Idstein

As I've already mentioned, The Girl did all of the planning for our trip to Germany and Iceland. My only contribution was asking, "Can we see Ginko?"  He's the only person I knew in Germany, a fellow thru-hiker who I met very early in my trip last year, and who ended up hiking with me and two other thru-hikers for the last month or so of the Trail.  We managed to see him twice in Germany; the first was when he met us in Idstein.

There used to be leather production in Idstein; this statue represents the workers... and the vat of chemicals. 

This is the sort of old-world architecture Americans go to Germany to see... and which Germans, we learned, go to America to escape.

There are lots of unique carvings and ornamentation on the houses. The Girl and I started collecting pictures of architectural features like these that we want to incorporate into a house someday.

Buildings like this one made us wonder whether those old-world builders ever used levels.  The tower in the background is the Hexenturm.

Cobbles, and a nearby school.

After we met Ginko (trailname, not his real name) at the train station, we wandered through town for a little while, working our way to the Hexenturm, or Witch Tower.  At its base is a plaque with the names of witches condemned during the witch trials of 1676.  It's a long list for such a little town.  When they first told me the translation of Hexenturm, I had high hopes that the tower belonged to the witch, but the tower was part of Castle Idstein (see previous link), used primarily as a watch tower.  The name comes from the prison in the base where they put condemned witches, or those awaiting trial.  It was built like an oubliette (a type of medieval prison with only one access point, in a high ceiling, rendering escape impossible unless assisted by someone outside), and it is still visible through a window in the floor of the tower's ground-floor room.

Hexenturm

This view shows how thick the walls are at the base; I was just inside the door, looking into the ground-floor room.

Climbing the Hexenturm.

Inside of the roof.

There were nice views of the town from the top of the tower, but I readily admit to being more interested in the structure and its history than in what I could see from the windows.  At lower levels, the windows felt more like tunnels, because the glass was set at one end of long horizontal shafts in the thick walls.  The top of the tower was wooden, and the walls were much thinner--like someone had put a treehouse on a stone column.  A stone column with accused witches locked in the basement.  I don't know how that place isn't riddled with ghost stories.

Ginko and Treefrog

After we returned the key to the Hexenturm (you guide your own tour up the tower, after getting the biggest skeleton key I've ever seen from whoever's in charge. I don't know who that was, because all the signs were in German, and one of our hosts retrieved the key while the rest of us waited), we spent some more time walking through town, looking at neat buildings, decorated lamp posts, and streets clogged with people, but almost devoid of motor traffic. Then we got some lunch and applewine.

It seemed like every lamp post in Idstein was decorated like this. Fascinating, and pretty cool.

Potato pancakes with lox.

The next day, we moved on to our last set of hosts in Germany.  The Girl's second cousin and his wife, who came to visit us in Virginia last year.  Most of the day we were stuck in cars, but when we arrived, we got a tour of his family's rose farm, then went to dinner in a converted church.

Germans really know how to pack car snacks.

Inside one of the greenhouses.

I really liked the optic effect here. See that donut of light just to the right of the window?  It's coming from behind me...

...Through this window. The blue section in the middle blocked enough light that you only see a ring projected on the opposite wall.

We returned to the rose farm the next morning and toured the proprietor's beekeeping operation, but that was so much fun that I'm saving all of it for a separate post.  After that, we were off to Sparrenburg Castle... but you'll have to come back next week for that.