Germany

OK - you ready for the marathon Germany post? It's a long one, so hang in there!






The first week of our trip we spent in Germany. We arrived there on Friday, 31 July, and spent 3 nights in Heidelberg, which is on the west side of Germany near the Rhine River. They have a nice castle there, where this picture was taken from. In the picture, you can also see the Neckar River that runs through the town.

A highlight of Heidelberg was taking a boat cruise on the Neckar River. The trip took us up the river about an hour to Neckarsteinach. The Neckar River has a series of locks on it, so we enjoyed seeing how the locks raised and lowered the boat along the way. In Neckarsteinach we found 4 castle ruins, that used to guard the entrance to the area. We hiked up to explore one of the castles. It was really fun to see this castle that dated from 1100 AD!! The view was beautiful from the top of the hill by the ruins too!

There were tons of wild blackberries in and around the ruins. We especially enjoyed picking & eating our fill of berries! We don't get many berries in Spain, so that was a treat! (actually in German, blueberries are called Heidelbeeren, so we had so much fun eating Heidelbeeren from the market in Heidelberg!) To get to the castle ruins, we hiked past another of the 4 castles that has been restored and is privately owned. There were big signs everywhere saying "Private" so everyone would keep out. Katie told me later: "When I grow up, I want to be a princess and you can be a queen. Then we can own our own castle and we can be private." :-)

Our hotel was a little out of the main tourist part of town, which we enjoyed very much. (aside from the extra walking, that is :-) ) We were just across the street from a beautiful church. So Sunday morning, we decided to attend church in German. :-) We understood very little of the service, but it was fun to catch a word or meaning here and there. It was also a joy to be called to church by the pealing of the bells.



Because we live in Europe, we often feel that we get the added benefit to take it a little slower when we travel to see new cities. We don't feel the same panic to cram absolutely everything into our visit as we would if we were only coming to Europe for a week or 2. Our 1st night in Heidelberg, we experienced one of those priceless cultural moments, the kind you don't find in the typical tourist haunts. I was going downstairs to ask the front desk some questions to help us get oriented. All of a sudden, I heard a brass band coming down the street - like it was a parade or something like that. Turns out, it was a bachelor party, where the guys were going from bar to bar to play, sing and drink beer. (this was in Germany after all - the beer is really good in Germany!) So they stopped in front of our hotel to entertain the guests at the hotel restaurant and engage them in their songs. They came up playing "Que Sera, Sera," then moved on to "When the Saints Go Marching In." It was beginning to feel a bit like we were in New Orleans :-). During each song, they would get quieter to encourage different parts of the crowd to participate in the singing. Well, I was standing WAY away from the commotion, but very much enjoying the show and quietly singing along - you can see me on the far right side of the picture at left. Katie & Jason were by now hanging out of our hotel window to watch as well. Well, the song moved on to "Hey Jude" and I guess they finally noticed me standing quietly over to the side - so they made the whole crowd be quiet and motioned to me to sing ALL BY MYSELF!!! What was I supposed to do? I was sooo embarrassed, but I was NOT going to be a party pooper. :-) Thus I sang "Hey Jude" by myself, accompanied by a brass band in Heidelberg, Germany. :-) :-) Could I make this up??? :-)

On Monday, we took off for our next destination. On our way, we stopped along Germany's Romantic Road in Dinkelsbuhl. The Romantic Road is a road that roughly goes from Frankfurt to Munich. It is marketing creation to link these medieval towns together. The towns themselves, however, are the real deal! Our book says that until recently (as in 30 years or so), these medieval walled cities still housed more livestock than tourists! Dinkelsbuhl is a very pretty little town with beautifully painted houses, flower boxes full of trailing flower arrangements and a cool wall encircling it (see me up in the wall?). We took a tour of the town in a horse drawn wagon. Note to self: make sure when you take such tours that you speak whatever language the tour is given in :-). We still enjoyed the tour, however, because of the driver's dog that must be kin to our rotten Daisy :-) It was very entertaining to watch her find whatever trouble she could while the driver was simultaneously trying to drive, give the tour and keep her out of trouble :-)

Finally we made it to our next city: Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This was our favorite city by far! Unbelievable - it really feels like it must be a manufactured place like Disney because it is so quaint and perfect - but it is the real deal that is hundreds of years old!! We enjoyed hiking around the town (going on a bit of a wild goose chase - it's a bit difficult to find reliable directions when everything is in German and you don't speak ANY!) and ended up hiking up and up and up. The end result was not where we had intended to go, but the view was pretty! :-)

We also hiked up the many steep steps to the top of the white tower main square in the above picture. Wow was it tall! I almost lost my breath when we first stepped out onto the teeny tiny viewing platform! Yikes :-) We literally had to back down the stairs to get out of there! And yes, Miss Katie was such a trooper to march up there with us :-)

Oh - I would be remiss if I didn't mention our (my?) other favorite activity in Rothenburg: SHOPPING!! They have a fabulous Christmas store there called Kathe Wohlfart and it was too much fun!! This place was huge - I think there were 4 or 5 stores that comprised their Christmas empire :-) It was awesome!

At the last minute on our last day in Rothenburg, I decided that we really should walk up on the wall that we had read so much about. It was amazing - like instantly stepping back in time! You could almost see the guards guarding the city and hear them shooting their arrows at intruders. Very very cool. I'm sooo glad we didn't miss that experience!





We took off on Wednesday for our last destination in Germany. On our way, we got to stop in Stuttgart. Now, the reason for the stop was to see a childhood friend of mine, Kristen, whose husband is stationed there for a few years. We also got to meet her cute little boy, Braydon. What it provided as well was a fabulous excuse to go to the Porsche museum!!! I don't think I can do it justice, so I'll leave it for Jason to describe if he wishes. Suffice it to say that he was in his own world for 2 hours!! :-) Katie & I enjoyed it too, but I don't think our enjoyment was in the same ballpark :-)

Our next destination was Fussen, a little town in the Bavarian Alps, almost to the border of Austria. It was so peaceful and relaxing to be in the mountains - I instantly called to cancel our planned hotel in Munich so we could stay in Fussen another night! We love the mountains and needed a peaceful break after all our sightseeing of the 1st week. We had a wonderful hotel with a wonderful restaurant and a wonderful view. We enjoyed a bit of hiking, as well as watching the local ski jump team do ski jumps without any snow :-).

The reason we went to Fussen was to visit the nearby castles of "Mad" King Ludwig. This is the castle that inspired the people who were creating the castle for the original DisneyLand in California. It is called Neuschawnstein and it is absolutely beautiful. Our first glimpse of it was through the morning mist and it was breathtaking. I'll just include this one picture of it because our pics truly do not do it justice!! King Ludwig's parents lived in a castle called Hohenschwangau, built in 1836, which we enjoyed touring more. It is not much to look at on the outside, but the interior is really cool. See it - it's the orange castle by the lake. (by contrast, we didn't like the fancier castle's interior as much) These 2 castles were definitely major tourist destinations - there were a LOT of people there!

Our last stop in Germany was to go through Munich for lunch on our way to Salzburg. We visited the Hofbrauhaus - a very famous beer hall owned by the state. It was pure kitsch, but SOOO much fun! Oompa band and all :-) Great beer and great sausage :-)

Whew! Thanks for sticking it out with me if you're still reading! Next up: Salzburg!!