Biberach & Sigmaringen, Germany
A light rain was falling when I woke up this morning. Determined to make the best of it, I packed my umbrella and put on my hooded jacket. It wasn’t supposed to rain all day so I hoped for the best.
I drove southeast from Mössingen and my first stop was the village of Trochtelfingen. The German Tourism Board promotes a number of themed driving routes through the country including the Romantic Road and the Castle Route. I was on the Deutsche Fachwerkstraße (basically, the route featuring villages with lots of half-timbered buildings).
I explored a bit of town but the rain strengthened so I headed for my next destination: Biberach an der riß. Saturday morning was market day in Biberach. The rain had tapered off by then so the Markplatz was full of farmers selling their produce, stalls of fresh flowers and busy shoppers.
Market day is an experience. You learn plenty if you just watch everything unfolding around you. For example, you learn not to handle the produce (the sellers bag up what you select). You learn “grown in Germany” is a big selling point. And you learn that market day is as much a social gathering as a shopping experience.
Friends and neighbors greeted each other, often taking a break from their shopping and grabbing a bite to eat together from one of the many “grills on wheels” set up around the square. The group below with reflective clothing appeared to be firefighters (feuerwehr) from the nearby town of Gutenzell.
I noticed flower stalls doing a brisk business. Women were carefully selecting flowers, stem by stem. The bunch would then be bundled in newspaper for safekeeping until it could be unwrapped and the flowers arranged at home.
Walking back to my car, I passed an interesting mural on the wall of a house:
It read: “Save us from war and bombs, fire and water 1945. From two is now one. Built 1953”. I believe two houses, side by side, damaged during the war were rebuilt together as the one house I saw today.
I departed Biberach and headed west to the town of Sigmaringen and its impressive castle. The Schloss was perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Danube. Even though the sky was overcast, it still cast a beautiful reflection.
A curious group of ducks and swans on the slow-moving river swam over as I took photos near the water’s edge. I didn’t have any bread crumbs to throw their way. They gave me one last look and promptly swam away.
I found this memorial in the Sigmaringen Markplatz interesting. At first I thought it was just another World War I memorial but on closer inspection, it had an even deeper message.
The plaques read: “Since 1927, two bronze tablets were installed here inscribed with the names of local soldiers killed during the Great War. In 1942, Nazis removed the tablets and melted them down to create grenades.”
The plaque made this observation: “The First World War took the lives of the soldiers. The Second World War took their memories.”
In 2011, the city of Sigmaringen unveiled a new memorial, this time in stone. It again honored the names of the WWI dead but also served as a monument against war and the tyranny that it brings.
On a lighter note, I noticed this poster as I was walking into Biberach. Evidently the town has a team that plays American football. Of course Fußball everywhere other than the USA means soccer. The Biberach Beavers’ logo looks exactly like the old Oregon State mark.
Their schedule of six games stretched from early May to the end of August. They even had a catchy hashtag #BlueHell. I’ll have to check them out.
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