North Bavaria - Europe for travel

Nuremberg Zoo (Tiergarten Nürnberg)

12/03/202327/02/2023 by Travelalone

The Nuremberg Zoo (Tiergarten Nürnberg) is one of the two remaining in Germany, where dolphins are kept (the second is in Duisburg). In Europe, the number of such zoos is steadily declining, as the discontent of ecologists grows. They believe that animals with such high intelligence cannot live in such a limited space together. They become too aggressive.

The dolphinarium has problems with the survival of newborn dolphins and the leakage of the new pool, and continues to be under constant criticism from ecologists. But for now, the zoo would like to keep the dolphinarium.

Nuremberg old town

12/03/202322/02/2023 by Travelalone

Nuremberg (Nürnberg) is a great intermediate point on the way somewhere. Here you can not only spend the night, but also see something, limit yourself to half a day or spend a couple of days. It is easy to find attractions in the area for a week. But for a long stay, I would choose another city for the accomodation.

Dennenlohe. Rhododendron Garden

04/03/202313/01/2023 by Travelalone

Germany has magnificent botanical gardens. And many of the front gardens delight the eye with their continuous flowering. But the garden as an art is a rare phenomenon here. Garden exhibitions (BuGa), which are supposed to show garden art, demonstrate much more gardening here. And there are certainly few large picturesque gardens.

One such phenomenon is the garden of Dennenlohe Palace.

Franconian Switzerland and Upper Palatinate. Map of attraction

12/03/202323/12/2022 by Travelalone

Regions north and east from Nuremberg to Bayreuth and the Czech border – Franconian Switzerland (Fränkische Schweiz) and Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz).

Franconian Switzerland map — **enlarge** Map data ©OpenTopoMap, ©OpenStreetMap

Franconian Switzerland. Pottenstein. Town

22/02/202323/12/2022 by Travelalone

Franconian Switzerland Pottenstein / Fränkische Schweiz Pottenstein

Finally, we got to Pottenstein – a small half-timbered town between the rocks. On the Internet you can find very picturesque views of it. But you need to know which hill to climb after them, from below it is not obvious.

Franconian Switzerland. Pottenstein cave

22/02/202322/12/2022 by Travelalone

Pottenstein cave / Teufelshöhle Pottenstein

The region south of Bayreuth, towards Nuremberg, is called Franconian Switzerland. There, limestone dominates with all the consequences, including whitened shoes and a floor in a car and chalk stripes on clothes.

Rocks of the most bizarre shapes suddenly grow here and there. Limestone also means karst and stalactite caves. There are already three of them opened for public.

Bayreuth. Sanspareil Rock garden

25/12/202218/12/2022 by Travelalone

We continue the story about the creations of the Wilhemina of Prussia. This time about the Sanspareil rock garden in Wonsees.

The area around the castle Zwernitz served as hunting grounds for the margraves. The name Sanspareil comes from the words of one of the court ladies about the new rock park (Felsengarten) – “This is something incomparable!” The lady spoke in French, and these French words Wilhemina used to rename the place.

Bayreuth Opera, parks and palaces

25/12/202207/12/2022 by Travelalone

One woman changed the fate of this city, transforming it from a village to a cultural gem. And now we can enjoy beautiful parks, Bayreuth Opera and palaces.

Bayreuth Eremitage

25/12/202206/12/2022 by Travelalone

The summer residence Eremitage Wilhemina was presented by her husband. There was already a palace and a park in a style reminiscent of the English landscape garden. Wilhemina expanded the palace, added more buildings and turned the park into a mixture of English and Baroque styles.

Spessart. Mespelbrunn castle

06/03/202304/07/2022 by Travelalone

I don’t know too many German films. But “The Spessart Inn ” and “The Haunted Castle” are familiar even to me.

Spessart are wooded mountains, quite high in places, located between the A3 and Main and further beyond the A3 towards Fulda. Through the Main to the south, the mountains continue, but are already called Odenwald. And Odenwald then goes to the Black Forest. And it turns out such an extended mountainous-wooded strip up to Switzerland.

The name Spessart in its original form meant “woodpecker mountainous forest”.