Neunkirch panorama

It's been crazy windy for the last couple of days, so the weather keeps changing frequently, and when I look up the skies and see the clouds moving so fast I'm truly grateful that I'm on the ground and not in the plane 😊

When I have mentioned a plane I will share a valuable lesson that I learned yesterday. Our family will be visiting us in July, and I booked 5 tickets for them. All was good and we happily started to plan the itinerary for their trip when my husband noticed that we booked the flights from Zurich to Kosice instead of Kosice to Zurich (their return flight was the other way around too)! We tried to change the booking online, but it wasn't possible. I was already thinking how much it will cost us to book another tickets and of course I started panicking.

My husband suggested that we call the airlines and see if they can change the bookings for some fee. We were lucky as they answered the phone within a few seconds. The lady told us that she can cancel the booking and we will get the full refund within 10 days because we called within 24 hours of the booking! Oh man, what a relief! We waited until we received an email confirmation from her before finishing the call.

Then I called my mom to tell her that I will send new tickets in a few moments. She said: Yes, I noticed that you booked it from Zurich and I found it so strange. Well, she found it strange, but she didn't think of telling me. The trust that my family have in us! 😊

And the lesson? Even two people looking at the booking might not be enough. Make sure to doublecheck, triple check or even quadruple check the bookings that you don't regularly do!

After that we needed to get some fresh air, so we went to Neunkirch that we wanted to visit for a long time. Neunkirch is a small town in Klettgau about 15 minutes drive from our place. We drove past this town so often, and every time we did we said that we have to walk through the tower to the old town. Honestly, I thought it would only be one street, but it is so much bigger than I expected.

Let's have a look!

The old town is dominated by a fountain on each end. When you enter the old town through the tower you will see the first fountain on your left. On top of the column is a small model of the tower. It's quite high, so I couldn't get closer, but even from this distance you can see the remarkable detail on the model. The fountain was built in the 18th century to provide drinking water to the inhabitants of the town.

There are so many beautiful decorations in such a small place. This kind of characteristic signs can be found all over Switzerland. Neunkirch used to be a farming town, so it's not surprising that on the sign we can see a big farmhouse.

Such an idyllic place! And so quiet! We were joking that we could hear the thoughts in our heads. There was nobody but us.

The tower was built in the 15th century, and it's a part of the former town's fortifications. Until recently, there was an apartment in the tower, but it was damaged during fire, and today it is used for special celebrations and events.

I find it such a special place as the old town is truly authentic. All houses are between 150-400 years old and they are protected, so you can't change their facades much. This protects the town's outlook and makes you feel like you walk back in time.

As I mentioned this was a farming town, so you can find large barns in the middle of the old town. They are usually used as garages these days as there is a problem with parking spaces in such places. Such towns were built for horse carriages and not for so many cars.

When the town was founded, the church was the only building that was free-standing, and it remained like this until today. All other houses are either attached from one or both sides to another house/s. This first mentioned of the church goes back to the beginning of the 14th century. I wanted to enter it as I've read that there are some beautiful artifacts inside, but unfortunately it was closed for the celebration.

This is a very special house because of the wooden work inside and outside of it. It dates back to the 15th century which makes the house one of the very oldest half-timbered buildings in the canton of Schaffhausen.

Here we can see the most important building in Neunkirch. It shows the wealth of its former owners with large living part and the barn that is even bigger than the house. Above the door to the barn is a beautiful sundial. The house is almost 300 years old, and even though it doesn't really look like it it was renovated not so long ago.

There was this gigantic metal key hanging next to the door. It was moving with the wind and I was calculating how much more it has to move to hit the window 😊

I would love to have such a barn. Imagine that you open those large doors, place some tables and chairs in front of it and sell coffee and cakes in summer. That would be a dream come true!

We haven't finished yet! There are many more charming houses to see...

This is such a strange picture - a perfectly renovated house next to another one that is crying for renovation...

There is even a castle called Sloss zu Nünkirch! Well, it's not a grand castle that I would usually show you, but it does have a tower, large courtyard and several palace buildings. Today, it serves as a museum, but it is only open on the first Sunday of each month, so we will have to come back if we want to visit it.

The buildings as we see them today date back to the 15th century. Some of them are residential now and others belong to the museum.

Next to the entrance to the museum is a painting of a dragon that was discovered during the renovation works in 1994. Above the painting you can see the year 1689, so it is believed that this is when the artwork was painted. The house is called Haus zum Drachen now.

We walked a lot, so we went back to the main street with the hope of finding a café that would be open on Sunday. It was a long shot as even in Schaffhausen many restaurants and cafes are closed on Sunday. We still can't get used to it.

On the other side of the main street we arrived at another fountain. There is also a small model on top of the column, but I didn't find any signs and this house didn't resemble any houses around us, so I'm not so sure. I can only assume that it's a tower that doesn't exist anymore.

Here you can see the street up to the other tower...

This impressive house is called Sidehof. However, the reason why it's called like this remains a mystery. There are several theories, but neither of them was proved correct or wrong. There are no historical documents explaining it, so we have to keep wondering...

The entire residential area is called Sidehof now 😊

Isn't this cute?

From the Sidehof area we were headed to the townhall...

At first, the townhall reminded me of houses that we saw in Bern. I really liked the tunnel! Built in the 16th century, this is the buildings with one of the highest historical importance in the canton Schaffhausen. And there is another sundial on the façade! Although this one is not as impressive as the one that we saw previously. There is a restaurant inside as well, and it looks like that they are serving some vegan dishes too, so we might be coming back. I wonder how it looks inside.

I can't finish this post without showing you some cute details that we saw in the town...

This is a bit bizarre as it looks like a spring decoration, but when you look the second time you notice the beanie, scarf and the fact that it is sitting on a sledge!