1986 Germany, France, Switzerland, AustriaParticipants Nancy and Luther Hampton - Cindy (Nancy's sister) and her husband BillClick images for larger views. |
June 26 - Thursday
We met for breakfast at 9AM. They had a very good buffet breakfast at our hotel. Scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, a gadget to squeeze your own juice. We took our time.
Cindy, Bill and Luther went to check out and I went to our room. I had barely gotten there and was trying to pack up when a porter showed up. He grabbed our stuff and Cindy and Bills stuff and took off. Cindy and Bill arrived and chased the porter down so they could brush their teeth. The take this service thing a little too far here!
We went out and our car was waiting for us. The efficiency was killin' us. We decided to skip the Dachau tour and headed up to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. It was a spectacular day! We drove to Augsburg on the Autobahn then got on a nice two lane road - The Romantik Strasse. All the little medieval towns nestled in the green rolling hills.
We arrived in Rothenberg about 1PM. We drove through the town gate and into the pedestrian area. We drove to the Rathouse (town hall) and square and turned left and there was the Eisenhut - our hotel. We parked across the street and went in to reception. A tall dark-haired German greeted us. He told us we could move our car every hour or pay 9 Marks. We had them park it. We had to take everything out this time - wine and souvenirs - so we could pack up for our flight.
Our rooms were on the second floor - down a long hallway with arched top and covered with ivy wallpaper -
to rooms 119 and 120. They were beautiful and unique. They each had a balcony overlooking the Tauber river
valley and Rothenberg's tiled roofs [right]. There were rose-colored drapes with sheers and pretty print wallpaper [left].
It had a king sized. The neatest thing was the bathroom. There was a marble sunken tub with an entire wall
mosaic in blues and greens [right]. Cindy and Bill's room had pretty flower strewn tiles, toilet, sink, bidet and
bathtub. It was red and green. The rooms had mini-bars, TVs, Radio with short wave and 2 phones - one in the bathroom!
We immediately went out to lunch in the Rathaus Beer Stube. Sausages, sauerkraut, pommes restored us - along with great beers with foaming heads.
We shopped at this great Christmas shop. I had never seen anything like it. We managed to buy all our gifts there. We bought our niece Rachel a beautiful music box that had girls in bright colors that spun as it played Tales from the Vienna Woods. We bought for other friends, a framed dried flower arrangement and Christmas ornaments.
We went into the Cathedral and walked down the oldest street and along the wall to the Torture museum, which
we gave a miss after all. We made sure to be at the square at 3PM so we could watch the Mayor drink 3 1/4 liters [left]
of wine to save the town. This was really a mechanical person up in the clock tower above the square. The doors
opened and he came out with his big glass, tipped it back and reenacted the famous story which is - that General
Tilly, who led the Catholic forces which were threatening destruction of the town, was greeted by
Rothenberg citizens in 1631 who offered him some wine in the ceremonial tankard. Legend has it that
he was proposing to destroy Rothenberg, but promised to save the town if anyone could down a tankard
of wine without stopping. Georg Nusch met the challenge and the town was saved. YAY.
We visited another amazing little church - the Church of the Sheppard - which was actually part of the wall. Inside were altarpieces mad in the 1400s. But back behind the altar was a little doorway set into stone with a twisting stairway and rock stairs. Down it went. There, in the old days, they defended the church and town. The stairs led to room after room with dirt floors and little arrow slits. It was really cool. When you came up you had traveled under the church to the opposite side. Then we climbed up narrow, winding stairs to the Shepherd's Altar. They had shipyards festivals until 1776. We wound around through the walls and ended up on top of the wall. It was a lot of fun.
We returned to the hotel leaving Cindy and Bill to shop. The room was wonderfully relaxing. We got a copy of the menu to look at. I took a bubble bath in the cool tub. Then I sat on the balcony with a mineral water. The dining terrace was below our balcony so I watched people eat. It was shady and perfect and I loved the day.
I ironed my dress for dinner. We went to the hotel restaurant where we were shown to a very ice table on the terrace and it was an absolutely beautiful evening. Everyone decided that this night would be a celebration of our trip. We started out with the house champagne for toasts. We had all already picked out our food. Cindy had soup ( I forgot the kind), Luther had cream of poultry soup with chervil and Bill had oxtail soup with sherry and I had spinach salad with sole in a mustard sauce. For main courses we had - Luther, Cindy and Bill all had tenderloins of veal, pork and beef in a mushroom cream sauce with homemade noodles and a green salad - great! I had saddle of rabbit in a sauce with eggplant, zucchini and au gratin potatoes - yum! I had noodle envy though. Cindy and I ordered the Salzburg dumpling for two. It was a gigantic soufflŽ to which we managed to do major damage. Bill had ice cream cake, Luther had nothing. With the dinner we had two bottles of franc wine (local Tauber valley wine). The first bottle was my favorite and really dry and nutty. Next a slightly sweeter version but still good. Coffee finished off the meal.
We went for a walk and had some Ausbach in our room sitting on the balcony. It was a very, very nice day. Perhaps my favorite of the trip.
 Luther on Rothenburg wall |
 Rothenburg |
 Church of the Sheppard |
June 27th f Friday.
Up at 6AM - breakfast by 7AM. Everything was packed. We had some things packed that I worried about, a menu and a framed picture of Rothenberg. We laid it all flat and hoped for the best. We were on the road by 8AM. It was Autobahn all the way. We arrived by 9:45 and dropped off our trusty BMW. It was a nice car.
We checked in. They had very strict security there. We all had to actually go out on the runway and identify our luggage so they would load it. Otherwise it would be left behind.
It was a nice trip. I promised to come back someday. [Note from 2010: Indeed we did return in January 1990 for a 5 1/2 year stay in Frankfurt!]