Our Impromptu Trip to Gemünden am Main.

We woke up early on Sunday morning excited about our plans to visit Erlangen.  The Deutsche Bahn had other plans for us, however; plans that included taking a train to Bamberg, boarding a bus for an hour or so to another train stop, and then taking a train to Erlangen.  This train-bus-train thing didn’t really float our boat so we decided to try again next week since the issue probably won’t last long (we think that the train tracks were under construction).  We’ve been trying (and failing) to visit Erlangen for at least a month now – but I’m sure we’ll get there eventually.

But we were already up and excited to go somewhere so it became a game of “What town should we visit today?”  A light bulb went off in my head when I remembered that the last time we traveled to Frankfurt via train Mr. Meena had pointed out a beautiful park-like cemetery to me and I thought it was near Gemünden, so that became our new destination.  We quickly looked up the main sights in the city and figured that if we didn’t like it we’d just hop back on the train and go to the next city down the tracks.  Hopping on and off the train (thanks to the Bavarian regional pass) whenever we see something interesting sounds like a super romantic idea, right?  I certainly thought so.

Anyway, when we arrived in Gemünden we headed for Obertorstrasse, one of the city’s most iconic streets that features historical half-timbered houses and the Saint Peter and Paul church.

Several buildings in the city center have very small half-timbered sections and I thought they were just fantastic.

There were cute little shops that made me wish we had visited on a Saturday.  One of the shops had a bookshelf full of books just sitting out on the street; I’m guessing it was probably a book exchange or free book kind of deal going on (or they just trust people enough to leave the books on the street when they are closed).  Nearly all of the restaurants we passed were closed or had “on vacation” signs up.  Our options for lunch were two bakeries and a very full pizzeria, so we purchased Brochen and decided to see some ruins.  The ruins of the Schloss Scherenberg are located on a hillside just above the main square, but they are visible from most places throughout Gemünden.

The castle was built around the 13^th century and used as a toll castle for those traveling down the Main River.  It started falling into ruins nearly 300 years ago.  To see it we took a winding path that went behind some houses and was quite slippery, but it had a great view.

If you want a safer and easier route, you’ll want to take Schloßberg street up to a path on your left (it’s opposite the big church).  You can find useful maps and brochures at the tourist info place; they even have some in a box outside if you’re visiting on Sunday when they are closed (like us).  The ruins aren’t especially gorgeous or anything, but they do provide a nice view of Gemünden.

In the summer there’s a theater festival held inside the ruins.  There are also other trails that (I’m assuming) lead further up the hilltop.  I’ve read online that there are more castle ruins up the hill (from Castle Slorburg) but I couldn’t find any more information about it.  I would’ve liked to climb up further but we were starting to get hangry at this point.  We headed back to the Pizzeria Piccolo and were able to get a seat this time.  That was no small feat, since there are only three booths inside.  I couldn’t help but laugh when our waitress came up to us with the menu and pointed worriedly at the closing time (it was 1:10 and they closed at 2pm).  I could understand her concern because Germans usually take a long time to eat a meal, but we assured her it was okay.  We could eat in 15 minutes and still be satisfied with our experience.

I’m not sure what pizza we had, exactly, but it had Peperoniwurst and onion on it and it was delicious.  The waitress didn’t speak English but she was very kind – she even wrote down our total and brought it over to us so we could read it.  She wasn’t particularly expressive while we were eating, but when we left she went up to the door to smile and wave goodbye.  It was adorable.

Right outside the pizza place we saw the Mühltortrum – the only city gate that is still standing.

With full stomachs we were now prepared to cross over the two tributaries of the Main river (it’s a neat area – there’s a little island between them with a park and everything) to find the Huttenschloss, which was the least castle-like castle that I have laid eyes on.

There should really be a minimum size requirement for a castle, if you ask me.  This one was built in 1711 and used by Franconian nobility.  Nowadays it is a museum (surprise!!) and nature center.  The castle was the last planned stop we had, so we started wandering around looking for that park-like cemetery that I mentioned earlier.

Now, since we saw this cemetery from the train we probably should gave walked in the direction of, well, the train tracks.  But I saw a sign that said “Kriegsgräberstätte” (war graves site) and I was determined to see it even if it wasn’t what we were looking for (it wasn’t).  The cemetery is located on the side of one of Gemünden’s many hills and looks out over the valley.

Things get a bit tricky here, because the only sources I could find about the cemetery are in German.  It seems that the place is called a ‘forest’ or ‘mountain’ cemetery and was used for all kinds of war victims (men, women, and children, both German and foreign) from both world wars.  I learned that there is actually a German War Graves Commission that looks after 832 military cemeteries in Europe and North Africa. Many of those cemeteries are in Germany and sites like this one are a huge part of German history.

There is a ‘book of remembrance’ in a box in the chapel wall where you can look up names and grave numbers.

While I always enjoy seeing historical sites like this one (and the view was definitely a bonus), this wasn’t the place that we were looking for.  We decided to catch the next train and go a bit further down the rail line to look for the park-like cemetery, which was great until we realized we were nearing the state border and had only purchased a pass for travel inside Bavaria.  We tried to get off at the next station and catch a train back… but we missed it by about a minute.  So we ended up waiting out in the freezing cold at Aschaffenburg (gesundheit?) with Capri-suns and waistline demolishing snacks.  We had some time to contemplate our lives, and I decided that hopping on and off trains wasn’t as novel and romantic as I thought it would be, while Mr. Meena decided that he would no longer point out interesting things to me from the train.  It took two hours to get home because we were 45 minutes past Gemünden (via the regional train), which is already over an hour from Schweinfurt, and we had to change trains in Würzburg.  The worst part was that by the time our train took us back near Gemünden it was too dark to for us to scour the countryside for the cemetery that we were hoping to find.  I have no idea where it is.

I’m sure many people have had worse experiences concerning the Deutsche Bahn; ours was mostly a self-made frustration.  All in all, we got to see a beautiful town and enjoy the day outside together, so I’m still going to call it a win.

 

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