Having visited Rothenburg once before, we knew Diane would enjoy seeing this medieval city so that was the next stop on the Musketeers' itinerary. Here's a happy Tom when we were upgraded from a VW Passat to a Mercedes for our travel in Germany.
Our travel time to Rothenburg should have been about 1 1/2 hours, but we chose the repetitive scenic tour going through Heilbronn again and again (remember Groundhog Day?)! But 4 hours later we arrived in fairy tale Rothenburg, checked into our charming hotel within the walled city and life was pretty good again! Thoroughly enjoyed our walk on the ramparts of the wall surrounding the city, had a delicious meal and then we were off to join the night watchman for a hilarious journey through the very dark streets of Rothenburg -- a great memory there!
Here are some pictures of this quaint little city.
The next one is of Diane and Tom trying not to get blown off the church tower! It wasn't raining when we started our climb, but things changed suddenly! I'm glad I was there with camera ready!
Travelers tip: if you come to Rothenburg and are told you have to try a schneeball, save your money! They definitely look better than they taste. However for those of you who might want to try one, Diane took several home (they last for 8 weeks!) and will be having a schneeball party--date and time to be announced. Here's what they look like.
Our next destination was the little town of Sankt Goar along the Rhine River. Tom and I had been telling Diane how much she will enjoy the accommodations at the Rheinfels Castle on top of the hill, the lovely meal we will have in their restaurant overlooking the Rhine, etc. Well! Things went a little different than expected! On attempting to check in at Schloss Rheinfels we were told we did not have reservations there...high on the hill...where kings used to live. We discovered that our reservations were for Hotel Rheinfels...located in the valley below the castle...where serfs, farmers and yeomen resided long ago. However, we were not about to leave the castle reception area empty handed. So after literally begging for dinner reservations for the next night, a very gracious young hostess agreed to squeeze us in for dinner the following evening. We then descended into the valley of "tourists-who-made-the-wrong-hotel-reservation."
After seeing our room, I was actually glad to be 5' tall; Tom required a neck adjustment after our two nights there. He said that his head was going to permanently tilt to the right, which was required whenever he used the bathroom or walked on the left side of the bed. We had a skylight which allowed us to wave to many neighbors as they looked in on us while we were sleeping. Did I mention that Diane had a Rhine view? But the room was clean and we had our nice dinner to look forward to on our last night in Sankt Goar. Here are some pictures of the Rheinfels Castle we explored.
On Saturday we took a cruise on the Rhine, getting off to enjoy the towns of Rudesheim and Bacharach. Here are a few pictures taken along the way. We encountered a little light rain, but it was relatively warm and reminded us of fall weather in Wisconsin.
This is the oldest house (Altes House) in Bacharach. So cute!
After returning from our cruise, we put on our evening clothes, and drove up the steep hill to Rheinfels Castle. Although it was raining fairly hard, we briskly made the 100 yard dash across the outer parking area, the wooden pedestrian bridge, and the inner hotel guest parking area in anticipation of the meal awaiting us inside...where we would be seated in the glass enclosed terrace overlooking the Rhine and the valley far below...where serfs, yeoman and farmers lived long ago and more recently Tom, Trudy and Diane. However, once again, the fates were against us. The gracious young hostess who worked so diligently to make our dinner reservations on Friday advised us that the reservation "was for Friday night...not Saturday." Unfortunately, she held a table for three until 9:00 PM on Friday night and she was rather surprised when we were "no shows!" The three musketeers (who at this point looked rather wet and soggy in their dinner clothing) seemed to forget how to speak. Finally, one of the musketeers (not sure who) said "huh?"
Apparently, there was a miscommunication somewhere regarding our dinner reservation. In an effort to remedy the situation, our hostess led us down several steps to what was once probably the castle dungeon. However, it is currently the German pizza parlor adjacent to the souvenir area for the castle. We were the only three customers for quite sometime. While the meals were not five star, they were okay. The saving grace was the dessert menu! In recounting the day's occurrences, we had some good laughs, indulged in some decadent desserts, and left Rheinfels Castle pizza parlor with our heads held high...except for Tom, whose head tilted slightly to the right.
Happy trails,
TNT
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