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Lohr a.Main

Lohr a.Main (or translated, Lohr upon Main) is the small town in which we’ve been residing for the last four weeks.  (“Main,” for those interested, is a river.)  As I’ve mentioned previously, Lohr is a nice place; and while there have been sunny days during our time here, until recently they have been the exception to the norm.  As the weather cleared up for a few days we had a great opportunity to take a walk through the old town.

Before I go into details though, it’s important to explain the moments leading to this old town expedition.  See, in Lohr there are no laundry-mats.  Dry cleaners, yes; laundry-mats, no.  In fact, the closest one we found was in a neighbouring city some 35-minutes away.  Like most neighbouring places, there are several ways to reach said laundry-mat–all of which are confusing to the foreigner.  Modern technology–and €5.31/day–graced us with a very reliable navigation system; thus easing the burden of navigating seemingly identical roads.  This was our regular, uneventful, weekend excursion.  Until this weekend.

For some reason the navigation system (herein, Sue) was having an off moment.  By “off” I mean Sue frequently informed us she was, “Updating route due to a change in current traffic conditions.”  At first we ignored Sue, despite her persistence; however, there came a point where we became prisoners of our own ignorance and needed her to reach our destination.  Sue’s inspiration and wisdom led us down the autobahn, up country roads and finally to a three-way stop with the instruction, “Now turn left.”

“Sue, there’s a roadblock to the left.”

Sue has always been quick on her feet; so we turned right and allowed her to once again re-calculate our route.  This lasted only minutes before we found ourselves at the roadblock again.  We decided to drive around the blockade to see how far we could traverse.  Apparently not very far, as we beheld the rubble of a torn apart road spanning as far as the eye could see.

This time we reprogrammed Sue (if only humans were this easy) to detour us from the current route by two kilometres.  This added another lengthy stretch onto our journey as we travelled back the roads from whence we came to take a different highway ausfahrt–err, exit.

Our 35-minute drive lasted just under two hours.  It was long and exhaustive but we were triumphant!  As triumphant as one can be when they reach a laundry-mat that closed early for the day.  Just kidding.

We returned to our apartment just in time to make a business supper at a local restaurant.  We had eight minutes to spare.  Plenty of time as the meeting place was a short drive across one of two bridges.  Yet to end such a day with such ease would certainly be criminal.  We were vindicated from just such an offence at the sight of sheep spanning the width of the road and overflowing into the sidewalks.  If I had not see it with my own eyes, I certainly would not believe the story.  But being shepherded along the road by two country folks and their dog was a flock of sheep.  It was uncanny.

Friday finally concluded as we arrived at a local Italian restaurant.  This establishment makes the second-best pizza I’ve ever had.  The first being Mother’s Pizza (if anyone remembers them; they made the best pizza before closing their doors in the 80′s).

On Saturday we ventured into Lohr (sans sheep).  The old town is quaint.  I took some pictures to admire the old architecture, including the cobblestone roads.  There were several little cafés and ice cream parlors.  Two churches also have buildings in the old town–and a third in another borough of Lohr.  German churches love their steeples and these three churches battle it out every hour on the hour as church bells resound to see which church gets the most attention for miles.

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking as it’s the best way to get a true appreciation for the feel of the town.  Starting the gallery this week are a few more pictures of the office Sophia worked at.

Enjoy and share your thoughts in the comments!