Hotel Garni Birnbaum Ansbach

Jon and I have a new deal. I plan a trip and drive, and he'll go anywhere. He'll even drive us home. One of the perks of subbing, I'm left with pockets of time to come up with trips. Trip number one, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, mostly because it fell neatly within the day trip range.<br><br>Part of our deal means I drive . . . The morning greeted us with a pea soup fog, enough to hide all road signs from any meaningful distance. GPS is good. I did drive fast ...

Guten tag from Germany!<br><br>We've been all over Europe, to random places like Bosnia and Slovakia, but we've never managed to make it to Germany. So here we are!<br><br>We flew through Iceland, and landed in Frankfurt yesterday. We picked up our very cute Smart Car convertible, and drove out west to the famous Romantic Road. This is a 220 mile long stretch of road running south that is dotted with castles and medieval towns. We stayed the night in ...

... because we didn&#8217;t understand a word of it, we ate the local gingerbread delicacies, we shopped at the markets, we warmed up from the rain and had a cup of coffee, and eventually had dinner in a quaint, very authentic restaurant where he had traditional Franconian food and some of the local Tucher beer.<br><br>The next morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and headed out for our last day of ...

... were shortly home. <br><br>The Tuesday after Berlin, we took yet another day trip up into the Bavarian mountains to a glass blowing factory. When we got there it was close to closing time, but we did get a short tour in, getting to watch some of the workers in the process of making wine decanters that were to be shipped to the states. It was really interesting to hear what the tour guide to say and to watch the process. The decanters actually didn&#8217;t take that long to make, about ...

... and took buses 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. <br><br>

... 8230;This team happens to be in the german league and is the home team to Nuremburg! So we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch a home game of our beloved team!<br><br>The local fans are intense. Coming in full fan gear of scarves, jerseys, flags and some even brought tamtams that were miked up to increase the energy of the crowd! Me and Chris got scarves and a pretzel and beer and sat to ...

... of Nuremburg on day 2! Nuremberg is famous for being the city where Hitler condemned the Jews and lots of other ****** stuff so obviously it was bombed to hell in World War 2. Very little of the original buildings remain. The walls to the center of the city are still there in most places and the churches are still being rebuilt in certain places but they restored the city very nicely and it still has ...

... Those of you who know my restless nature can visualize the fun. Actually, I had a good flight with all things considered. I sat next to a very nice man who could not speak english. We had a great time communicating in our own way, the excitement of our adventure and the marvels of modern technology, referring to the many movies and other features available at our fingertips. Let's just say, it was a test of the research ...

... me, smiled, and pointing to the bottle of beer in my hand said, "that's dinner." Pursuing my new quest to sample and understand the best beers of the world, I double clicked on a recommended website in former Navy SEAL Stew Smith's article which led me to THE U.S. BEER DRINKING TEAM website. "The first real team for the Beer 'Lifestyle' Community." I began to think I was really on to something as I ...

... that the best reds came from France, Italy AND California. Coming home by train was quit pleasant (I think that constitutes boarding the correct trains and not losing any more teeth). The countryside is green and sprinkled with villages of red peaked roofs capping white houses OR fields of carefully manicured farmland. Everyone was out walking the trails and fields with their canine companions. Hawks decorated the trees beside the train tracks. I practiced my ...