Rothenburg ob der tauber

Luckily, weather forecasting is no more accurate than drive time planning. While brisk, today never produced any predicted rain and was mostly partly sunny all day. Rothenburg is a cute, little, idyllic town so we had actually seen a good bit of it yesterday between arriving and having dinner.

We spent today meandering about on the cobblestones. Up and down and over and back. A coffee here. A pastry there. A drink at what was actually our first beer garden of the trip. Picked up a couple of Christmas ornaments. And three antique glass beer steins (Michael might have bought more but he ran out of cash and those stores don’t take credit cards,). A nice dinner at a quaint nearby restaurant and that’s a wrap. A really nice trip having taken in the alps, a couple of castles, and some really pretty towns,

Tomorrow we head to the airport (did we know ground crews for KLM are staging strikes? No we did not!) Fingers crossed we are not stranded at an airport during this trip and that we find our way tomorrow to England to visit friends, 

For now, Auf Wiedersehen. Tschau.

On The Road Yet Again (sept 16)

Driving from Luxembourg to Rothenburg ob der tauber. Started out before 11a with an ETA of just before 3p. How does that saying go?: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

We were tooling along great. Clear skies.  No slow downs. But the ETA kept getting later and later, of course. Then we came to a dead stop.  The trucks lined up in the right lane reminded me of the days long line of trucks on the road from landlocked Ethiopia to the ports in Djibouti. But this time we were right there along side of them.  45 km from our destination going nowhere.  I checked the maps. There was one exit ramp in the red zone on the navigation about 5km ahead.  We had a discussion again about what our best option was.  And as we were discussing, the red line on the navigation path turned white with red dots. Hmmmmm. That’s new.  Can’t be good. No, not good at all. Ask Google what does that white line with red dots mean on a road on your Google map?  Road closed! Choice made. We, and everybody else on this highway, is getting off at the exit. Then routing through small towns with little streets but with massive trucks. Fun, fun, fun.  Arriving at 4:35p.

Really, it’s been interesting. In addition to the now expected unexpected traffic delays, we had the tiny parking lot at the hotel in Garmisch (I ONLY selected hotels with parking) that was nearly full by the time we arrived late that night in the dark after the mountain pass closure and I could barely squeeze our compact SUV into a spot. In Luxembourg their robotic parking garage dictated the maximum size the rental car so I assumed I wouldn’t have to do the parking. Wrong. I had to drive the car into the car elevator, and then from the elevator to the robotic platform where the tires had to be perfectly positioned in the ruts and the car perfectly centered with the side view mirrors turned in so when the platform spun in circles and unloaded the car everything would stay attached. No stress there.  And here in Rothenburg there were those tiny little cobbled roads through arches and to the hotels garage (the blue house) with the solid, swinging out and down garage door that is on a timer and shuts on its own whether or not you or the car are in the way of the door or the swing of the door (no motion detector). Which it started to do as I was maneuvering in the tiny street in order to back in!

But we got here. And it’s adorable. (More later.)

Luxembourg and Inspiring Spires

Another gorgeous day. 

Breakfast at a very cosmopolitan patisserie with capuccini, croissants, and Bavarian pretzels. Gosh, I love traveling!  Though I am not sure that I have ever been provided a knife and fork for my croissant.  Rest assured that I used them!

After all, when in Luxembourg…

this the country with the highest GDP per capita in the world…. And patio umbrellas that read:

They have a few cute little shop signs 

And really pretty views walking along the corniche 

But Lordy, Lordy do they know how to do spires!

On the Road Again

Today was another driving day so if we were gonna have another overcast day this was the day.  And as we headed out of Fussen we were lucky to see some rainbows. The countryside continued to delight as what sunlight shone through the clouds had a penchant for selectively illuminating the little villages along the way.

The drive to Luxembourg was going to take just under six hours. But it turned into one of those drives where the longer we were on the road the longer it was going to take to get there. At times we were flying on those stretches of the autobahn where there is no posted speed limit. But then there were lots of slowdown for road repairs and construction. Guess you can’t have really nice roads without maintaining hem constantly.

We got into Luxembourg City at six after just over seven hours.  But the navigation told us to turn onto a pedestrian only street to get to the hotel. After two tries we found a parking lot, pulled over and  called the hotel. The receptionist told us to come on that street to unload our bags…just to be careful not to hit anyone. 

Got settled and had a quick stroll in a bit of a drizzle before dinner. We will explore tomorrow. 

Neuschwanstein Castle

 I should mention that we do not have any photos of the interiors of these castles because you cannot take pictures inside.  Every inch of space is decorated in one fashion or another. There are crystal and porcelain and ivory chandeliers.  Intricate and amazing mosaic floors. Detailed wood carvings.  Really beautiful.  That said, the reason the family had to open Ludwig’s castles to tourism ( and why they also want you to buy their images in the gift shop ) is because Ludwig only received a 1M Deutschmarks a year in stipend  and managed to die at 41 30+M in debt.

Now, to follow-up on yesterday’s glimpse from a distance, here are some photos of the valley below the castle and a few of the different sides and towers.  Whether you are a Zugspitze or a castle or a couple of old folks…we all have our better sides.

Off to Linderhof

 First up this morning, we confirmed that the mountain hadn’t moved.

Yup. Still there.  The clouds moved in early and we needed to be on our way anyway.

Next stop: Linderhof Palace of King Ludwig II. If we were going to have a drizzling overcast day, it was best that it be this one for hiking the grounds and getting up higher still to the Venus Grotto, the largest artificial drip stone cave of the 19th century constructed for the sole use of the King.

Afterwards, we headed on to Fussen passing through a couple more tunnels. Emerging from the last one was like finding ourselves in a different world back in agricultural valleys so green it felt like we were driving through a 20km long golf course. 

We came into Fussen from the east so at one point Michael said, “oh there’s a castle.”  Indeed there was. That being our first look at Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein Castle. Otherwise known as the Disney castle because it inspired Walt Disney and his vision of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland in California. Also, our reason for being here.  Tomorrow we tour.  Tonight, full of spaetzle and roast pork, we sleep.

Staying Put Today

There is an option to ride a gondola or a train up to the top of the Zugspitze. We intended to do that when we booked two nights here since the enjoyment of that experience is weather dependent. And this morning, clearly, the weather was stellar. However, after yesterday’s 10 hours in the car and in tunnel after tunnel after tunnel, we just couldn’t get excited about spending the day in close quarters doing that. Plus, the view was sooooo beautiful from down here.  Even at high noon in the worst light.

Instead we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Sat on our balcony. Walked into town. Stopped and had a 🍺 .

Chatted with a couple there with their Shiba Inu. They were surprised that we/I had lived in Pennsylvania (her sister lived for many years in New Jersey). Then in California. And now in Florida. Those places all being so far away from each other. (And that was before the mention of the Caribbean.). But then she offered that moving around like that isn’t unusual for Americans.  Where were they from? She is Polish and he is Belgian. Which, to us, seems far more note worthy and cosmopolitan than moving about in one’s own country. 

Anyway, their dog jumped up and took note when our glasses were set down on our table. But immediately sat back down. They explained that their previous dog, a German Shepherd, loved beer -of course. But this one prefers Bailey’s. 😉

On the topic of drinks, I nearly sprained a wrist trying to remove the cap from the first Coke Zero we bought. They are designed to make that absolutely impossible. Pour the content into a glass or fight the cap drinking from the bottle, but you will not discard that cap on its own. 

So why here but not in the States?

Finally, thanks to the internet again. I looked up why traditional Bavarian farm buildings have walls that are not vertical but rather angle diagonally so the building is larger at the roofline than at the floor. It increases stability is buildings. No, no photo as we were driving at the time. But feel free to Google it.

And while we are on the topic, one can actually see an unfamiliar car emblem fly by, google “car emblem that looks like a kokopelli’s head” and ultimately find your way to this:

What a world!

Tonight a fancy dinner here in the hotel. 

Then tomorrow a short drive, I sincerely hope, to the next town on the itinerary.