Skipping Slovenia for Villach cut our travel time almost in half toward our next destination – Erlangen, Germany. That was a good thing. Despite express trains to Salzburg and then to Munich, our day started with an early walk to the station in Villach at 8:30 and ended with check in at Grauer Wolf Hotel at 4:30. Thank goodness we had long enough layovers to make all our train connections, especially in Munich, where we had to walk from the furthest end of the third furthest track from the terminal to get to our next train at the other side. We made it with four minutes to spare.
Erlangen is probably not in most people’s list of places to visit in Europe, even in Germany. It’s a small college town surrounded by smaller farming villages about a 20 minute train ride from Nuremberg. Erlangen is important to our family because we grew up here for four summers when Dad led an Exchange Program for German students at Georgia State. We stayed in Nuremberg the first summer, in a small village not far away called Pretzfeld the third summer, and in apartments around Erlangen for the other two summers.
Coming back to Erlangen after 40 years was a great mix of old memories and new experiences. The exit from the train station still puts you right out on the main square in town. The gardens around the old castle (then and now the University Administration building) were familiar and beautiful as ever. Walking down the street most things were not familiar, and one change was what wasn’t there — the tiny grocery store Mom hated to shop in, even though it was the closest by far and always had everything we needed. Also missing, the bratwurst street carts and their attendant aromas on every other corner.
Erlangen was the first place this trip that 3 of our 4 groups would try to rendezvous in a timely manner. Almost inconceivably, we all arrived within about an hour of each other – tired from travel, overjoyed at meeting together, and hungry for a good hot German meal. After dinner at a nearby sidewalk bistro, we used the evening to wander through the Gardens and evening streets of Erlangen.
Our first full day began with a traditional German breakfast, included at most hotels, of assorted breads with butter and jams, cheeses, meats, and fruit. Sometimes there was also yogurt and cereal, even bacon and scrambled eggs, and always milk, juice, tea, and coffee. We would gorge ourselves at breakfast, and many times skipped lunch altogether or opted for a snack instead of a full sit down midday meal. We decided ahead of time to rent a couple of cars so we could travel around the countryside without relying on train schedules or worrying about foul weather. The weather was beautiful, so we worked our way out of town to Pretzfeld to visit the home we stayed in during the summer of 1979. Pretzfeld was a small village then and remains small today. It still has a train station with hourly runs into Erlangen and on to Nuremberg or Bamberg. As we walked through a couple of streets, there was some new construction evident, but not much. Still no market in the village, in fact, the only store was a butcher shop. Anything else you needed was in the next town.
It was easy to find the building where we lived, three stories, next to the church, dentist offices on the first floor. When Dad went to knock on the door, a dental assistant answered and once she understood who Dad was and what he was asking, she went upstairs to ask. The elderly woman who came down was the daughter of the woman who rented the space to us in 1979. Although Dad is not sure we ever met, that summer, her mother lived on the second floor while we were on the third, so it’s possible that we may have met briefly in the stairwell or on the street. Anyway, Frau Doktor Preller remembered us staying there that summer! Her mother had since died, and she lived on the third floor now. Dr. Preller invited us (all 8 of us!) to see the apartment, and even wanted us to stay for lunch. Such a gracious hostess. As we went through her home, trying to piece our memories together of staying there, she and Dad spoke for about 20 minutes about that summer and what had happened since. We went outside to the garden in back where my sister Kimberley had pulled carrots with Dr. Preller’s mother and took a group picture at the back of the house. As we left, we all gave her a hug, which surprised her, probably as much as her generosity and hospitality had surprised us.
We continued our day driving through country roads between the small villages we had come to know 40 years ago. We were looking for familiar landmarks, and a place to stop for a trout lunch. That area of Germany is full of little streams and rivers that are in turn full of little trout. They clean them and fry them whole. Yummy! The other big draw to this part of Germany is the red cherries. Fields and fields of cherry trees. They were just beginning to ripen and every few hundred yards along the road, a little stand was set up selling 1Kg for 5€. There were even unattended stands where the price was the same and you were honor bound to put your money in the bin. We were about 2 weeks too early to enjoy the beginning of the cherry festivals that pop all around that area in the late summer.
After striking out for lunch in Ebermannstadt, fate led us to a fine restaurant outside Kirchehrenbach, at the foot of the Walberla. Apropos, because on some weekends 40 years ago, we would drive to the Walberla, walk up the paths to the grassy fields near the top of the hill, and watch the hang gliders set up and run downhill until their lift and a frequent gust of warm summer air lifted them over the long valley below. There would be dozens of them on Saturdays and Sundays. After our lunch of Schnitzel and trout, we took a short drive up the Walberla and then a meandering path back to Erlangen. We still had a couple of sights to see.
Back in town, we drove past one of the apartments we stayed at in Erlangen. It was less than a mile from the center of town and the University, but also was just downhill from the city’s Biergarten and just uphill from our favorite ice cream shop. A short drive around the Biergarten and around the apartment led to a full stop for ice cream. Spaghetti Ice is the specialty – whipped cream is covered in ice cream pressed through a play-doh device to make noodles. Then it’s all covered in strawberry sundae sauce and sprinkled with white chocolate crumbles for cheese. Delish.
That ended the long day around Erlangen, so while some of us walked back to the hotel, the others returned the rental cars and dreamed of a short nap. Luckily, the walkers passed a little cafe with a wonderful smell. It looked like an Italian theme – pasta, pizza, and greens, but they were hooked by the smell. Plus, walking distance from our hotel. What could go wrong? Turns out, nothing. We walked over and sat down to a lovely meal of Italian delights, as the owner was Italian, complete with red wine, limoncello, and a Nutella pizza for dessert. What a great day.
The next day was our outing to Nuremberg. Just 20 minutes away by train, Nuremberg is a bustling city about half the size of Charlotte and is the second largest city in the area behind Munich. Our plan was not to see the whole town, but to walk directly from the Hauptbahnhof to the Alt Stadt – Old Town, which still has sections of the old city wall, the old city Castle and a major cathedral in the city. The walk through the Alt Stadt is wonderful because it is almost entirely traffic free. Streets that were 30 and 40 yards wide have been converted into a pedestrian only zone, lined with shopping, eating, and sights to see. We took a leisurely stroll through town, spending a lot of time in and around the church, and made our way down to the Markt Platz, where many food, fruit and vegetable vendors had set up for the day. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the square, and split up to wander the markets, find a place for a post-lunch libation, or continue the uphill walk to the castle at the other end of town.
We gathered back in Erlangen that night for special mushrooms (fretterbinnen were in season, and delicious) as our last dinner for this leg of the trip. The next day we were splitting up for a few days – some to Stuttgart and others to a small Austrian stop near Lake Konstanz. Erlangen was a great visit, made even more special because the whole family got to go back there together.
