board, outside the wood-shingled wall.
Bodensee in the distance.
Another Calatrava design, one of his first. It's a bus and tram shelter.
After an incredible meal of Indian curries and dahl, conjured out of thin air by the wildly talented Kurt, we went out to a local brew house to drink beer. It was super tasty.
The nightclub across the road was busy as we strolled home.
Cold Play
I still have a few days to hang here with Kurt and Darina.
Lucky, lucky me.
It was cold as I arrived, but the forecast was for it to slowly heat up. I'll believe that when I feel it.
And then, after I leave this beautiful city, I'll continue to head south, to the warmer weather, just like the migratory birds have already done.
Southern Italy awaits me - the magnificent city of Rome, and the Deep South of Sicily.
Life for me, for all that it is, continues to deliver.
And not just a little bit.
In absolute spades❤️
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