Thursday, August 20, Rothenburg, Germany

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We were all up pretty early in the morning. Ate breakfast, took showers in the one shower room, got dressed and met at the van at 10:00 a.m. We were only a couple of minutes late.

We got to yet another small town and walked to the market place. No people. So we walk around looking at the town. We found an internet café which gave all of us a chance to do some emailing. The Ranch is in the middle of nowhere, and there is no internet wireless for me to hook up on, and Tdom Bah’s internet stick doesn’t work here either. Neither do cell phones much. We were all going through withdrawal from emailing. I need to pay bills and put up all the blogs I’ve written on Word waiting for a time when I can upload them.

Back into the van and back to Rothenburg to do some laundry. Tdom Bah and Jackie had to pick up the harp player who's playing this weekend and take them to the Ranch, and Mariah opted out of another day bumping over the cobblestones of the town.

We met a very nice Asian woman you helped us at the German version of a Laundromat. You can tell by the piles of laundry who wears their clothes more than once!!! I think I probably had the biggest pile of dirty clothes to wash. That’s a surprise, right?

Two of the three washing machines at this Laundromat (located in a residential section, in what looked like an old garage) were busy. Johnny got his clothes in and since we had time, and our friendly Laundromat woman was willing to put our clothes in the other two washers when done. Lee, me, Johnny and Will walked up to an indoor mall. Yipeeee!!!! It should be air conditioned, ja? NOT. Wow! Are we spoiled in America. Air conditioning at the touch of a switch. We certainly are grateful to have it and look forward to the time when we are home and can turn the air down really low (that means cold) and turn on the TV and take charge of the clicker!!

We were hungry. We found a little restaurant in the mall and ordered salads (our first “real” salads since we’ve been here) and pizza. It was good. Of course it took so much longer than we expected and we were late in getting back to our laundry. When we got there, Johnny put his laundry in the dryer, but we still had time to walk around. Will and David said they were happy staying at the Laundromat. Johnny, Lee and I took off first to the mall, but we made a decision to go back to the old town.

We walked around again looking at shops. I did buy a hat to try to keep the sun off my face while in Greece. Johnny made a few purchases.

On the way back, we were diverted by the “wall around the castle” and some steps that led to the ramparts. But we found more steps, and more steps and more steps …. All the way to the very top. We took some pictures from the top and paid our 1 Euro 30 for the privilege of walking all the up there. I've decided that I do two things when I travel. Bring the heat and walk up a zillion stairs trying to get to the top of structures.

We found our way back to the Laundromat. Tdom Bah and Jackie were already there. So we hurried to get our clothes and back in the van. We went to a local grocery store to stock up on water, no gas, diet cokes and diet ice tea, fruit and other things we had to have.

Back to the Ranch. Dinner and sitting around. Now I’m getting tired and the pow wow starts tomorrow. We need to get to sleep.

Sorry no pics today. I'm sure other cameras have pics, but I didn't take any today.

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