OK, before you get mad that there are no photos in the next few blogs, don't despair. My camera battery is low and I need to buy an adapter. I somehow thought it would be easier to find this in the hotels, but not the ones I am staying in, so prepare if you come. You may have to wait till end of Sept for these photos since Tim used his camera and I'll need to reconcile photos with him. Anyway, a rough summary of Sept 9-11: 1) Did a bus tour. Got one that was in about 6 languages and there was not of enough time for the guide to give any detail since he had to translate so much. Always get an exclusive english tour. Main sights are the Fisherman's Castillion, the Castle, and ... read more

This city also will be called Praha or Prag depending on where you see it. It is quite impressive from a visual standpoint no matter what you call it. When you first enter it it feels like a surreal surrounding with some mammoth old structures. If you haven,t done a lot of European travels, you have to have a while to adjust your eyes to it, kind of like when I first saw the Grand Canyon. With the visual beauty stated, the city is generally more touristy than I like. If you never visited Europe it would be really easy to do this city. There is gelato on every corner of the old city and plenty of nightlife incliding music and casinos. I really found the city visuals to be even more impressive than at night. ... read more

Made visit to another wine festival in Stuttgart. This is also home to many major auto makers like Mercedes and Porche. Another fun time and I provided a photo of the food sample I devoured. The most historical site here is a 1000 year old church. It is not original anymore and was rebult after the war, but it has some original stone foundation. It was originally Catholic, was one of the first Protestant churches in Germany when it was converted by a student of Martin Luther. A guide in the church gave us a great overview and I grabbed a picture with him.... read more

Took the train from Ansbach where my friend Tim lives to Wurzburg. Wurzburg is a great college town that happened to be having a wine festival. There is a cool castle on a hill and a bridge with a number of famous Saints. We also visited the Residence which is a 500 year old palace where royalty from the Habsburg visited once. Quite showy and I preferred the outside grounds more than the inside. There was a great crowd wine fest and people were very friendly. German people be reserved, but maybe wine fests are their outlet. I also had a beer that day since it was my first beer in Germany.... read more

Well, today's flight was not to be. Delta overbooked and offered $600 to fly tomorrow which was too tempting. Since I really had a rest day in Frankfurt for the most part, I will just skip the night there and just spend the day on Thursday before being picked up. The only concern I had was where to keep my luggage but I found out the Frankfurt airport will store it for 7euros for up to 24 hours, so no problem.... read more