Discotheque!

It's a small world. Last year during Lollapalooza weekend, Amy met 2 German travelers (Max and Matthias) at Treasure Island in Chicago who couldn't find any place to crash for the night. She invited them back and we hung out for a couple days. It turns out that the 2 of them are from Schweinfurt and were in the area for the weekend while we were here (crazy coincidence)!

We got in touch with them and they invited us out for a true German BBQ. Max picked us up and took us on a drive around the area as we searched for a very special beverage for the evening. The beverage is called Federweisser and is basically partially fermented wine so it is sweeter but still contains alcohol. We had to drive a while trying to find a wine maker who actually had some. From two 25 gallons jugs, out in the barn where the wine is made, the lady filled up some empty liter bottles that Max had in his car. We got to taste a bit as well and, as described, it was like a carbonated white grape juice.

With the bottles topped off and plopped down in the back seat, Max drove us up to a point in Schweinfurt with an amazing view of the surrounding area.


Max in his car







We then drove down the hill to Max's parents place (beautiful house, by the way) for the feast. There were about 8 of us around the patio table, drinking beer and federweisser and eating a spread of cucumber salad, corn salad, regular salad, pork belly on a stick (tasted like bacon coiled on a stick), steak, bratwurst, a croation meat thingy on a stick, and some breads. I ate one of everything and was pretty stuffed. Unfortunately I didn't have time while shoveling food in my mouth to take any pictures.

We finished up the feast and went down with Max and Matthias to the city center and had a few beers outside and within the nearby bar "Cinema". It's legal for people in Germany to drink on the street so thats where you found the majority of the people. Once we downed a couple drinks (and a redbull for me) we went to the discotheque (It's just a club, but Max and Matthias always wonder why Americans think clubs in Germany are called discotheques).




Amy, Matthias, and I

We rounded out the night at 4 am with a cab back to Max's place, some pickings at the BBQ table, carbonated water, and bed! The next morning we all sat down for breakfast that Max's Mom laid out (Delicious!) and were dropped off back in Hirschfeld.

Schweinfurt and Wurzburg

To get from Frankfurt to Schweinfurt you must endure a 2 hour car ride on the autobahn with a man who has a minimal personality who is against wearing deoderant in all forms. Hannah helped us arrange a car ride from Frankfurt to Schweinfurt via a website for ride shares (www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de)which is a very common way for the German people to travel. The website is difficult to navigate if you don't speak German but luckily our translator (aka Hannah) walked us through it and called our ride for confirmation of the pick up point and the cost. To our delight, the ride cost only 16€, which is great in comparison to the train (80€). We held our breath, endured the ride and were dropped of at Burger King for pickup by our first workaway host and enjoyed a little American fast food flashback while we waited.

Our workaway is with an English family who live in the village of Hirschfeld in Bavaria, Germany. The village only has a bar and a church but luckily, a bus that runs often. Emma, Aaron, and their 4 boys Cameron, Arlie, Jonah, and Darwin (ages 2-12) graciously invited us into their home. We are helping out with the kids in addition to chopping wood for the winter months (made easy via a chainsaw and hydraulic splitter), and doing some small home renovation tasks. We have a lot of freetime to explore the area and have been using it to its full potential.

On our first day Emma dropped us off in Schweinfurt where we took some time to explore the city and attend the local art Museum (Museum Georg Schäfer, featuring an exhibit about the relationship between animals and humans). There wasn't much to Schweinfurt but we made a day of it none the less. Emma told us that Schweinfurt is a depressed city from being smushed in between Wurzburg and Bamberg which are both very beautiful.




Oh look, another church.

We took a day trip to Wurzburg (Got a ride to Schweinfurt from the friendly American Keana down the street and hopped a train to our final destination). There are many Americans in this area becuase there is an Army base nearby.


The bus unfortunately only runs every 2 hours on Saturday :(.


Trainride through the countryside. You can see the local nuclear plant off in the distance.

We had a limited amount of time in Wurzburg because the last bus back from Schweinfurt left at 8:30 so we assigned our site seeing priorities and marched off to Fortress Marienberg.


Another church (Marienkapelle) along the path between the bus stop and the Fortress.

The churches are beautiful, most of them taking 100 years or so to build.

View of Grafeneckart and Dom St. Kilian in old town.

We had to cross the 15 century bridge Alte Mainbrücke to get to the Fortress. The bridge was full of musicians and people enjoying the locally made weisswein (white wein).

Aww.



We are probably going to hell for this.

The view from below would be enough to keep me away from the fortress. We hiked all the way up the hillside, marching on switchbacks through rows of wine grapes in 85 degree heat (of course the weather earlier in the week was very cool and only changed from cold to hot when we planned on doing this walk).







The fortress was enormous and we walked through the museum (Fürstenbaumus), but unfortunately a lot of the artifacts were destroyed during WW2 bombings, which were never mentioned in the musuem (all of the signs simply read "destroyed by fire in 1945").







The views from the top were pretty amazing.





Doing what the locals do best, sitting and drinking beer and wine. Locally made wine for Amy and locally brewed beer for Kurtis!

We finished are drinks and caught the train and bus back to Hirschfeld, collapsing from exhaustion upon arrival.