Moved on to Rothenburg

At last I'm able to get back online with some degree of certainty!  The past couple of days were very busy.  We were staying in a quaint hotel in the village of Bacharach along the banks of the Rhine river.  It was a nice little village, and one of the highlights was a tour of the village by a man who had lived there most of his life.  Herr Jung is a lively 82 years old and was there during World War II.  He had many stories to tell, and even now becomes emotional at times when talking about the atrocities of war.  We also visited a castle ruins in a neighboring village called St. Goar, followed by a boat ride back up the Rhine to Bacharach.

This morning we got an early start and rode the bus for about 4 hours to a well-preserved village that dates back to the 1100s, called Rothenburg.  It's cobblestone streets and tightly packed buildings in the city center are well maintained and the people are friendly.  The walls around the city are still pretty much intact, there are lots of shops selling all kinds of goods, and as in all European towns, a number of huge, ornate churches.  It's a real tourist attraction, but it clears out pretty good at night.  We took a tour by the "night watchman" who's really a stand up comedian who educates the listeners about how things were in the old days.  He has a unique delivery and gets lots of laughs with his wry humor.  There must have been 120-150 people following his trail tonight, and he stopped about 5 times and talked for a few minutes each time about what went on at that location.  It was a bit chilly (around 50 degrees, I would guess), but worth the time and effort.

I managed to order myself some lunch today in a little cafe where they spoke very little English.  I was using my phrase book to get some German words out, horribly mis-pronounced, I'm sure, but between my bad German and the clerk's better English I got what I wanted.  I was even able to ask the shopkeeper a question, he understood and answered and I understood as well!  Our guide Stephanie has been going over phrases on the bus, so maybe a little of it has been sticking in between my ears.


The photos in today's entry are all from Rothenburg. The top one is obviously a street view, the center one is a part of the wall that goes around the city (which has 42 towers helping to make up the wall), and the bottom one is looking toward the front of St. Jacob's Church.  Many of the churches started out as one religion, but with a change in power, the icons were removed and the church was converted over to house a different religion.  It seems kind of goofy to me, but I guess it's better than tearing them down just to rebuild a new one.

Several of our group, myself included, appear to be coming down with colds.   This is not what I wanted to happen, but between the flight over, the cold damp weather, including wind, and these goofy hotel rooms, it's probably no wonder.  They don't furnish a top sheet and blanket over here, just a duvet to cover up with.  Consequently, I get too hot, throw the cover off, then get too cold.  I found a blanket in a armoire in my room for tonight, so I think I will try using that instead of the duvet. We are only staying at this hotel for tonight, then heading out in the morning for Reutte, Austria where we will take a tour of the Dachau concentration camp.  Hopefully the internet connection will be more reliable in Austria than it was in Bacharach.  See you soon!