The Randalls: Germany Trip Day 3

Today started out traveling to Aglasterhausen, a town where Mark and Jeff’s maternal great-great grandparents were born. This was a major reason for coming back to Germany, so we could explore this town and try to find other family names, dates, etc.

It wasn’t the small, backwoods town we were expecting. We found the Evangelist church were many of Jeff and Mark’s ancestors were baptized and married there.

Half the church (on the left side with all the windows) was the Catholic church. The other half (on the right) was the Evangelist church. Both churches shared the tower that stands in the middle. It’s all Evangelist’s church now and the Catholic church grew enough that they built their own newer building across town.

We visited the local rathause (town hall) to see what information they might give us on the family names we were searching for. Thank goodness we had Jeff who is fluent in German or we wouldn’t have had any help. Being in a smaller German town that doesn’t get too many tourists doesn’t require a lot of English speakers.

The rathause worker there told us to knock on the door of the pastor to see if they might have any records of the church. The pastor’s house was right in the same small courtyard as the church.

The lady who answered the door at the pastor’s house asked us to come back in an hour so we headed to the cemetery to see what headstones of our ancestors we could find. The cemetery was beautiful and very different than what I’m used to in the U.S.

We searched through the entire cemetery (which didn’t take long) and couldn’t find any headstones older than 1912 for death dates. We thought that was kind of weird. Where else would this town keep their dead people? After talking to some workers at the cemetery and heading back to the rathause and then heading to the pastor’s house we found out that long ago they didn’t bother with headstones or grave markers of any kind. They just put more dirt over them and created a new cemetery. Weird, right?

Unfortunately, the best place to find more information on our ancestors wasn’t in Aglasterhausen. So we walked around the town to explore a little bit. It was just beautiful.

The most beautiful part (in Mark’s estimation) was the moment he walked by the local bakery and found…The Berliner! He has been talking up this donut for years.

This is, according to him, the TRUE powdered jelly-filled donut. I have to admit it was pretty dang good.

The pastor’s office manager was kind enough to let us into the church. What a cool experience to be able to visit inside the place where Mark’s ancestors were baptized and married years and years ago.

We had to get a picture of Jeff and Mark by the Aglasterhausen town sign.

The next stop was Dilsberg castle, which was only about 25 minutes away from Aglasterhausen. We were barely out of the car when this striped cat came walking right up to Mark. We thought we’d take him home as a German souvenir for the girls but decided Max wouldn’t care for it.

Dilsberg castle did not disappoint. It is a 12th Century castle that fell into ruin in the 19th Century and was then used as a quarry until someone decided to reconstruct portions of it for tourism use.

This wall is called a ‘curtain wall’. Pretty self explanatory. The tower to the right is where we climbed up to walk across the ‘curtain wall’ to see awesome 360 degree views.

Mark made it to the top, no problem. It was walking across the top of the wall that was the problem. I’m impressed he made it out this far on the wall.

Here’s a view of the tower from the top of the wall. Notice mark on the left. This gives you an idea of how high up we are.

Jeff spoke with the ticket counter guy (yet another reason his German came in handy) and found out we could get a key and hike down the side of the castle/mountain and open a gate to go inside the air shaft that leads to the castle well. The shaft was 80 meters long and took us into the heart of the mountain under the castle. The well was 46 meters deep. We’re not sure how far down we were from the top of the well, but the water was still a long ways down even from this point in the air shaft.

Who knew a little spelunking was on the menu for this trip? I’ve loved trying out our new camera. The flash is so much better.

I figured I need a picture of me in the air shaft as well. My knee actually held up nicely today with all the climbing and walking we did.

This is just outside the tiny town gates of the castle. About 220 people live around the castle behind these walls. They probably don’t even realize how cool it is to live next to a castle.

We left Dilsberg castle around 2:00 pm and realized we need food. We headed back to Heidelberg since we couldn’t find anything around the castle that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. We ended up at a Kebab and Pizza place in the middle of old town Heidelberg so Jeff could get his döner meal. I decided to have it as well, while Mark had a margarita pizza (which wasn’t very good). My meal was excellent.

After a delicious meal it was time to explore the Church of the Holy Spirit some more. A small fee of 2 euros allowed us to climb up the 200 steps (yes, I counted each and every one of them) to the top of the tower.

I don't think I've ever gotten this great of a picture of Mark's smile. You wouldn't know it from this picture but he's feeling some serious vertigo and sweaty palms being this high up in the tower of the church. What a champ!

While Alison and I enjoyed the view, Jeff and Mark stayed away from the edge.

I got an even better opportunity to get a picture of Heidelberg castle from the top of the church’s tower. So cool with all the fall colors.

Alison and I didn’t have any problems with the height.

We still had a few hours to kill before the sun went down so we decided we needed to ride the funicular 1300 feet up the mountain to the top.

The view was spectacular. And we were super lucky the weather cooperated.

My new camera zoomed in nicely to the city of Heidelberg.

Mark, Alison and Jeff enjoying the view as well.

I always try to take pictures of the signs to things we see so I can remember them later.

It was getting fairly cold up on the mountain. We realized we were the last funicular ride up for the day so we didn’t have much time to explore before having to head back down.