We finished at Ötisheim on a Thursday, and we did not plan on leaving Schwaigern until Saturday. We had done the villages that we had planned, so we decided to go to Heilbronn. It takes no time to get there; in 1717 it would have been a day’s trip. Probably, Heilbronn would have been the point of departure for many people, as they could catch a boat there which would take them to the Rhine and hence to Rotterdam.
We spent about an hour there and decided that we were small town people. One problem in larger cities is how to get out of the town. Where does one find the road that goes to, say, Bad Wimpfen? Our usual method is a bit of trial and error, and sure enough we did eventually get on the road to Bad Wimpfen, which is down the Neckar River. Bad Wimpfen is a colorful city, even German tourists are attracted to it.
Our attention was drawn to the "Blue Tower", which promised a good view. The number of steps exceeded Ravensburg, but at least they were better constructed. About one hundred steps up, a woman popped out of a door to collect admissions. It turned out that she lived there with small children. With another fifty steps we obtained a good view of the Neckar River, the town, and one or two castles, one of which was in ruins now. The Blue Tower was recently reconstructed, as a couple of decades ago lightning struck it and set a massive blaze a going. Looking down, we could see a barge (self-propelled) carrying scrap metal down the river.
We had a bite of lunch and continued on down the river. Several miles farther along, John, who was navigating, said "right", when he meant to say "left". It turned out the road to the right soon ended at a set of locks for river traffic. We hated to waste a chance to learn something new, so we got out to inspect the locks, and right away a barge approached, going down the river. We saw that it was the scrap metal. A crew of two were manning it at the time, the Captain in the wheelhouse, and a deck hand, who was a young woman. She had to man the ropes (or does she woman the ropes?), while the barge was being lowered. We quickly found out that she normally worked in a doctor’s office, but she was on vacation, and helping her father who was the Captain. On some barges, cars are carried along for the crew. Our scrap barge did not have a car, but it had a flower garden and a chicken pen. I presume that they liked eggs for breakfast with a fresh rose on the table.
Barely had the scrap metal left, when sand and gravel came into the lock going up-river.
A little farther down the river, we came to Guttenberger castle. This was constructed along the lines of a medieval castle, and it was good condition. A family still lived in one part, and another part was turned into a museum, with some interesting exhibits, especially dioramas. One showed the castle being stormed by soldiers, and how the defenders were protecting themselves. In fact, though, the castle was never taken or destroyed throughout its life. It, too, had a tower, which set a new record for the number of steps.
On the way back to Schwaigern, we stopped at Bonfeld for a few pictures.
(17 Jun 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.