Hotel Bayerischer Hof Bad Kissingen

... no chance of being understood. Blessedly, there is some recognizable tunes. Shuls is a dance machine.

We stopped on the main bridge at a cafe with a fire blazing and had coffee. We then returned to the ship for our optional excursion to Rothenburg. A Unesco site that is a completely walled in Medieval village from the 12th century. We had lunch at a quaint Italian restaurantm the owner from Naples. Best food of the trip!

This town is ...

At Bamberg we left the Danube-Main Canal. The canal was completed in 1992 and allows ships to travel from the North Sea to the Black Sea. This connection had been dreamed of since Charlemagne tried digging one in the 8th century. Another attempt was made in the 1800s but the advent of the railroad doomed it. It took 20th century technology to make it possible. The canal itself has 34 locks out of the total of ...

The fourth biggest city in Germany, with over one million inhabitants, Cologne (Köln in German) began life as a Roman colony or colonia (hence its name). Its location on the Rhine, at the heart of Germania, was key to its status as capital of the province. The city became a centre for worship, famous for the legend and cult of Santa Ursula, and built several splendid Romanesque churches, which survive today.

By the Middle Ages, Cologne was one of ...

We say good-bye to the little Gausthaus after breakfast in the half circle dining room. We are now going down the Romantic Road in, Germany. Our first town stop is in Wurzburg. The sights to see here are a couple of churches and the castle along with all the older style village homes and buildings.

The castle boasts having the largest fresco ceiling painting in the world. We go to the castle and purchase our entrance ...

... and caught a train to Würzburg to see the city that Meri was born in. We got here around 9 p.m. and headed straight to the hostel, in the rain. My cheap umbrella from yesterday broke, of course. After arriving and seeing our hot, smelly room (it's not that bad, cute but warm and a bit musty) we headed to a student pub to get dinner. Unfortunately, the only thing they were serving was spaghetti and a pair of weiners, as the guy behind the counter told me. All jokes aside ...

... we certainly had a lot of fun.  I took the video camera and filmed the staff introducing them however once again I started of with the cap on but we figured that one out pretty quickly as I couldn’t see anything much to the amusement of the people around.  Still had lunch at 12.30 but must admit didn’t eat as much because we weren’t that hungry.  We docked at about 1.30 and left the ...

... of the fortified castle (which also housed the parking for the buses!) Once Chris was able to peel me off every cool stone in the towering wall, we enjoyed the great city views. Wow. What an incredibly fortified castle this still is! Most of the castles we have had the opportunity to visit have been in some state of ruin, but the Wurzburg castle is intact. Marveling at the feat of building such a structure with its two sets ...

... notes for our band ( Look out pud pud no wiz the woz just trumpets!) Linda plucked up the courage to visit a hairdresser we me in tow as an interpreter, no they did not pick up on my german for a number1 all over! Thats all for now we are going to follow the Romantic road south before we turn for Austria via Heinz & Irene's and in the words of Basil Fawlty don't mention the war! Great place great food lovely people!

We drove for about a 100 km to Wurzburg where we had lunch with menus that had NO English. We all basically ordered blindly, but it turned out pretty well none the less. WJ and Judy learned to ask for still water and that they served it in a wine glass. This was also the beginning of the dessert marathon. Judy and WJ figured that if the other three of ...

... m above sea level at Hanau. The river Mainin its natural state is a fast-moving stream unsuitable for shipping.In the 19th century the river was tamed and a system of dams and locksis now part of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal connecting the North Sea with the Black Sea

Lohr is said to be Snow White's possible birthplace.