Roter Ochsen Ellwangen

... to cruise along in the center lane but not fast enough to avoid passers who'd rocket by like jet engines on the left. Being a Merwin, I found the one free parking lot in town, and it was next to a free bathroom. Boo Ya!

The altstadt is walkable and surrounded by the city wall, so you can't really get lost. You can walk up well worn stairs and stroll around on the city wall. We played peeping toms and peered into all the gardens and out across the Tauber ...

... the northernmost town on the Road. It was a cute beginning, though a reminder of why I am not enamored of German food (lots of sausages and very little veggies). But Wurzburg is a huge wine producing town, so color me very happy about that. (hic)

This morning we drove south to the most famous town on the Road, Rothenburg au der Tauber. Seriously, this town has to be seen to be believed. It looks like Fantasyland exploded in 12 different ...

... Sonntag haben wir 2 Bäume Zwetschgen geschüttelt und die Dinger - Gott sei Dank zu sechst - 2 1/2 Stunden aufgelesen. Siglinde hat ein Großteil davon zum Schnaps machen abgenommen, den Rest hab ich verteilt und eingefroren.
Gestern war ich auf Betriebsausflug in Ravensburg (Stadtbesichtigung), in Weingarten (Basilika gucken) und in Bad Buchau (Führung vom NABU am Federsee). War ...

... 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 ...

... fehlen!
Ach ja, falls jemand mal Tick-Tack-Boom, oder n Buch oder ne DVD ausleihen will, soll einfach bei mir zuhause vorbeiguckn! Ich will ja nicht, dass mein ganzes Zeug einstaubt! :D
So nun gehts in Bett, denn morgen klingelt um 04:15 der Wecker und heisst ABFLUG!

Der nächste Eintrag kommt (hoffentlich bald) aus Bogotá!!

Wir sehn uns in nem Jahr!
Küssle Toni

... and drank coffee. We went out for a little walk around the town centre. We went for lunch at an outdoor terrace and all ate a good German meal. We ordered the special: champignoncremesuppe, roast pork in a tomato sauce. Dave and Marion enjoyed beer. We walked around some more and saw a few of the sights took some pictures and then went for cake and coffee. Ann saw a shoe store and had to stop to have a look ...

The first stop was Schloss Turn u. Taxis, where a Duchess still lives; we were only allowed to drive through but not stop. Next we came to a monastery where approximately 8-10 monks still live. It's awfully huge for only that amount of residents. We then drove to Heidenheim, district capital ...

... she stated that Irene was her friend and will take us to her. We only had to walk about 400 ft. and there was Irene's house. I couldn't believe we had made it despite the dead GPS battery. You entered the house on the ground floor where Irene's mom lives, then up a flight where Irene and Chappy have their living quarters and the third floor was where we stayed. You looked out the bedroom window and saw a church with an ...

... more rewarding.

Dinkelsbuhl here we come. It is pushing just about 4 when we arrive in town. We pull into a parking spot and see a reenactment of an old town. We learn it is the Swedish soldiers camp of their invasion of Dinkelsbuyl during the 30 years war. One day, it is told, a group of children went to the Swedish army commander and pleaded that he spare their town, which he did. The festival THAT HAS BEEN ON ALL WEEK!!! And we ...

... VERY successfull, and he is a very foreward thinker in regards to dairy practice. He brings ideas about production medicine and protocols from the states to his farms in Germany. Their practice coveres a very large area, and they routinely drive a couple hundred kilometres a day. The day I rode with Ellen, we went to three farms in the former East Germany, which are old socialist farms. They're different from the west as they're bigger (400-2000), and the buildings ...