Up above the town, there's a giant monument called the Denkmal (or maybe that means monument?). Pretty cool from a distance, we're about to see if it's cooler up close. We're all feeling the effort from the heat and the ride yesterday, but again, it's not speed, it's time and experience we're looking for.
There's no official "best" way up the mountain to the Denkmal, although we did glance dismissively at those that decided to take the cable car/gondola up. Why do that when you could zigzag up through the switchbacks and vineyards?!? Don't worry, my temporary feelings of superiority would be dashed in about 3 hrs!
This is the "before" pic - this is the courtyard of the place we stayed (excellent, would recommend). We enjoyed many games and a drink or two out here.
This is about 100m up the hill from our front door.
These are just a couple views of the town as we got higher and higher.
Look at how tiny these grapes are! Still in their youth - I think that they said they would harvest them near the end of September years ago, but now do it several weeks earlier due to chronically warmer-than-normal conditions ( *cough* climate change *cough*)
HURRR HURRR HURRR
As the crow flies, it doesn't seem that far. Switchbacks make it 4x longer (but at least you're not scaling a wall either)
I don't have a picture of it, but there were some pretty cool "mini-tractors" with something that looked like a hedge trimmer and a chainsaw had a baby. A greenery-murdering baby. They drive it between the rows of vines and trim everything back - it's important to have good air flow is what I understood from them. But again, the incline they drive down these things with blades whirring is not for the weak-of-heart.
Same picture, but much improved
Now that we're closer, I can see that it's not a monument with a goddess holding up a head of the vanquished, but it's still pretty cool.
This monument was to glorify Kaiser Wilhelm (not an overwhelmingly great dude, but who am I to talk in this Dystopian Hellscape of American collapse). But look at the detail on this thing! Propagandalicious! And those mutton chops! *swoon*
Interestingly enough, there was a period on the mountain where it was cool again to do Greek and Roman mini-temples (many of them are gone). But near the Denkmal was this gazebo that still had a little bit of that feel to it.
From the top of the hill there were a few different trails headed off into the woods, some shorter loops, some longer (like the 10 km one back to Assmanshausen (ha ha!)) Really beautiful hiking - nice to experience this pace with two of my favorite people.
This is just one of the countless views they had from the woods. If you look closely on the left-hand-side, there's a little mini-tower on the island (I think it's called the "mouse tower").
This was just a little place the guy built for his friends for when they came over as a place to hang out. You know, as you do. Funnily enough, the sign listed it as his "pleasure vault", and we're SUPER hoping it was a mis-translation. Regardless, I've found a(nother!) quick way to make Maya cringe, so that's a win!
I am not a flexible person. But this is the result of that natural weakness combined with very hard beds, the bike ride from yesterday, and years of chronically bad posture. Learn to sit up straight, kids!
Seriously, my back was beyond messed up when I woke up the next morning. Couldn't look down almost at all. For those of you that know my sleep skillz, the pain actually woke me up (and kept me up!). All of these years, I've had terrible posture, and although I don't feel like I have a fundamentally *weak* core (front or back), I do feel that I've put too much chronic strain on my lower back from a forward-leaning posture. Trying to walk much more upright, and while it helps a bit, it sure slows me down! Thanks to Amy and Maya for fixing me.
We are so close to having lunch, they just want to make us do MORE stairs!
This is the view from the cafe at the top of the mountain (and then another 200+ steps, good times!)
Back in our favorite courtyard!
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