Good morning. At some point overnight we dropped anchor and sailed downriver to Breisach, which was visible to us out of the window during breakfast. .
The included excursion for the day was a drive to and through the Black Forest to be capped by a visit to an Open Air Museum called Vogtsbauernhof. We have had good experiences at this kind of tourist site. The philosophy is to gather in a more convenient, central, or accessible locale a host of historic period buildings from other spread out locations around the country or area. Historic old structures are torn down, transported, and then re-assembled within the new park. Appropriate furnishings are often added and costumed guides are often employed. Period crafts can be presented and of course souvenirs can be sold. We have visited pleasurably on other trips a number of attractions like this. Tops on our list in Europe have been Skansen (on an island near Stockholm) and Seurasaari (also on an island--in Helsinki).
But back to the Black Forest. We drove initially through fairly flat valley lands close to the river. A number of small farms seemed to be growing sunflowers.
As we moved into the hills the morning mists hung in the valleys and over the small villages.
It cleared up around ten just in time for our arrival at Vogtsbauernhof. The anchor house at the museum is the Vogtsbauernhof farmstead dating from 1599. It once would have stood alone here with fields spread out before it and the hills rising in the background. The style of house has a special name. It is called Hippenseppenhof, which essentially means a living space that accommodates a family, their livestock, their farming equipment, and harvest storage all in the same building.
.
They are commodious and look architecturally as if they are a living part of the environment. Even the roofs seem to carry just the right balance between practicality and art.
Heating in these farmhouses ranged from a rather fancy tile stove in the dining area to a more rudimentary one in the kitchen. Since the animals occupied the rear of the first floor they also contributed to keeping the structure warm during the winter months.
Up top under the eaves there is plenty of room to store winter provisions for both the family and the animals. For more practicality the house was settled into the hill at the rear so that the storage areas could be accessed by wagons. Pretty cool and smart.
Other historic buildings are now scattered on the grounds. There are smaller more primitive laborer's cottages like the one below.
I was specially intrigued by a sawmill that was powered by a water wheel.
Also interesting was an open air bake oven building.
This drinking trough had a hutch at one end that may have functioned as a primitive refrigerator. .
Early German farmers were faithful bee keepers and this family kept their hives right on a ledge on the side of their home.
Strong religious commitments were definitely a part of rural life and evidence could be seen in various statuary and icon displays.
Women of the area wore and still wear these colorful pouf ball hats at festival time. You could buy one at the gift shop. Most of the wives declined offers by their husbands to purchase one. Can't think why.
Our guide proudly proclaimed that logs from these fertile green hills were floated down the Rhine and used to make the pilings on which low lying Amsterdam was built. A guide in Amsterdam told us a different story and declared the logs came by sea from Norway. They certainly needed a lot of wood for building that great city and I suspect there is some truth in both stories.
Sadly we had to head back to the ship by eleven o'clock, That got us back on board just in time for lunch. Folks who had signed up for another excursion that left at one-thirty had a tight turnaround. We opted to stay behind for an after lunch rest, then set out to explore the old town of Breisach on our own. That will be the subject of Day two part B.
See you in the city in the next post.
Hit the follow button if you want to get all of my posts automatically.
No comments:
Post a Comment