About a year ago, my girlfriend had the yen to go south for a vacation-further south in Germany, that is. She made plans for us to stay for about a week in a vacation apartment in Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden is located in the west-central part of Germany, in the neighborhood of Frankfurt and just across the Rhine river from its rival, the city of Mainz. Having never been to Wiesbaden, and as it has been touted as the “Nice of the North”, I was game. So, we packed our things and traveled several hours by train before arriving in that city.
The first thing we did after stowing our bags and freshening up was to take a walk through the nearby Nerotal Park. The Nerotalanlagen is a 19th-century English landscape garden flanked by villas on each side. It is laid out roughly parallel to the Schwarzbach Creek and has a lake in its interior. Trees and plants abound here, as do monuments.
The monument to Bismarck-the German statesman who united Germany and was its first Chancellor-is the most notable.
The park leads almost directly to the 800-foot-tall hill called the Neroberg. Of course, you could hike up it; but what’s the fun in that? Instead, we opt to take the “Nerobergbahn”, a funicular opened in 1888. There are lots of multi-passenger cars and the going is slow; but this funicular is one of the few in the world that is powered by water propulsion.
The process is that they fill tanks in the downward-pointed cars so that they go downhill and, in the process, drag the uphill-pointed cars upwards. Pretty clever. Regardless of how it all works, the ride is pretty smooth.
There’s not much to see atop of the Neroberg. One finds a 19th-century temple built in the Italian Renaissance style; but not much else. The views of the city are only decent as they are partially blocked by foliage.
A Russian Orthodox church is located down a side path. It is visually interesting; but nothing more.
So why go up the Neroberg at all? To quote Sir Edmund Hillary, who, with his trusty Sherpa guide, was the first to conquer Mt. Everest: “Because it’s there”.
The next morning, we head out to see the sights. Although there is some evidence of Neolithic settlements here, Wiesbaden really got its chops during Roman occupation. Most prominently, a few fragments of Roman walls remain. These are marked by the “Heathen’s Wall” which bestrides the Roman gateway-ironically built in 1902.
Wiesbaden is one of Germany’s oldest spa towns, and the name translates to “meadow baths”. So, naturally, there are quite a few mineral and hot springs in the city. The “Backerbrunnen” (or what’s left of it) memorializes this. Local bakers in the 18th century used this fountain to obtain hot water for baking. It was cheaper than buying firewood to heat water. Makes sense.
A distinguishing landmark of Wiesbaden is the Marktkirche. Built in the mid-19th century, it’s one of the largest brick buildings around. It is also the top Protestant church in the city and replaced an older church which burned down.
In front of the Marktkirche stands a statue of that most Protestant of leaders, William the Orange (AKA William the Silent). It was put up here in 1902, I suppose, to reminds Catholics that this was not THEIR church.
The new town hall is also visually stunning. It holds the city government, including the offices of the mayor and city council. Erected a few decades after the Marktkirche, its neo-Renaissance façade was destroyed by bombs during World War II and wasn’t restored until 1951.
It is the market square of Wiesbaden, however, that most catches our attention. There is a huge farmer’s market stationed here (open on Wednesdays and Saturdays). Here, regional farmers bring just about everything they produce (veggies, fruit, spices, cheese, flowers, meat, etc.) and they try to make a few euros. It’s all very colorful and noisy. We buy some strawberries here.
The “Marktsäule”, an ornate pillar, is placed at a corner of the marketplace. It was erected at about the same time that the William of Orange statue was placed in front of the Marktkirche. I don’t know if it has any intrinsic significance; but it covers up the cellar where vendors at the marketplace stored their goods. The market guys (and gals) couldn’t have been very happy about that.
We grab some lunch at a cafe just off the market square, then hop on a bus heading to that part of Wiesbaden sitting on the Rhine river. This part of Wiesbaden was an independent city until the 20th century. It is here that we find the Baroque-style Biebrich Palace-home to the princes of Nassau-Usingen (although it is now owned by the state government).
The palace is big; but there is more park than palace here. Like Nerotal, this park is modeled after an English garden. In the temperate months, concerts and horse competitions are held here. We spend a lot of time walking to and fro within the park-mostly trying to photograph closeup the parrots who are denizens of this area. We can hear the critters, sure enough; but they are too smart to pose for photos.
Naturally, we spend some time walking along the Wiesbaden Rheinpromenade. This is our favorite part of Wiesbaden. We even pop across the street for ice cream cones so that we can extend our admiration of the river views. Two things worth mentioning on the ride back to our apartment:
One of these is the Waterloo obelisk in Luisenplatz. This was erected to commemorate the 683 locals who lost their lives battling against Napoleon near Waterloo.
The other is the large cuckoo clock in the front window of Stern’s emporium. It measures over 15 feet in height and nearly 9 feet in width. It was built at the urging of Fred Stern, an employee of the NYPD, who convinced his uncle in Wiesbaden, Emil Kronenberger, to display something to attract both tourists and American servicemen stationed in the city. It WAS the largest cuckoo clock in the world in the 1950’s; but has since lost that title to cuckoo clocks in both America and elsewhere in Germany.
Most of our stay in Wiesbaden we dedicate to day trips and hikes-which I will detail in next month’s post. However, on our last full day in Wiesbaden, we go to see more of the local sites. We start with Kochbrunnenplatz, which is a bit further afield than the Nerotal Park, and in the opposite direction.
Established in the latter part of the 19th century (it seems that most of the city was established then), Kochbrunnenplatz is where you really go to discover hot springs. There are a couple of them here that spew out hot and sulferous-smelling water. The bulk of the flow of these fountains ultimately heats up the city’s town hall.
The square features a number of statues and temples and was supposedly designed to have a letter-z-shaped layout.
The most famous statue in this square, however, is the Ampelmann “Green Man”. The green man statue is supposed to celebrate German reunification and represents East Germans freely walking to the West. It could also be the little guy who signals pedestrians that it’s okay to cross the street-although Bremen’s traffic signals don’t have this symbol. In any event, it’s not everyday that you see a green man-statue or otherwise.
We walk from Kochbrunnenplatz to the Kurpark-which is built as close to the center of Wiesbaden as you can get. The Kurpark is huge (over 800,000 square feet) and is yet another English landscape park set up in the mid-19th century. It is actually two parks (divided by the Kurhaus) with a lake and a fountain.
As for the Kurhaus, itself, it’s sort of a one-size-fits-all place which hosts conventions, has a spa and restaurant, and a casino-that is said to offer the highest roulette stakes in all of Germany (if that floats your boat).
In the same area is the Hessisches Staatstheater, a theater that offers operas, plays, and concerts of four different stages. It has its own orchestra and was opened in 1894.
Just outside the back of the Hessian City Theater is a statue of Friedrich Schiller-the German playwright and poet. He’s probably considered Germany’s most notable literary figure and statues of him can be found just about everywhere in the country.
Although the Kurpark is great, we enjoy walking along the neighboring boulevards just as well. The rows of plane trees here are enchanting.
Wiesbaden doesn’t have a zoo, per se; but it does have an animal park, which is located in the “Fasanerie” at the far northwestern corner of the city. Late in the afternoon, we hop on a bus to go there. It is the last stop.
The Fasanerie had long been wild. It was used by the Wiesbaden princes as a hunting ground until the animal park opened in 1955. The place supposedly houses 250 animals of 50 species on its sixty plus acres-including brown bears, buffalo, and wolves.
Our visit to the Fasanerie is a bit disappointing. We see no bears…and that is the park’s signature animal. The two buffalo that we see are huddled up in stalls and look depressed.
We do see lots of birds, however, as well as foxes, wolves, rabbits, deer, nutria, and racoons.
My favorite is, perhaps, the wild cat that seemed to make an appearance just for us. At any rate, it was a nice walk through a pleasant environment. A cab drives us back to the city center and out vacation apartment.
As a farewell to Wiesbaden, we take one final stroll through the Nerotal. I don’t know if we missed it or if we had a lot on our plates during previous walks through that park; but we discover a bench with a tree growing right through it! That’s not something you see everyday. Whether it was purposeful of not, how cool!
So, that was it for Wiesbaden. We packed our bags, said goodbye to our house fly , Elmo, and left. I had been to Nice on the French Riviera as a young man and student, and Wiesbaden is no Nice…at least not when we stayed there. But it is good enough in its own right. Maybe we’ll return one day.
Musical Interlude: “Happy” (Wiesbaden Version)-Pharrell Williams