Augsburg

Last updated on: July 13, 2016 at 6:49 am by Jane the Actuary

Augsburg 2016-07-13T00:01:02-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Next stop: Augsburg. Given that this is my husband’s hometown, this part of the visit was heavily tilted towards visiting his family, and less a matter of tourism.

On Thursday, however, we made a detour, adding (according to google when we mapped it out) 1 ½ hours onto the drive by stopping in Strasbourg along the way. It is, indeed, a magical thing to be able to just program the GPS to go to Strasbourg, city center, look for parking garages when you get to what the system deems to be the center (sure, parking’s expensive, but not really that outrageous for a couple hours), find yourself a map (these are generally available as signs on the streetcorners, if nothing else), and make your way to the center, and the main sights – in this case, the cathedral.

So here are a couple observations on Strasbourg:

The cathedral is indeed impressive, all Gothic-y and stained glassed and all. But of all the cathedrals on our tour thus far, it was also the most tourist-choked, especially with schoolgroups – and, while there was no charge to enter the cathedral, it felt very much like a tourist site rather than a holy place. On top of which, the organist started playing – not any music but just long, low, loud notes. I’d say he was tuning the organ but I don’t see how you would do such a thing.

The architecture of the city center itself was clearly a hybrid of French and German – some half-timbered, some, well, more French-looking — as befits this city which has changed hands over time. Some of the streets even had their old names – e.g., “Blindergasse” as the German name for a street now named something like “Rue des Aveugles” – that is Street of the Blind. And, as we walked back to the parking garage, there were three soldiers in front of us, walking towards an old-ish church midway between the cathedral and the parking garage. And they joined up with a couple more, and seemed to be standing guard in front of the church, as if there was some threat reported there. What exactly was going on we never figured out.

Anyway, we walked back to the car and continued on to Augsburg – to an extremely funky old apartment in the city center, just a couple blocks, really, from the center, the Rathaus. The apartment is in a very old building, on the fourth/top floor, with a very, very green rooftop garden (the owner requests guests water the plants), with a TV, hammocks, and the only table large enough for the family, in the apartment. There was also only one “regular” bedroom, as well as a fold-out bed, and sheets to put on the couch, and parking was a bit of a mess; much of the area is residents-only, or residents-or-pay during the week; the first three nights we had a 10 -15 minute walk from the car (and it helped significantly that my husband knew the area), and only the last day, Sunday, did we find somewhere closer. But the whole place was furnished in a funky style, and the kids thought it was fantastic, though I felt a bit odd about staying not at a special-purpose rental apartment, but at the “host’s” own home. I suppose this is “authentic” Air B&B, as we were greeted by a young couple, who said they were headed off to their campsite just out of town, and that they loved to camp in the summer so that’s why they offered the place for rent. And, while that’s believable from the decorations and guidebooks showing travel to Kenya and Thailand and so forth, at the same time, they do offer the place year-round, so one suspects that the true story is that Augsburg isn’t that much of a tourist draw, so they are only booked sporadically, and then bunk elsewhere for the time, to earn extra cash.

So on Friday we had a relatively simple day: breakfast at my mother-in-law’s, then a “tour of Neusaess,” the directly-adjacent suburb of my husband’s childhood. In the evening, a barbeque at my sister- and brother-in-law’s, with some cousins also in attendance.

Saturday we went into Oberammergau, or, rather, to the nearby mountain. I am most certainly not a hiker, so we took the cable car up, then hiked down, and, well, the kids had a great time. I did not. Then we went to a pool nearby, which had a couple waterslides and such for the kids.

Sunday we stayed closer to home. We started the day with church at St. Ulrich’s, the major basilica in the city. Turned out, it was the concluding service for “St. Ulrich’s week” and was a special “service of nations” in which people from the various Catholic immigrant communities participated, so we had readings and petitions in other languages, and special greetings from the city council, and, well, in the end it lasted for nearly 2 hours, but the kids were so impressed with the African gospel procession they didn’t complain. We then met my mother-in-law for lunch, then, with her, toured the Fuggerei (“the oldest social settlement in the world”) with her and walked around the city a bit.

Monday was Legoland. As a nice bonus, we managed to get 2 for 1 coupons off our apple juice cartons the prior week, by happenstance, really, after I’d tried to look online without success. My 9 year old, as expected, enjoyed himself the most, though, his favorite thing was not, as you’d think, the rides, but instead looking at the Lego Neuschwanstein and everything else in Miniland.

And that’s that for Augsburg.

Uncategorized

Vacation 2016

Previous Post

July 10, 2016

Bloggy request: the parish nurse?

Next Post

July 13, 2016 Rainbows, traffic lights, and the New Civil Religion

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did God speak to Job out of?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A whirlwind A pillar of fire A burning bush A cloud