In the company of Conservatories
Jechnerer Wintergarten factory
Yesterday we visited the factory of Jechnerer Company who makes beautiful wintergardens as well as windows and doors in the town of Herrieden about 50 kilometers from Nuernberg. This was our first stop on the way up to Hamburg for the meeting on Friday.
Jechnerer, which is a three generation family business specializes in custom wintergardens and some very technically advanced windows and doors. We met with Mr. Werner Jechnerer and other members of his family who also work in the business and looked at the many interesting products they manufacture- all of exceptionally high quality and innovation. It was very clear that he shares our passion for “doing things right”!
The people here have all been unbelievably hospitable to us. Mr. Jechnerer actually took us to his home after we left his factory, where he has a small brewery(!) and served us some of his very special beer which put the very excellent beer we’ve been drinking here to shame!
Later in the afternoon, he took us to see the in the walled medieval city of Rothenburg, where there were two conservatories, both in local hotels.
Nancy and Alan with Werner Jechnerer and Franz Wurm in the wintergarden workshop of the Jechnerer company.
We walked along narrow cobblestone streets lined with interesting shops, sat for coffee in the restaurant with his conservatory and walked along the top of the city wall taking lots of pictures like typical tourists. Rothenburg was spared from the Allied bombing campaign during the war and so is one of the few intact examples of an old city most of which is now perfectly restored.
In the afternoon we drove a short distance to Wurtzburg, where I had stayed the year before and had a great dinner in a restaurant where we sat on a terrace suspended over the Main river.
We were told something interesting. Apparently German boys become infatuated with the cowboy figures of the American wild west and dream of going to the States putting on a cowboy hat and shooting a Winchester rifle! On the other side of the Atlantic, American boys have a similar kind of fantasy. We dream of going to Germany and driving on the autobahn at 150 miles per hour!
Werner Jechnerer and Nancy in Rothenberg
I had forgotten about this long ago until I found myself behind the wheel of our little Mercedes Benz needing to get from Wurtzburg to Wetzlar in less than two hours. At 170 kilometers/hour (about 105 mph) I was going fast enough for me – though lots of smaller Volkswagens, Fords and the occasional Porsche whizzed by almost as if we were standing still.
Auf Wiedersehen,
Alan