Now for Germany

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Bruges

So our last night in Bruges we ate some tapas, and Caitlin had some Grimbergen and Bruges beer. Being sick, I decided to take the night off from tasting, which was awful considering the surrounding. I will definitely return to Bruges at some point. The town is beautiful, there is no crime, and everything is walkable. We left Bruges for Amsterdam around 8:30 the next morning, arriving at the Eden Amsterdam American Hotel four trains later. Apparently track maintenance is a common thing, and they just let you know once you are actually on the train. Our planned naps on the train were cut short by trying to figure out what train we were supposed to be on at what time.

Highlights of Bruges:

Christs Blood (just off the Burg)
Grimbergen/Bruges Beer
Ice Cream (a highlight in every city thus far)
The tower in the main square
A lake with about 50 swans
Oh yeah, and Waffles, smothered in Chocolate. Denny's and IHOP really bastardized the Belgium Waffle

Amsterdam

Our hotel was great in Amsterdam, wish we could of stayed a few extra nights just for the comfort of that bed! (Germans apparently like to sleep on solid rock.) Our first day there we bought some Gouda cheese, was the Anne Frank House (depressing), and toured the red light district. The red light district is "cleaned up", but there are still persons in the windows. Caitlin snuck a picture, which you really aren't supposed to do, but she didn't get caught - which means I didn't have to deal with some shopkeep. The most interesting person we met offered us "Live sex on Sunday, 20 euros". It was very casual, but we did have to turn down the offer and move on. The next day we took a canal cruise, saw the flower market, and went to the Van Gofh museum. Although the museum was interesting, I wouldn't say it was 25 euro interesting. Oh well.

Heidelberg Castle

Heidelberg Castle has a very interesting history which ties into the 30 years war, and King Louis the 14th of France. I'll save non history folks my boring drab about how interesting it is, and just state that the castle is amazing, and the sites are awesome. The town itself is also interesting, but we were only able to tour the old town, and a couple of the churches.

What do you mean it is a hatchback?

After our tour of the Heidelberg castle, it was off to get our chariot. The chariot at first was apparently a hatchback mercedes that was the size of a sardine can, and I think it resembled one. Now, is this really an issue? The short answer is yes - because we actually paid EXTRA to not get a small POS car, I wanted to hit the autobahn with something nice. Needless to say, 30 minutes of "discussion" later with the car rental person, and about 25 euros, they handed us the keys to a 5 series BMW. Quite a different from the hatchback. Cruising on the autobahn is quite effortless, and this car has made my "buy" list upon my return to the states.

Ausfart is not a town

So, about 6 Ausfarts into our journey, we realized that it means "exit". We were ausfarting heidelberg to get to rothenburg ob der tauber which is a nice little medieval town in the tauber valley. Honestly there isn't much to say or even show, because the pictures do it no justice. The entire city is walled off, and our hotel was in the walled section. We spent the day walking the walls, and.... saw a vile of christs blood. That's right - two churches so far with blood, and one with a significant portion of the true cross. We took the Night Watchman tour, which was humorous and interesting. The city was partially destroyed during WWII, but an American general and a Nazi general came to terms to save it. Quite a good story. The oldest place in town is a bar called hell, so if you tell someone to go to hell, it really isn't a big deal since they can get a pint for a few euros.

We left drove the Romantic Road today and are now in Hohenschwangau to see crazy king Ludwick's castles. Our hotel is at the base of them, and we can see one of the castles from our balcony. The mountains are amazing, and we are just down the road from a beautiful lake bounded by cliffs. Tomorrow we will see the castles.

For now, some good beers are:

Warsteiner
King Ludwick Hell
King Ludwick Dunkel
King Ludwick Weiss

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