And now for something completely different!
Well, mostly different. We revert to half-timbered houses later. But we started this day with a complete change from schlosses and doms: technology!
Although the weather was more dry than last night, the clouds still hung low in the morning and we decided to do a rainy-day trip today: Wolfsburg and Volkswagen's Autostadt (car city). We headed out on a damp day.
Partway there, passing through a small village on a very narrow street, we had to pull off the road for a blinking police car, who was escorting a very large truck.
The trailer had eight axles and they all steered.
Two more wide-load pics in the gallery.
The Phaeno
Wolfsburg, which is VW's company town, is also home to a great interactive tech museum, The Phaeno. It's similar to but (we thought) even better than The Tech in San Jose. It's a short walk from Auto City and available on a combo ticket, so we got that and spent an hour at The Phaeno first.
There were dozens and dozens of simple, well-designed, interactive exhibits on two floors. There were hundreds (it seemed) of kids who were really enjoying themselves.
Talking robot is fun for young and old.
Most striking to anyone who's been in a well-used tech museum before: at most two of the exhibits were out of order. Most were so well-designed they were just hard to break. The most dramatic was the 4-meter Fire Tornado.
Ooohs and aahs all 'round.
Car Town
Volkswagen initially set up the Autostadt as an experience for people coming to pick up their new cars at the factory. Finished new cars are stored in two glass cylinders.
These are really just storage cabinets, where cars are filed by a robot picker system like eggs in a crate.
While you wait in the delivery center, automatic machines pick your car out of its slot and bring it underground to meet you. Or so they told us. We weren't picking one up.
We took a tour of the factory and watched new Golfs being assembled (no photos allowed). We toured a nice museum of old cars.
Marian found her '65 Karman Ghia, and we found our '77 Golf. But the gem of that show was Benz's original 1886 power-wagen, the first automobile. Don't actually know if this is original or a reproduction, but it's beautiful.
Fascinating to see a gas engine with an exposed crankshaft—clearly patterned after the steam engines of the day.
Autostadt has other somewhat over-the top features, like the dufttunnel (aroma tunnel) which consists of more than a thousand pots of lavender slowly rotating around a bridge. What? Why?
Goslar
On return, after a revivifying coffee and cake, we walked around Goslar some more. More and more we think this is the nicest small German town we've stayed in. Tubingen's altstadt was neat, especially on market day; and Bamberg's Alte Rathaus can't be beat as an individual building. But Goslar has block after block after block of old buildings from the 1600s—many more than Rothenberg—all just as beautifully preserved but all in current use, mostly as dwellings. Its Marktplatz is a really attractive public space, even on a drizzly day.
Funny thing about that fountain, though. It is topped by Goslar's emblem, the Imperial Eagle, symbol of the Holy Roman Emperors who resided here from 1000 to 1200. But whoever sculpted the fountain made the eagle look like nothing so much as… well, what do you think?
Click through to appreciate his regalness.
We see a chicken wearing long underwear...
Besides streets of old buildings, Goslar has lots of new buildings, all carefully integrated so as not to clash with the old stuff. Last night we discovered a whole shopping center has been tucked in beside the central square, so carefully we didn't even notice it for two days! However, they haven't always made the best choices of "modern," for example this sculpture, titled "Goslar Naglekopf" (nail-head).
What were they thinking?
One standout among many lovely old buildings is the family home of the Siemens family. You know, as in the Siemens conglomerate of every kind of industry and equipment? We'll just finish off here with some details of that building. Overview and more in the gallery.
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