June 24th - Wurzburg &Rothenburg ob der Tauber

As we loaded up to leave Hailey's house I am glad we got a van since the back seats lay completely flat we were able to get everything in and not totally block the back window.

Thank you Hailey for hosting us these past few days.  We are sad to leave you but are excited for the rest of our journey to begin.

It's off to Rothenburg ob der Tauber via Wurzburg.

Just a note for traveling by car in Germany, not all rest stops supply toilet paper, so you may want to make sure you have some with you.  There is a sign posted outside to inform you of this fact.

We realized as soon as we arrived in Wurzburg that we could have easily spent a few days here. We could see the Marienberg Fortress as we headed to the Wurzburg Residence.









The bridge over the Maine River.

The Wurzburg Residence was absolutely beautiful.  I am sorry that I can not post any pictures as taking pictures inside was not allowed.  I did take along the Rick Steves' Germany book and that did help us as a tour guide to notice things that we would never have noticed.

 I have to post this picture as Elaine and Fred hate to have their picture taken so they wiggled their backsides at me in protest.  I didn't care I took their picture anyways.  I just wish I had gotten it on video.

When we finished walking through the Residence we headed out to find the chapel which we thought was in the garden.  We did find a beautiful  garden well sculpted.

We also found some beautiful sculptures & a park bench.

And we also found some sculptures that were put in storage because they need some repair.

What a view from the backside of the Residence.

After asking a gardner where the chapel was his reply was "what is this chapel" in a heavy German accent.  I folded my hands like I was praying and he said "oh ......" I could not understand one word he said but by the hand gestures I  realized we needed to head back out of the garden.

We found it when we went back out the gates and looked at the map.  This chapel is so ornate that I think only the Vatican has more marble in it.  I think almost every inch was marble.

Well we were hungry after the visit but the restaurant that was on the premises was way to expensive but as we were checking it out it started to pour down rain.  So we stood in the foyer with some other tourists tell it subsided just a bit then we headed to the van.  We got in just in the nick of time well that is all of us except Roger who had to go to the machine to validate the parking.

So off we drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. W got to the hotel, dropped our bags and started searching for someplace to eat because we were starving.  We found this restaurant in a hotel.  

This was a very charming restaurant.  We did get there around 3:30.  Our waiter spoke English and said that they were almost American in the town (I imagine since there are so many American tourists there).  As we sat waiting for our dinner we watched the waiters sit down and have their dinner before the 6:00 dinner service began, which did not interfere with our dinner coming out quickly.  

Roger, Elaine & Fred had  pork loin in mushroom sauce with melted cheese on homemade spaetzle.

with melted cheese on homemade spaetzle.  

Amanda and I had Flammkuech with bacon and onion.

Of course we had to stop and get some ice-cream at a walk up window.  And I don't think that there was a bakery that we passed up that we didn't go inside.  Finally Roger and Elaine bought some apple strudel.

We found a nice look out point over looking the valley below.

Well we had had a long day and everyone was tired so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.