Day 6: Creglingen Day 3:

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This morning we woke up again around 7:30, went down for breakfast, then headed out for some more sightseeing. We'd decided yesterday that we'd like to see/tour the Lindleinturm Museum. It looked so cool, being a tiny house sitting on the top of a section of medieval-looking wall, but it had been closed when we arrived Thursday, only opening for limited hours on Fridays and Saturdays. Rather than drive down into town and try to find a proper parking spot nearby, we just walked down. Sure enough, it was open, and there were no other people waiting. That is important, since they only allow 6 people in at a time, its that small! We climbed the first short flight of stairs to find an older German lady sitting there waiting for us. When she found out we didn't speak German, she fished through an envelope and came out with a 3-page document about the house and more less directed me to read it out loud to my wife. LOL Originally, this had been a section of wall used in medieval times as a storage room. In late 18th Century, a resident of Creglingen had purchased it and had a small house built on top of it. Somewhere around 1923, a very independent lady bought the house so she could basically do her own thing. She lived there, all alone with 6 to 10 cats, until 1999, when she was moved to an assisted living place and died soon after. In her will, before she was... removed, she deeded the house to the town, along with a 300,000 DM fund to support it, as long as it was left exactly as she left it. The place was amazing for being so small, with three tiny floors and rooms, with every square inch of free space used for something. She had a heater, a sink, a stove, bedroom, living room, and kitchen. You could see her belongings everywhere and almost feel you were there with her. The entry fee was by donation, but would have been worth at least several Euros to see.

After the Lindleinturm, we walked back up to the hostel to get our car and hit the road. We planned on visiting 2 to 4 towns today, depending on how our time went. Our first stop was the tiny town of Rottingen. Not being sure where to park, we followed one of those "P" signs across the tiny town to an outdoor fitness center. Apparently we could park there all day for free. Although there weren't many sights to see there, they had a town walking tour where you could see 25 different sundials. We only ended up seeing about 14 of them, but they were quite unique and cool. Since they would be very difficult to describe, I've included photos of all 14 of them. The only other sights to see (even the Tourist Information office was closed! They did however had a few useful pamphlets on the wall outside.), were several medieval towers around town, and a monastery/hospital that was closed for renovations. One of the towers, the Jakobsturm, had been converted into a holiday apartment! This town was so small and with so few places open to eat or drink, much less shop, I ended up buying a liter bottle of Coke, which I'm still sipping on tonight!

We left Rottingen behind and headed to Weikersheim. This town didn't have many sights either, but it did have one of the best preserved medieval castles in all of Europe! We found a free parking lot just outside the main historic part of town and easily found the Marktplatz and the Tourist Information office in the Rathaus, or City Hall. The Marktplatz had the Evangelische Stadtkirche St. Georg, the Rathaus, and numerous stores and restaurants. At the end opposite the church was the entry to the Weikersheim Castle, or Schloss Weikersheim. We'd read in the pamphlet from the Tourist Office that you could only see the inside of the castle on a guided tour which lasted about an hour, so since it was almost 2pm, we decided to find a place to eat a decent lunch, intending on having a light dinner tonight in our room. We ended up at the Gasthof Gruner Hof, since it had outside seating and a reasonably priced menu. Unfortunately, they did not have a menu in English, or even one with pictures, so Manoli got her phone out and we spent 15 or 20 minutes trying figure out what they had, using an app she'd found that translated German among other languages... supposedly. I ended up playing it safe and ordered good old Bratwurst with Sauerkraut again. It was just as good as before, except maybe the sauerkraut wasn't quite as tasty. Manoli took a chance on something that had a couple ingredients she liked, like vegetables, and a salad. When it arrived, it was a salad, and some sort of pastry stuffed with chopped vegetables. Not bad, but I preferred my bratwurst.

After we finished lunch, we headed to the castle, arriving around 2:30. The lady quickly realized we were Americans and while speaking half decent English, she turned around and pulled to tour books in English from her drawer. She explained that the next tour didn't start until 3pm, but we could walk around the castle gardens and come back for the tour and our guidebooks. The castle gardens were quite impressive and laid out in Baroque style. After a short walk around the gardens and its many neat and weird statues, we returned to the castle for our tour. The tour guide only spoke German and we were the only folks that didn't speak the language, but the guidebooks did provide most of the information we wanted. Every room we saw was fully furnished and decorated, almost exclusively with original pieces, many having never left the castle. Count Ludwig of Hohenlohe had had the castle renovated and decorated for he and his wife, and the poor guy died without heirs, having outlived his son. Apparently when that happens, nobody has the right to take the castle over, so it went to the state which apparently simply kept it clean or some such. Although almost all the rooms seemed small to us, but the Knight's Hall was quite a bit larger, very cool and supposedly one of the best preserved halls of that era. After the tour, we visited the overflow collections on the top floor, then returned to the entry where I purchased another thimble for my collection.

Since it was heading towards 5pm by that time, we decided we'd head back to our hostel. Around 6:30, we both walked down to the grocery store, leaving our car in its nice location right in front of the hostel. All the grocery stores are closed on Sunday, and close at 8pm on Saturday. We ended up buying an assortment of food for a light dinner and carried it back to our room. I had a tasty sandwich with German ingredients, while Manoli just had fruit and yogurt. For dessert, I'd decided to buy a fresh mango and a small package of nice soft Belgian waffles. It turned out to be delicious! We picked two choices of places to stay for our last 4 days in Germany (we already booked 4 days after here in Donauworth), and I send an email inquiry to our first choice. No answer yet. The hostel in Donauworth is another DJH hostel and I've since joined HI (Hosteling International) again, so we will acceptable guests in DJH Hostels, and hopefully get a 10 percent discount. We will have a private room in Donauworth, like this one, but apparently with our own bathroom and shower. It is a bummer getting up in the middle of the night, unlocking our door, walking downstairs and across the hostel to use the restroom, then of course do the reverse! We're planning on booking what is called a holiday apartment for the last four nights in Germany, where we'll basically have all our own stuff, including kitchen and such. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get an acceptable reply.

Tomorrow we will sort of wing it, being Sunday, and probably drive a few towns back North to Lauda-Konigshofen and just do the walking tour I have printed out from the internet.

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