well, actually, i'm typing this from a hotel in frankfurt. buuut, i'd already written from here, and we're merely here for the evening, and rothenburg was wonderful, so i figured i'd title it from there.
we i last typed, we were actually just out the door to pick up our car. so, we did.. a lovely opel, lightning car. brand new, very german-esque car. we then manage to zig-zag our way out of town, en route to dachau, the first concentration camp.
dachau was, well.. a concentration camp. a gripping movie, followed by an audio commentary of the entire guide, followed by a complete and well done museum. it was a lot to chew on. the camp that i had seen in latvia had been just a memorial, and was difficult enough at that.. this was the real deal. and it was expained so clearly, with such detail, that it brought out such sadness and such hate that words cannot describe. truly an experience. it was an overcast day.. how fitting. yeah i think that'll be the only one of those i'll be visiting for a while.
the day however, thankfully, got more upbeat after that. from there, we headed off in our lightning car on germany's "romantic road".. basically, a route from south of munich, to frankfurt, winding through the german hillside and small seemingly 15th century towns. the drive was spectacular! hills and rivers and castles oh my!
we finally arrive at rothenburg, (aparently pronounced ROE-ten-berg), and manage to find our way to our hotel, nestled in right next to the town's medival wall. the man running the place greets us, and is a little less than friendly, as it was about 8, and we had not called. made some snide remarks like "in germany we have phones you know.."... um, whatever buddy. deal with it. beautiful little place though. and the CITY! like the title says, its a medival city that looks as though disney had designed and built every little building and every little shop. more so than any city i've been to.
wake up, the man is MUCH nicer at breakfast. decent breakfast (i've been evaluating the buffet breakfasts thus far... still have yet to eat the one here at this hotel, but in my expert, breakfast-deprived opinion, the first one we had, in prague, was the best. just in case you cared.)... then off to finish off the romantic road.. well, we got a tad off course i do believe, as the romantic road was supposed to take us all the way into frankfurt, but somehow we managed to get off of it, and onto the autobahn! oh the joy. not a single speed limit sign posted, we cruised at a rather fine clip in our little (not really little) lightning opel. and then you've got the porche's passing us probably doing 220+ km/h.. you do the math.
and so we're here.. at the hotel manhattan... its a balmy 35 degrees here, again, you do the math, but i'll give you a hint, its freaking hot. and even in a fine hotel like this, these europeans have seemingly yet to discover air-conditioning. oh well. there's a shower, and a buffet breakfast. my last one for some time. oh how i'm going to get george's money worth out of that one tomorrow morning. :-) and then, sadly, george heads back across the pond to the good old us of a, and for me its off to visit the castle that inspired the castle at disneyworld, mad king ludwig II's, leiwieghstiener (its not really spelled like that, i pretty much just mashed keys to generate that facimile).. i'm quite excited.. then off for about a week through austria, innsbruck, salzburg, hallstat and viena. i THINK. and then, east, i do believe.. back to the land of weird languages and cheap stuff... i couldn't be more excited..