Hotel Haus Appelberg Dinkelsbühl

... pressing apple cider, and selling wares. For some reason, a bulk of the shops sold Christmas ornaments which lent a festive air. The other specialty is schneeballs. A nearby town must be famous for pies because I'm pretty sure schnieballs are leftover pie crust balled together and dipped in some sort of goodness. They were alright. The hot chocolate was great. And, the owner spoke German, English, and Japanese, pretty cool. All in all, it was a good day.

... It's beautiful and charming but ask me in a few hours when the Elderhostel tour buses and their occupants have sent me over the edge. Anyway. My goal today is to discover the deliciousness of something called "schneeballs." They look chocolate and fried and should go great with beer.

Well that's all for now- I am in a tourist office that gives me 15 minutes free internet access and I have to steal it where I can get it. Auf Weidershen :)

... 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 ...

Today, we went to a spa in town, and I have never seen so many Speedos in my entire life.

I hope I never see another Speedo ever again.

The salt baths were really awesome, and the sauna was cool too, but it got SOOO hot so fast.
There is really nothing to do here. I cannot wait to get out of here. Tomorrow, we head to Freiburg, to have a tour of some castles, so that ...

... it, ends today. Oh, well, can’t be everywhere at the right time.

The town is filled with people in costumes, there is a children’s band, the Swedish army and pipe and drum band, beggars, children’s dance troops and young adults dance troop. It was so much fun just walking down the street, the atmosphere was happy and jolly. We stopped in at one place, looked like a pheasant gathering and they were cooking chickens ...

So now Im in Germany. Weve been on the bus for about two full days and its wreaking havoc on my stomach. I havent felt right since I left Switzerland.

I did get to do some shopping, and the food has been pretty good so far.

Thursday, we left Switzerland for what was supposed to be a 4 hour bus ride to the Black Forest to see a cuckoo clock factory (it was cool, but the clocks were too expensive).
The ride turned out ...

So, today is the big day, only 2 hours left and my family is going to drive me to Frankfurt and then my flight to Bangkok via Dubai is leaving at 10p.m. (Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!)
But as I'm still not packed and really excited I'm not goint to write that much, only that I'm really looking forward to the trip and hope to tell you guys many nice and interesting stories :)
So, here you soon from Bangkok!!
Adios :)

Marta

... harvested if the temperature gets cold enough for the grapes to freeze on the vines. then the cellarmaster guy calls all his friends, and 20 of them harvest all the grapes by hand in 2 hours. they use this crazy gentle process to get the most concentrated extract from the grapes, and it's almost like syrup. it's the best tasting, sweetest wine ever. i'm a huge fan. we saw it out afterwards, it costs about 40 euros (80 ...

Today we (Dennis, Shawn, Jessi, Teeny, and myself) went to Rothenberg. I wasn't sure what to expect, but had read on the internet that while it was a walled city and one of the best preserved in Germany, it had become something of a tourist trap. Sadly, that was true. Still, the city was worth visiting.

Upon reaching the city by train, we walked to the entrance of the Altstadt, or Old Town. We walked up onto the walkway around the ...

... the town but we failed to find any access to the top of the walls that was not either locked or obviously not intended for casual access. The town is part of the Romantic Road and is probably the jewel in the crown of these places. All of the houses within the walls are beautiful, tall, colourful houses. The shops and restaurants are the same and but for a handful of other tourists and backpackers ...