Der Friedrichs-Hof Obertrubach

... We walked down the Weissgepbergasse (with the oldest remaining buildings in the city), we passed the former home of painter Albrecht Durer, we drank some Mokarabia, climbed the castle, found a traditional Bavarian coat for Pam, and then, since Germany is full of Turkish immigrants, I finally had some Turkish street food. After shooting off an email to some extended family in Frankfurt with some initial plans ...

... or visa versa. We got to go though the house to see how they lived back in their day. At the end of the tour, we were taken to the workshop and shown which elements made certain colors, then got to watch a demonstration of a lady making art.

After the tour of the house, we hurried to the toy museum that was just down the street. We had less than an hour to explore the 4 floor museum, but we ended up making the time stretch as long as we could, goofing off every chance we got (we ...

Had to get up early in order to catch the 8:30 tour of Bamberg. Buses took us into town for our walking tour. One of the special places to see was the old Town Hall which is in the middle of the bridge between the two sides of the city. Originally one side was the Prince/Bishops and the other the common people and they shared the town hall. It is painted in elaborate Baroque style. The town was established in 1007 and the buildings were of half-timber construction ...

Today, right after breakfast, we crossed the European Continental Divide. We went into a lock that dropped us down 81 ft. At the bottom it was, as our tour guide said, like being a spider in a bathtub with concrete walls rising up just inches from the sides of the ship.
We docked at ...

... was switched to a different platform. I asked how people were supposed to know that and he drew us a picture on a scrap of paper. He said up in the corner of the information board on the platform, there is a information bar and thats where it said it. But this is only in German, yet English is printed everywhere else! Ahhh!!! So we had to spend 2 hours of a gorgeous afternoon standing on a train platform. Luckily, the next train came ...

Before we even got to Nuremburg the adventure began. Half way through the drive we got a little hungry. Stopping at a truckstop we picked up some McDonalds (The only time so far) and after eating was on our way. Chris then noticed after driving for a few minutes on the highway how windy it was….maybe because I forgot to close the side door of the van. Needless to say we pulled over and closed the door ...

From Munich to Nuremberg is a nice short drive and luckily Germany doesn't use road tolls (They are so efficient they don’t need tolls…hehe)! We chose a nice little campsite just outside the city! After going for a walk we also discovered we were next to the Football (soccer) stadium and the Hockey Arena. On our first night there was a football game and Nuremburgs local team has one hell of a ...

... city was really nice and different from Munich, it was really never bombed in the war so there are so many original very old building still standing. Also we were able to see another 2 castles, not the same castles as before but more of a mansion style with amazing gardens. Bayreuth was really cool and I wish I had more time to look around but it is time to see where I was born.

... sweets (including American donuts (Frisch und Lecker!) There is also a thick haze of bratwurst smoke in the air mingling with the steamy scents of hot gluhwein. There’s even some little car rides for kids and a small Ferris wheel. Basically they go all out for the season, and it’s open everyday. While the market lacks the craziness and popularity of Zwiebelmarkt, it certainly is fun to see the people out and about, thinking about the ...

Drove my rental car through the countryside (Landshaft) in the Erlangen area. With a good map you can pretty much go where you want, so I stayed within the range of my map -- during past visits with a less-accurate map I've very nearly gotten lost more than once, since there are no numbered routes, intersections are not announced in advance and there is no such thing as a grid anywhere. You navigate entirely by knowing the name of the next medium-sized town in the direction ...