Gelnhausen 2 - Bad Orb and the World's Biggest Air Conditioner
On the third day in Gelnhausen, we made a trip to another small town called Bad Orb. Bad means bath, we could not find out what Orb meant. But the town used to be a spa, known for its mineral wassers (waters) 
and warm baths. Apparently the town is quite the spot for retirees to, well, retire to. We stopped in a small café and had some sweet treats. I have been dying to try one of the little, beautiful, pink cakes they have all over here, so we got one of those (known as Erdbeersahne, which means strawberry cake or something like that). It was very bizarre, sort of like a pudding / gelatin, and not too sweet - i liked it, but I didn't love it. The apfelstrudel (apple strudel) we had with it was divine! Definitely recommend the apfeldtrudel.
Anyway, we walked around and shopped a little, and then walked up to the most bizarre (and very German) thing I think I have ever seen. It is 
called the Salina, I think, and it is this HUGE, maybe 50-75 feet high, and at least 1 and a half football fields long (450 yards, 1200 feet) structure composed of HUGE cedar timbers framing these gigantic walls of black thorn branches, down which streamed this very light sheen of water. Confused yet? You will have to look at the pictures to see what I mean. Apparently, this is a salination unit. The local waters are about 3% salinity, which is sort of salty. In the 1700s, when health spas were at their height, the Germans built this unit to aerate the water and make it MORE saline. The water is piped up and dripped down through the thorn branches, which evaporates some of the water and leaves much saltier water below.
This process is repeated, and then the water is piped into buildings where the rest of the water was evaporated to leave salt. I know they also had healing baths in the area too (Bad means bath), so I assume some of the water was piped into the bath houses, heated, and used for the healing baths which gave Bad Orb its reputation. They also constructed long walkways down between and around the huge stacks of thorn branches, and people walk along through the saline air, to get the same cure of breathing in salt water by the sea (what they thought of as very healthy.) And thanks to German efficiency, unless you walk around there for hours, you will hardly get more than a little damp. Not a drop fell on my camera while I was walking around. Simply one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen. Gary called it the world's largest air conditioner, because i think in the 60s when he first discovered it, there was no tourist information surrounding the Salina. Only in the past 20 years has an organization formed to preserve the structure. Gary did have that right, though - in close proximity to the Salina (maybe 1/4 mile) the air was definitely cooler.
We had a nice ride back on the train (we were lucky it was still running, other trains have been delayed or stopped altogether because of the German train strike), and stopped at the train station bar when we returned to Gelnhausen, and had a beer with the bar owners Karl-Jochem Drusdiel and his wife Hilde. Karl-Jochem is old friends with Gary and the Monks, from back in the 60s. They were quite a lively couple, with an abundance of smiles and quick wit.
I just can't get over the amount of American music I heard throughout my trip. I was expecting some, but I was also hoping to hear more contemporary German music. Sitting in the train station drinking a pils after we got back, I heard Bruce Hornsby and the Range with "That's Just The Way it Is."
A nice bowl of Gulashsuppe and some pommes frites, a nice walk through the night streets of Gelnhausen, a quiet night.
Tomorrow we go to the castle outside the city walls, Kaiserpfalz, which was the home of Kaiser Frederick I from the 1200s. Apparently it is one of the most well-preserved castles from that time period (according to the ‘net).
End of part two. On to part three --->