In the middle of the marketplatz is a large square that has this seven story tall waterfall/fountin with a huge bull at the top. Unfortunately the water was drained for the winter so I did not get to see it in it's glory. But I did climb up the eight thousand four hundred and sixty-three stairs to the top. There is this elaborate bull at the top with some awesome horns. I decided to curse Texas and then I spit in the fountain.
I also came across this elaborate fountain with this spier thing in the middle. Turns out that this is an elevator for the parking garage below.
Walking around I saw a sign that said there was a sculpturparke. Turns out it was a century old cemetery. Many of the headstones and markers were in disarray, broken or pushed over. Rather sad.
At the back end there was a monument to the war dead along with more markers.
To get there I had to go through the old town, which was a slightly shorter walk than yesterday, only around 63 miles. I thought I would walk the length of the old town, then double back and climb the mountain. In doing so I found a backdoor route that lead up a flight of stairs instead of a path, which meant a shorter trip but it meant stairs. Lots of stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. Forty six thousand three hundred and eighty-two stairs. I counted each one, or at least my thighs did. A fat out of shape guy should really think about these things before he gets halfway up ya know. Anyways I took a slight break and snapped this little roof top photo. Look closely at the right side of the pic. Those are two guys working on a new roof about sixty feet in the air on a cold windy rainy day. NO THANK YOU.
When I got to the top I spotted a huge dog and a couple of hippies sitting down drinking a beer. The hippies were drinking the beer, not the dog. The dog was sniffing around looking for a place to poo. Now that I think about it, the hippies were probably doing that as well. I walked around the place and went over to the castle/hotel. Great, more damn stairs. It was worth the hike though, awesome view of the hillside vineyards and the Paulskirche (St. Pauls Church) below.
I then took the path that winds down along the mountain. As usual much easier going down then up. The path takes you right through the vineyards, and you could easily steal all of the grapes you want. Of course this being November there weren't any grapes on the vine, not to mention the fact one would probably get punched in the face for stealing grapes, so I left the vines alone. I did take a bunch of pics. (get it? bunch like a bunch of grapes, get it?haha). Halfway down there is a building called a tea house. Did I mention it was halfway down? In a sense it was half way down, in reality, you had to walk three quarters of the way down, then turn right and walk back UP to get to it. Oh, and guess what? You know it, you had to walk up another flights of stairs. Yes, flights as in plural, as in three thousand six hundred and fifty four flight of stairs. Which totals out to , oh I don't know, somewhere in the neighborhood of 753, 879 total steps. And that view was crappy. Oh well. Back down I walked along the river and short cutted across a park and then through a nice little neighborhood where I saw this little scene:
That's right, freaking palm trees in Germany! This was a wellness house and I am telling you the people there must be doing awfully well because parked in the driveway was a super nice Mercedes and a freaking Bentley. Whoa. OK, a little more walking and then I came to the thing I really wanted to see in Bad Kreuznach, the bridge houses. These bridge houses date back to 1480! They survived the Thirty Years War, and WW1 and WW2. There is actually a cannon ball in the front of one of the houses, allegedly from the Thirty Years War. It amazes me how something over 500 years old can survive like this.
It was a long day, the train ride took nearly two hours for me to get back. I am pooped.
