A Very Good Walk, Not Really Spoiled

 Our next apartment was in Ludwigburg, about 15 kms north of Stuttgart.  When I went to book an apartment in Stuttgart, nothing was available, so I grabbed this place.  With the Christmas markets cancelled, it was a moot point to be in Stuttgart.  

The markets are supposed to be great there, but the rest of the city was new, as a result of being bombed to the Stone Age in WWII.  In researching the area, I stumbled across the medieval city of Esslingen, which was NOT bombed in WWII.  So I booked us a walking tour with an American by the name of Tom Hale.

Tom has been living with his German wife in Esslingen for approximately 16 years, and turned out to be one of the best tour guides we've ever had.  Reasons include his energy, his easy-to-understand American accent, the small nature of Esslingen, which allowed plenty of time for stories and detail at each stop as we weren't walking long distances between stops.

Would highly recommend Tom if you are looking for a private walking tour of Esslingen.   

Anyhow, we started out in the Marktplatz (market square), which was bereft of Christmas stalls.  Tom was, like us, bummed about the closure of the markets. Esslingen is such a neat town that we would have stayed after dark to visit the market.

Despite the rain, which came down with varying degrees of intensity, Tom went into interesting detail on the history of Esslingen, what a free imperial city is (although it sounds like an oxymoron), the impact of the vote to become a Protestant town.  (It went 99-3, and no one claimed it was a rigged election, although many people did not have the vote back then).

Lion fountain topper, holding the

eagle indicating Esslingen is a 

free imperial city.

The coat of arms of the city.

At the start, he focused on St. Paul's Minster and the Church of Our Lady.  St. Paul's was a Dominican church/monastery consecrated in 1286.  The Church of Our Lady was built between 1320 and 1508.  Tom pointed out the portals depicting the Last Judgement and the life of Mary.

Top of the church

Judgement portico

The hell side of the portico.

From there, Tom took us down to see the Schelztor Gate Tower, which is famous for the Skywalker art that was added by the artist Hubert von der Goltz in the 1980s.  Alas, with the rain I wasn't able to get a great shot of it, but you get the idea:

Imagine coming to town, not knowing he

is there as art, and thinking it is a real person!

We then walked through the Klostergarten of St. Paul's Minister, as Tom filled us in about life as a monk back in the day.  Just part of the way into the tour, we were already blown away by just how good Tom is.