On September 24

in the year 1445, a shepherd, letting his sheep graze atop a hill in Upper Franconia (techincally part of Bavaria, but don't mention that here ... they are touchy), saw a vision ...

What does one do in situations like this? Build a church, of course. A giant church on a hill, which is the highest thing for miles around: Vierzehnheiligen, dedicated to the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

On June 23, 2007 (today, for those of you keeping track), as my train pulled out of Lichtenfels (the basket-weaving capitol of Germany, but more on that in a second...), I saw a vision:

I looked to the right out of the train window, towards the west, and I saw Vierzehnheiligen for the first time, rising out of the mist above the Main valley, with the sun setting behind it. The most amazing sight I've seen in a long time ... but you will have to be satisfied with my paltry description, because just as I lifted my camera up to take the picture, it announced (snidely, I'm sure) "Please change the Battery Pack" and turned itself off. My picture would have been way better than any of the ones at Wikipedia, but alas...

My camera did, however, survive long enough to take a picture of "the largest hand-woven basket in the world". Here it is:

I'm not sure that I buy it, but it's what the people of Lichtenfels want to believe. And trust me, they are ALL about basket-weaving, and have apparently been that way for centuries. So, there you go. Everybody has to have their thing, I suppose.

I was on my way back from meeting my dissertation advisor in Saalfeld (and then Rudolstadt). Here are a few pictures as proof:

This is the castle from the outside. Yes, it was raining. No, I did not have an umbrella. No, I did not care.

This is the castle from the inside. It is a "Rococo Masterpiece".

One of the Duchesses or Princesses or some such who once dwelled in the castle.




The Saale river in Saalfeld. My trip was accompanied by rivers ... I rode along the Saale and then along the Main ... it's lovely the way the tracks follow the rivers through the Thuringian forest and in northern Franconia.

The church in Saalfeld.

The market/party in the main square.


The pigeon in the church in Saalfeld. It was perfectly content and ignored me entirely.