Fulda

I have to admit that the only thing I knew about Fulda was something about a tyre factory. The brochure looked promising however, so off we went. We put the Fulda Bahnhof (train station) address in to the Tom Tom and away we went over the hills and mountains. I'd asked for the shortest route and this route was certainly convoluted. We got there fine however and it was preferable to the fastest route which we took on the way home.

We parked in a lot near the train station. There was an old bloke (probably younger than me) with a plastic bag hanging around like he was a homeless person. It turned out that he was the plain clothes parking inspector. He helped me buy the all day parking ticket for 4 euros.

Do you want to rent a train? Railpool is for waiting for your call.

After wandering around the station looking for a WC (cost 1 euro), we started down the street into Fulda.

My sister Clare is slipping in her old age. She walked right past this coffee / cafe / bakery without noticing it.

We past through a modern part of the town and then came to the older part.

We worked out that Fulda is a tourist city for Germans. It's one of those places that non Germans don't know about.

One of the churches.

We passed this restaurant on the left and noticed that they were serving spargel and decided we would go back there for lunch. Spargel is a white asparagus and a delicacy in Germany.

These are allium.

We came across the Fulda Cathedral and decided to take a look at it.

The Cathedral occupies the prime position in Fulda with a very large fore court. For some reason or other, there was a blue semi trailer parked there as a decoration. It didn't work.

The interior definitely had a wow factor.

The white is so unexpected and really looks so light and airy compared to the dark, somber mood of so many churches. 

I wandered down into the crypt area behind the main alter where a group of Germans were receiving a long lecture from a guide. Fortunately there was a leaflet in English that described what was so important. After the tour group had left, this couple came down the stairs and the man immediately fell to his knees.

This is the burial site of St Boniface and the central point of Catholicism in Germany. It's worth reading the Wikipedia entry.

My sister Clare is weakening. She managed to walk by these strawberry tarts twice without buying any.

We went back to the restaurant I mentioned earlier to have the spargel for lunch and here is the feast. Spargel, new potatoes and melted butter for about 13 euros ($16). It may sound like a lot of money for a couple of vegies with some chives sprinkled on top, but they were really good. Absolutely delicious.

The restaurant. They were doing a good business.

After lunch we continued to the Stadtschloss (Castle Palace).

The Castle was undergoing external repairs to the roof but we decided to pay the 2.30 euros and take a look.

This is one of those rooms where you can only wonder about what the nobility did with their money. It appeared to be some sort of entrance but the stairs to the rest of the palace were not grand enough. Since it was in the basement area, perhaps it was the 'man cave', or pool room.

One of the problems for cities with Palaces like this has to be what to do with the things. This palace was quite large and it looked like the Fulda solution was to turn most of it into administrative offices with a couple of wings that showed off the grandeur of the past. This appeared to be a meeting room. 

The floors were beautiful.

Clare and Ric waiting for me to turn up with the tickets to get into the royal chambers.

This was for a prince who could not walk because of a riding accident.

A definite upgrading of the decor from the prior meeting room.

A stove at the back of the room. One more excuse to sit in the back row.

A ceiling.

Crown and mitre. Now which should I wear today? Personally, I think I would look better in the mitre.

The floor.

An interesting painting with the reflection. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Detail of the fabric on the wall.

The above four photos of this small room at the corner of the palace can only begin to hint at the outrageousness of it all. Talk about 'over the top'. My immediate reaction was to laugh.

Yes, they are plates.

There were porcelain factories in the area.

Another stove to warm the room.

This appeared to be a porcelain table top. Imagine eating at such a thing and being scared that you would break the thing by dropping your knife.

Look at the lower right figurine.

This figurine had the most prominent position of all the figurines.

We found some signs to a tower so we started to climb it. There were a few clock faces along the way.

Going up the tower.

Eventually we got to the top and were rewarded with great views. This building is the Orangerie on the other side of the English Garden.

The Cathedral.

We watched this bloke laying tiles on this really steep roof without a safety harness. 

I took a video of him.

It's only a mile or so in a straight line to the surrounding countryside. There is not much urban sprawl in Germany.

I suspect that the building on the hill is a monastery.

The English Garden.

Looking down the stairs going down the tower.

All along the stairway were castings like this. I suspect they came from various destroyed churches.

Clock hands.

A larger lecture room.

A model of down town Fulda constructed in wood.

The blue semitrailer was still there.

We crossed into the English Garden on our way to the Orangerie. This was the formal part of the garden.

The Orangerie.

Looking back at the tower.

Ric Swarzenegger struts his stuff. Notice the spiffy orange booties.

We could not get into the building which appeared to be a restaurant for conferences, but we did see some orange trees.

We then continued into the less formal part of the English Garden.

This was absolutely wonderful to stroll along.

There were quite a few other people enjoying the park, but not that many that it felt crowded.

There were several people just sitting enjoying the peace and quiet. It was a very relaxing place.

The photos don't really show the contrast between the shady and sunny spots. The leaves on the trees are quite dense and really block out the sun.

I liked the shape of the branches.

I've never seen anything like this. You have to click on the photo.

We got back to the parking lot and I noticed that this old shed was really quite old. It may even have survived WWII which would have been amazing considering it was right beside the railway station..

On the way out of town, we stopped at a red light and I suddenly realized we were at the entrance to the tyre factory. The perfect ending to a visit to Fulda.