Fredericksburg

We drove out of Enchanted Rock after breakfast, and decided to drive into nearby Fredericksburg for some coffee, which we found at the excellent Caliche Coffee right on Main Street.

Fredericksburg is a small town, but pretty well-known in Texas for its vineyards, art, culture, and German pioneer heritage. There's even a May Pole standing in the middle of town, just like the ones you'll see in any small German village.

We hadn't actually planned to stay in Fredericksburg. In fact, we were on our way to Austin to visit Texas' crazy and chaotic capital city, but the laid-back European feel of the town intrigued up. Before moving on, we decided to visit St. Mary's Catholic Church, an old German parish whose spires looked as if they had been transported to central Texas from somewhere in Europe.

The reason that St. Mary's looks so European is because, in a way, it is! The town of Fredericksburg was settled in 1846 by a company of German pioneers called the Adelsverein, or "Noblemen's Society". Led by intrepid explorer and pioneer Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach, the Adelsverein led the immigration of a group of liberal, educated Germans to settle in Texas, away from the social and political upheaval which was gripping Prussia and the other German princedoms at the time. 

The company, plagued with trouble from the start, eventually made their way to central Texas, where they established the town of Fredericksburg - named for Prince Frederick of Prussia, the highest-ranking member of the Adelsverein, and one of the settlers' biggest supporters and patrons. The town grew prosperous, and the Germans had finally found a new home.

St. Mary's is a beautiful example of a Texas "painted church". Originally a way to save money, painting the church's walls with colorful patterns rather than installing expensive stained glass eventually became a hallmark of German church art and culture in Texas.

That is not to say that there isn't beautiful stained glass, as well (at least nowadays).

Just next door to St. Mary's is Die Alte Kirche (the Old Church). The original St. Mary's was built by Catholic settlers in 1863, not too long after the establishment of the town. While the congregation did eventually outgrow the little church building, it remains open to the public as a chapel.

Unlike the bright, colorful sanctuary of the new church building, Die Alte Kirche was lit with a soft, peaceful blue light, cast from the simple blue stained glass windows which lined the walls.

The chapel was open, and there were several visitors sitting silently in the pews. I didn't want to disturb their prayer, so I snapped a few photos and left quietly.

On the way back to the car - fully intending to leave Fredericksburg and head on to Austin - we decided on a whim to stop by the Pioneer Museum, an outdoor museum with a phenomenal collection of lovingly-restored historic buildings, which told the history of the German pioneers and their struggles and successes in central Texas.

The buildings had been donated by the families of the original pioneers, and when you stepped inside, a motion sensor activated a narration by one of the descendants, telling all about the building, its history, and the lives of the people who had lived there.

Settlers in Fredericksburg got a great deal! In addition to a plot of land in the country, each family was also given a small house in the city. These tiny "Sunday houses" were where the family would stay when they came into town on the weekend to sell their crops at the market and go to church.

By now, it was lunchtime. We wanted to eat somewhere on Main Street, but the lunch rush made us uncomfortable, so we decided to wait an hour for the crowds to finish their meal. I dragged my poor tired and hungry fiancée off to another historical landmark in town: the Vereins Kirche.

Built in the old German architectural style of a "Carolingian octagon", and modeled on the design of a portion of Emperor Charlemagne's Cathedral at Aachen, the current Vereins Kirche is a replica of the original 19th century ecumenical church and meeting house which was once the center of civic life in town. Originally built by the German settlers, the Vereins Kirche was home to the local Catholic, Lutheran, and Methodist congregations, as well as a public meeting house and school. Eventually, each congregation built their own church buildings, but the Vereins Kirche continued its function as the civic center until it was demolished in 1896.

The townsfolk immediately missed the Vereins Kirche, and it was reconstructed in 1935. Today, it houses a museum of the town's history.

One very notable piece of history from Fredericksburg is the Meusebach–Comanche Treaty, a treaty of peace and mutual defense between the Adelsverein and the local Comanche tribe in 1847. It is notable as the only treaty between settlers and Native Americans that was never broken.

Finally, it was time to eat. We decided on the Old German Bakery & Restaurant for some real Texas-German cuisine. We were starving after walking all over town in the hot sun, but when the food arrived, we were shocked at the portion sizes.

The sausage platter came with three sausages, each one different. All three were tender, juicy, and peppery, and were best when served with a bit of spicy German mustard. The sauerkraut on the side might be the best sauerkraut we had ever had! It was cooked with bacon, and was completely amazing!

Both dishes were served with "German fries", thick-cut cubes of potatoes that were hot, warm, and fresh; crispy on the outside but soft and buttery on the inside.

When dessert arrived, we were already stuffed, but the potato pancake looked too good to pass up. It, too, was huge - almost the size of the dish, and so thin as to be almost crepe-like. It was light and soft with a mild sweetness that went perfectly with a light drizzle of honey.

The schnitzel was tender, but the breading on top was crispy and hot. It was topped with a poached egg, and dipping a piece of schnitzel into the runny yolk made the whole bite feel as if it was melting together in your mouth.

We originally intended to pick up a few pastries to try, but by the time we were finished eating, we were too stuffed to even consider another bite. Oh well... I guess we'll just have to come back sometime soon.

Pinky and I wrote a post about our lunch at the Old German Bakery & Restaurant on our other blog, The World of Street Food. I'd like to invite you to check it out if you love food like we do! We try to update it fairly often whenever we have delicious food from our adventures around the world to share. It's probably our favorite project that we work on together.

The German culture of Texas is a fascinating - yet often overlooked - piece of the state's history. German culture may well have had a much stronger influence on the culture of Texas as a whole, had it not been for WWI, but there are still plenty of echoes and vestiges left if you know where to look.

Before leaving town, there was one more "must-do" item on our checklist: buy a basket of world-famous Fredericksburg peaches! Lucky for us, we had arrived in just the right season, and peach stands were to be found on nearly every corner in town.