Hotel Burger-Palais Ansbach

... then lay the finished piece on a conveyor belt that runs each piece, one after another, through an oven that cools the pieces down at a very slow rate (over all taking 12 hours if I remember correctly). Then you have the finished piece.


We also got to see a guy working on stems for already made glasses. The stems ranged in shapes and sizes, the most interesting being the ones that were filled with Swarovski crystals (shiny! Haha). After the demonstration, we wandered around ...

... and took busses to Nuremberg. We visited the Zeppelin Field where the big Nazi Rallies were held and the Hall of Justice where the Nuremberg Trials took place. Bought a souvenir pin at Market Square and had cokes at a bistro while waiting for the bus to take us back to the ship.

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 ...

... deposit at the hotel later, but it was too early for dinner, so we found a table in a corner of the square and had a beer. A very good beer! After our break, Erin wanted to find the old city wall gates in the middle of town, so we set out again exploring. Along the way we found the one internet café in town and decided to Skype the parents early. This was our most frustrating event of the trip; the café employee spoke almost no English, and knew less about ...

... so you don’t get to see the prettier areas.

We decided to rest a little this morning before going to Nuremburg, but I got up fairly early. I woke up about 6 am and went to use the bathroom. But there was only one ladies toilet and there was a girl in there for 10 minutes brushing her teeth. We had sinks in our rooms where you were supposed to do that kind of thing, but she was probably trying to be nice to her roommates. But it wasn’t nice for me and it ...

... till Erin noticed we had twenty minutes to make the 4:55 train to Rothenburg, which also had a shorter trip time than later ones. So we hurried back across town, only snapping a couple of hurried pictures along the way. But, when I tried to buy a ticket, it didn't show that time available. Erin checked her notebook and found she wrote down the wrong times, we were 10 minutes late, not 10 minutes early like we thought. So we took the next one at 5:17 ...

... working at the time, in Ilsheim, Germany. She introduced me to the concept of travel blogging. Where ever you are right now - thanks Brenda, I think. My adventure started on Halloween - a little more trick and a little less treat. Trick #1: I boarded a plane and flew to Frankfurt, Germany on Halloween and landed on November 1. I'm convinced I lost a day of my life. To jump forward a bit, I returned on November 30th from ...

... right out of a story book. We joke that it has the Swiss Miss buildings along with the cobblestone pedestrian streets and old churches. The biggest adjustment has been how quiet it is and how early the doors are closed in the evening. Stores close by 5:30 OR 6:00. The city is quiet by 7:30 except for restaurants and a few bars. The stores close by 2:00 on Saturday and there is nothing-I mean nothing open on Sunday except for restaurants.

... was an exciting week end spent exploring my surroundings. It was sensory overload even though Frankfurt turned out to be a little cold and misty. We decided that the panoramic view from the rooftop of the local department store was lacking the charm of perhaps the view of Paris from the roof of the Galeries Lafayette. I suppose that a good guide book would have helped but we decided to wing it and see what came up. Stopping for food we worked our way around the ...