Bruchsal

"Fritz [Spengel] had telephoned; and by dusk I was sitting with Dr. Arnold and his family drinking tea laced with brandy in ons of the huge baroque rooms of Schloss Bruchsal. I couldn't stop gazing at my magnificent surroundings. Bruchsal is one of the most beautiful baroque palaces in the whole of Germany."

Pforzheim

"Of the town of Pforzheim, where I spent the next night, I remember nothing."

Pforzheim is small but has roots dating back to Roman times when it was simply called Portus. But today it is called “City of Gold” because of a jewelry and goldsmithing industry that has continued for more than 250 years. More than 75% of all German jewelry is made here. During the bombing of February 1945, the center was largely destroyed and rebuilt again after the war. The town reflects the architecture of the postwar period of the 1950s. Even if Paddy remembered the town, he wouldn't have recognized it anymore...

Photos below: Pforzheim and the river 'Enz'.

Mühlacker

"Stick-nail fetishism carried me to Mühlacker, all of two miles off my way, in order to get the local stocknagelhammered on, the seventeenth."

An almost forgotten activity that was very popular in the past is the collection of stick-nails ('Stocknagel'). A stick-nail is a small plaque made of tin. It is shaped like a shield with an image on it. Stock nails originated in the Alpine region in the twentieth century as a collector's item and were designed to be attached to a wooden (walking) stick with nails. Apparently they were sold in many towns and cities along Paddy's route.

Photo below left: old wooden bridge on the road to Mühlacker.

Photo below right: Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Mühlacker (1925).

Stuttgart

".. the next evening after I was in the heart of Stuttgart by lamp-lighting time, sole customer in a café opposite the cubistic mass of the Hotel Graf Zeppelin." 

Today the hotel, built in 1931, is called the 'Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin' and still one of the chicest hotels in Stuttgart. Patrick meets two young girls in the café opposite the hotel, called Lise and Annie. He stayed two nights in the house of the parents of one of them whose parents were travelling. The three of them have a few very nice days, drink a few bottles of very good wine of the father of one of the girls and go to a chic party of a rich industrialist friend where Patrick introduces himself as Mr. Brown, a family friend.. 

Photo below: the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin, the 5 star hotel opposite the central station in Stuttgart.

"I followed the banks of the Neckar, crossed it, and finally left it for good."

Photo below: cycling along the Neckar to my next destination with the Stuttgart Cathedral in the background.

Ulm

On the way to Ulm, Patrick walks through heavy snow showers. He gets a lift from a truck driver.

"When het set me down on the icy cobbles of Ulm, I knew I had reached an important landmark on my journey. For there, in the lee of the battlements, dark under the tumbling flakes and already discoloured with silt, flowed the Danube." 

Photos below: The Minster and the Danube, two striking characteristics of Ulm.

"Shields carved in high relief projected from the walls. Many were charged with the double-headed eagle. This bird was emblematic of the town's status as an Imperial City [..]. It was a Reichstadt."

Photo below left: one of the shields with the double-headed eagle in Ulm.

"A flight of steps led to a lower part of the town. Here the storeys beetled and almost touched...."

Photo below right: many of the old, crooked houses have disappeared but there are still a few left like this one: hotel 'Schiefes Haus'.

"As soon as the Minster was open I toiled up steeple-steps and halted, with heart pounding, above the loft where those bells were hung."

Built in Gothic style, the Minster is best known for its tower, the highest church tower in the world (161.5 m). The church has never had the status of a cathedral. It has been a Protestant church since 1531.

Photo below left: It is still possible to climb the tower, I climbed to approximately 2/3 of its total height (about 400 steps). The view of Ulm and beyond is still fantastic.

Photo below right: the vault height of the central nave is 41.6 m, the church is therefore also impressive on the inside.

Photo below left: from Ulm the journey starts with a long bike ride along the Danube. 

Photo below right: Hauptstrasse Augsburg.

Augsburg

"I must resist the temptation  to enlarge on the fascinating city outside: its abundance of magnificent buildings, the frescoed facade of the Fugger House, the wells canopied with wrought iron."

Photo below left: the Fugger House is a house or city palace complex of the Fugger banking and merchant family. The courtyard also had stables for horses. The doors in the 'Adlertor' show a two-headed eagle because Emperor Charles V had his own quarters here.

Photo below right: the Hercules fountain in front of the Renaissance-style Rathaus (town hall).

Photo far below: the Augsburg Cathedral dates back to the year 995 AD but archeologists even found late Roman foundations as early as the 4th century.

München

"In the heart of them stood a massive building; my objective, the Hofbräuhaus. [...]  I was back in beer-territory."

In München Paddy drops his backpack in a youth hostel and then goes straight to the Hofbräuhaus, his main goal in the capital of Bavaria. The Hofbräuhaus is a beautiful beer brewery in the centre of town. The brewery was founded in 1589 by William V of Bavaria. To this day, the brewery is owned by the Free State of Bavaria.

Photos below: the Hofbräuhaus in München.

After drinking beer and schnapps, Paddy is left with a bad hangover from his evening at the Hofbräuhaus. In the Jugendherberge he also comes to the conclusion that his backpack with diary, passport and money have been stolen. He feels terrible, but after a conversation at the British Consulate he gets a few pounds and a passport of the consul sir Donald St Clair gainer. On the same day he goes to Gräfelfing for his next overnight stay. Almost a year later Paddy repaid the fiver from Constantinople.

"The Consul, seated at a huge desk in a comfortable office under photographs of King George V and Queen Mary, was an austere and scholarly-looking figure in horn-trimmed spectacles." [...] "He said 'Well! His Majesty's Government will lend you a fiver. Send it back some time when you're less broke.'" [...]  "The consular stamp has 'gratis' written across it, and the signature is D. St Clair Gainer." [...] "'Try and keep out of trouble, and I should avoid beer and schnapps on an empty stomach next time. I'll look out for the book.' I walked out into the snowy Prannerstrasse like a reprieved malefactor."