Hotel Drei Konig Crailsheim

... was juicy and large, and all it lacked was a deep fry on the skin for Jon. It even came with our first serving of sauerkraut in Germany, believe it or not sauerkraut is not that easy to find around us.

Somehow Rothenburg is a hit for Americans and Japanese, a sister city? It did mean the Criminal History Museum was in English and Japanese as well as German. We're quickly learning; museums with signs in English are much more interesting for us. They had ...

... 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 :)

... strange, because it seemed so fragile and beautiful, but really made it special.

A couple blocks away we visited the cloister garden and then followed a stone wall to the Burgtor (castle gate) and entered the castle gardens. There once was a castle here, but it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1356, now only the gardens remain. They are surrounded on three sides by low walls, keeping you from falling down the 80 yard tall cliffs below. It had splendid views ...

Schillingsfurst is our first town this morning. It is small and the notable thing to see is their castle. On the road up to the castle we see a lookout tower and stop to take some pictures. Len says to me, listen! It is another live band playing so we head towards it. We are at a sports park and there is going to be a soccer tournament. To get things going the band is playing and people are sitting with a coke or beer (it has to be 4 o'clock ...

... around at the old buildings and their church. Hmmm, if this is how it is going to be for the next 26 towns I think we might be disappointed. I was looking for some culture and activities.

Bad-Mergentheim another pleasant town, it has a castle and church similar to the previous towns. Lots of nice little old homes.

Weikersheim is our last town for ...

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

... a bottle, but it's so worth it!

afterwards everyone bought lots of wine. it's a pretty good tactic of the winery to get everyone drunk and then offer to sell them wine. Nicole told me she bought a ridiculously expensive bottle of wine when she was on her Contiki europe trip, and regretted it lol. so yeah i almost bought some but i restrained. i've got smoe other awesome alcohol in mind to buy later

... of the wall and walked along the wall before descending into the town to browse the many shops. There were some interesting and neat things to see, but there were a lot of tourists also. I heard almost as much English spoken as I did German.

However, the trip was worth it. This was on town I was interested in seeing, and I am planning on a return trip sometime to take the Watchman night tour of the town for an English guided tour.

... We still are not out of Munich and we have lost our guide and the group is now headed in three different directions. A few miles down the road our group was stopped at an intersection and one of the guys that was riding a BMW 1200 RT with hard bags decided to go around a car (a new Mercedes Benz) and he hit the tail light on the car and broke it (at least BMW wins again). OK, so here we are again with another delay. I really felt bad for the guy, but a few ...

... speak in German that I noticed the unconscious association between the German language and utter evil. This, I must imagine, being taken from way too many hours of TV, watching documentaries on WWII with Hitler spouting his rants in German. Once I made the conscious effort to suppress this innate trigger-like reaction, I felt a little better, too much TV as a kid I guess. After WWII the Germans adopted a practice of putting little white and blue 'DO NOT BOMB' signs on ...