Golden Halls and Ivy Walls

Last weekend (May 10-11) we traveled down to Augsburg Germany, which is the 3rd largest city in Bavaria. We checked into our hotel and ventured out to meet up with friends at the Volksfest. We discovered that Augsburg is a much more modern city than most of the other ones we've visited so far. The weather was a little dreary to be at a festival, but we made the most of it by drinking on the carousel bar and riding the rides.

One of the entrances to the Volksfest

Sunday morning we woke up and walked around the city. We took a tour of City Hall and the restored Golden Hall. The town hall was built between 1615 and 1620 and is the landmark of the city.

We then walked to The Fuggerei, which is the oldest social settlement in the world. Jakob Fugger founded the Fuggerei in 1521 as a social settlement for needy Catholic citizens of Augsburg. The Fuggerei is a city within a city, having its own church, city walls and city gates.The most prominent resident was the master builder Franz Mozart, the great-grandfather of the composer Wolfgang Mozart.

Residents still live in the Fuggerei; a committee decides what new residents to admit. Residents still pay the nominal annual rent of one Rhine guilder (currently 0.88 euros) plus their utilities. Talk about rent control!

Shortly after World War II began, an air-raid shelter was built in the Fuggerei. We were able to tour the bunker and view pictures and artifacts from the war.

Entrance to the air-raid bunker

Fun fact about the Fuggerei: Each apartment has its own unique doorbell shape because before the installation of streetlights, it allowed the residents to "feel" their way home.

Our GPS took us home on the Romantic Road, so as we drove along the winding roads, we had gorgeous views of picturesque German towns and farmland.