Germany + 6

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GERMANY Plus Six
Driving Trip, May 20 - 31, 2005

Day 1: May 20, 2005, Friday
We relaxed in the President’s Club lounge before boarding our 1:15 p.m. flight on a Continental 777 to Frankfurt via Newark. Our Business/First Class accommodations were comfortable, and the food & service were topnotch. The luxury seats featured a variety of position controls and individual monitors for dozens of movies, games, and music selections. After a few hours of sleep, we awoke in Frankfurt at 9 a.m. local time.

Day 2: May 21, 2005, Saturday
We picked up our rental car, a Volkswagen Golf, and set out on our driving adventure! It didn’t take long to get lost. Our intention had been to drive north along the western bank of the Rhine River, but after about an hour of driving while trying to make sense of the road signs, highway numbers, and map markings, we realized we had no clue as to where we were. We stopped at a roadside café where I was able to practice my years of school-German to ask, “Wo sind wir?” (Where are we?) The nice cashier pointed to our location on the map, which was far to the east of the Rhine and well out of our intended path, but knowing where we were enabled us to make the necessary corrections and finally reach the Rhine at Koblenz.

We drove southward along the Rhine’s west bank in the romantic scenery of the Rhine Valley and its hilltop castles, medieval towns, and meticulously cared-for vineyards on its slopes. At St. Goar we parked the car, enjoyed a German lunch of sausage, potatoes, and kraut overlooking the Rhine, and then boarded a boat for a scenic 1 ½ - hour cruise up one of the world’s greatest rivers. Sights included Lorelei rock, vineyards clinging to the slopes, dozens of barges (on which the owners live, work, and carry their personal cars from port to port), and castles on the hilltops. It was a bit cool, so our jackets came in handy, but we were quite comfortable. We debarked at Bacharach, took the train back to St. Goar, retrieved our car, and drove northward through Remagen (of World War II bridge fame) and Bonn to Cologne, with the twin spires of its glorious cathedral visible far away across the surrounding plain.

Famous for its toilet water (first made here in 1709), Cologne is of the oldest towns in Germany, first founded by the Romans in 33 B.C. It’s a huge city, so we had a bit of trouble finding the gasthaus I had booked online (the only advance reservation we made on the trip, thank goodness). Once we checked in, we took the street-level train (S-train) to the Altstadt to see the gigantic Dom, or cathedral, dating to 1248 and the most famous Gothic structure in Germany. It was already closed (it was almost 7 p.m.), so we didn’t see the inside, but its massiveness—515-foot twin spires, the tallest building in the world until 1880—was overwhelming. We dined in a café on the promenade adjacent to it, took the S-train back to our gasthaus, and enjoyed 10 hours of blissful, jetlagged sleep.

Day 3: May 22, 2005, Sunday
The morning was spent lost in Cologne, trying to get out of the city. After crossing and re-crossing the Rhine at least five times, we were finally able to head west through Aachen and into Liege, Belgium, from where we turned southward through the pastoral Belgian countryside of the Ardennes, where major battles of World War II were fought. We stopped at the scenic town square of Bastogne where Bill and I viewed the monuments: an American Sherman tank used in the war, a memorial to General McAuliffe (the commander of Bastogne), and a memorial to General Patton, the liberator of Bastogne and one of our heroes. The next couple of hours were spent at the interesting and informative Bastogne Historical Center, considered to be one of the world’s finest war museums. There, through an amazing film and collections of authentic uniforms and weapons, we learned more about the Battles of the Bulge and Bastogne, as well as the bravery and determination of General Patton and General McAuliffe, who simply responded “Nuts!” when asked to surrender.
Onward we went through the rolling hills and pastures to Luxembourg. We visited the two military cemeteries near Luxembourg City. The American Military Cemetery in Hamm was just as we had seen in the movie Saving Private Ryan, with rows upon rows of white crosses and stars of David marking the fallen heroes, including General Patton, who wanted to be buried with his beloved Third Army. The cemetery, fifty acres in extent, is situated in a beautiful wooded area and contains 5,076 American dead, many of whom gave their lives in the Battle of the Bulge and in the advance to the Rhine River. Their headstones follow along graceful curves, and the nearby trees, fountains, and flower beds contribute to the dignity of the cemetery.
A narrow path through peaceful woods in Sandweiler, about 1.5 km from Hamm, took us to the German Military Cemetery, which was less impressive artistically, but no less significant and moving. 10,913 German soldiers are buried there, of which 4,829 are in a common grave.

We continued south to Metz, France, where Bill’s mother had taught school for a year, and then circled back to Germany, stopping at a Novotel Hotel in Saarbrucken—just 200 meters from the French border—to overnight. We made an interesting discovery on our evening stroll after dinner. We came upon a small trailer park with several camper-trailers. One camper was decorated with big red hearts and another with a string of red lights and candles on the dashboard. A woman was sitting in the driver’s seat, smoking, and waiting…uh…for a customer.

Day 4: May 23, 2005, Monday
We traveled toward Heidelberg via Kaiserslautern, one of two German towns known to American GI’s as K-Town. We arrived in charming Heidelberg, the very image of romantic Germany, around noon and drove along the River Neckar before winding our way through the Old Town alleyways up to the majestic ruins of the undeniably picturesque Schloss, or Castle, which dates from 1400. Set amidst woodlands and terraced gardens, the castle is one of the most famous historic monuments in Europe. Entering at the main gate, we picnicked on the terrace with views of the city and Neckar Valley.

The next five hours were spent on a tranquil, scenic drive through the heartland of the German countryside along the Romantic Road. The roads, though narrow and winding, were all in excellent condition, and the views were stunning as we drove through the park-like, perfectly manicured countryside. Even the woodlands had an "arranged" look. The hills rolled gently, covered in green and bright yellow, with neat patches of forest. There were farms with precisely laid, tilled or planted fields, and many farmers were working in their hay fields. It was spring and the whole place was alive with the joy of renewal.

Contributing to the stunning beauty of the fields were acres and acres of a brilliant-yellow-blooming plant that we didn’t identify fully until we returned home. These plants, called Raps in German and “rapeweed” in English (member of the mustard family) are a winter crop that produces canola oil used in cooking and to extend diesel properties.

The villages along the way were quaint, and we stopped briefly in Michelstadt, a medieval town dating back to 741 and set among the hills of the Odenwald, to walk among the many preserved half-timbered houses that present a typical image of medieval Germany. Almost too picturesque to be true was the half-timbered Rathaus (town hall) with its three corner turrets and an open ground floor, built in 1484.

Another classic example of a medieval town was our next stop, the fabulously preserved, picturesque Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where the Middle Ages are alive and well! We checked into the Gastehaus Flemming, a charming B & B on one of the narrow, cobbled lanes inside the medieval walls that circle the entire fascinating town, and then set out to explore.

The ancient streets of Rothenburg seemed like something lifted out of a fairy tale, seemingly untouched by the passage of time. Most of the buildings (all amazingly still intact) were built sometime between 1100 and 1400 in the Middle Ages when Rothenburg was Germany’s second-largest city, and Frankfurt and Munich didn’t even exist. Half-timbered, high-gabled houses crowded together on the crooked, clean-as-a-whistle streets, yet no two were alike. We decided on the Baumeisterhaus for dinner, located on the Marketplatz. They offered a variety of preparations of the seasonal specialty, Weissspargel, or white asparagus. Bill had it in a cream soup, and I had it in a ragout bake. Yum!

After dinner, we gathered with about 50 others on the square for the entertaining and informative “Night Watchman’s Walk.” This was one of my favorite experiences of the entire trip! A walk back in time, the night watchman took us on his rounds, telling slice-of-gritty-life tales of medieval Rothenburg in a delivery even Jerry Seinfeld would envy. Although the night-watchman’s social status ranked only above that of the gravedigger and the executioner, he was responsible for guarding the city at night from, among other things, the worst disaster of the day, fire. The “terrorist” of that time needed only a lighted match to destroy an entire town.

Day 5: May 24, 2005, Tuesday
After another hearty German breakfast at the Gastehaus, we toured the 14th century Saint Jakob’s Lutheran Church with its impressive Twelve Apostles High Altar and the artistic highlight of Rothenburg, the 500-year-old, 35-foot high wood carving called the Altar of the Holy Blood. It was carved by the “Michelangelo of German woodcarvers” to hold a scrap of tablecloth miraculously stained in the shape of a cross by a drop of communion wine.

A friend of our daughter’s had recommended the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum, so that was our next destination in Rothenburg. Its four floors were filled with fascinating instruments of punishment and torture and gave a complete story of more than one thousand years of the history of law. The masks of shame were of particular interest and fascination to me. There were metal punishment masks in varying shapes worn publicly by people to represent their particular “crimes,” i.e., a pig’s head for men who acted like swine; a mask with big ears, big tongue, and huge glasses for women who gossip; a wolf head for people who told smutty jokes, etc.

We hit the road again around noon, headed for the raison d’etre of the trip, the Stuttgart area, where Bill had been stationed from 1961 to 1963 while in the Army. We stopped in the town of Kornwestheim, just outside of Stuttgart, where he lived, and discovered that there was a huge “Home Depot-type” store on the spot where his Kaserne had been. Then the most amazing, coincidental, and fortunate thing happened. We walked into an area that looked like someone’s farm storage area and saw a lady sweeping her porch nearby. On a whim, Bill yelled out in German, “Do you know Ilona and Otto Brost?” and to our amazement, she responded, “Ja.” When we recovered from our shock, we hurried toward her, and Bill continued to communicate with her in German. Soon her son Klaus, who spoke English, appeared and told us that Irna (Tante Hettie’s sister) lived nearby, and Wiebke (Tante Hettie’s daughter) was visiting. The rest of the family had moved to the U.S. and/or had died. Tante Hettie and her husband were Bill and Diane’s landlords and good friends while in Germany.

Klaus escorted us to Irna’s home, where Bill had a very emotional reunion with Irna and Wiebke, with whom his daughter had played with as a young child. Irna’s home was beautiful and well-kept, with exquisite, framed needlepoint art that she and, I believe, Hettie, had done. Her sister-in-law was also visiting, and we spent a wonderful and sentimental couple of hours reminiscing and telling stories of the past.

We bid a fond farewell to Irna and Wiebke, and then had one of the best meals of our trip at the Restaurant Hasen (Rabbit) that Wiepke had recommended. A scrumptious salad consisting of everything in the garden plus potato salad and a veal stew over rice for only 5 euros was also the best value of the trip.

Our trip down memory lane continued as we drove around in Kornwestheim and located the elementary school Bill’s daughter attended as a kindergartner and the building Bill affectionately refers to as “25 Unter Klinglebrunnenstrasse.” They lived in the third floor attic apartment of this building, while Tante Hettie and Uncle Benno lived on the second floor and had a grocery store on the ground floor. Bill asked the current residents of the building if we could come in and take a look, and they were most accommodating. A “community center” of sorts occupies the ground floor now, and an immigrant Turkish family lives on the second floor. The attic apartment has fallen into disrepair and is only used for storage.

Of course, I wanted to see the famous “hill” where Bill stumbled and fell down while carrying his daughter, breaking her leg! Yep, it was still there, though a part of it was overgrown with foliage.

We drove on a few kilometers to Ludwigsburg, also a town with many memories for Bill. We wandered through the beautiful 30-hectare park surrounding one of Germany’s largest baroque palaces, where the Duke of Wurttemburg still resides, and then took the train into Stuttgart. We spent the evening strolling the traffic-free Konigstrasse from the monumental train station to the vast Schlossplatz, as Bill identified buildings, stores, etc. that he remembered. We overnighted in the Gastehaus Hasen after returning to Kornwestheim on the train around 9 p.m.

Day 6: May 25, 2005, Wednesday
There was a lot of traffic in Stuttgart as we drove southward toward Switzerland, skirting the Black Forest, and stopping at the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen. We ate our picnic lunches at a shady spot overlooking the largest falls in Europe, a magnificent display of brilliant emerald-green foaming waters that thunder over an irregular rocky ledge.

After some refreshing Eis Kaffees (vanilla ice cream with coffee poured over), we motored through downtown Zurich (with a bank on every corner) and along the beautiful, 25-mile-long lake, the Zurichsee. The route to Vaduz, Liechtenstein, through the Alps was gorgeous with waterfalls, tunnels through the mountains, and deep valleys.

We stopped in Liechtenstein only for 20 minutes or so to buy and mail postcards with their famously beautiful stamps. One of the smallest countries in the world—only 62 square miles—we were out of there in a flash and en route to the southernmost part of Germany, between Germany’s Bavaria and Austria’s Tirol, where nature appears on a grand scale. A region referred to as the Bavarian Alps, it is a timeless land of fairytale castles covered with verdant pastures and lake-splashed countryside, romantic villages, and rococo churches.

Our destination this evening was the southern terminus of the Romantic Road, Fussen. Overrun by tourists in the summer and winter, we found its cobbled and arcaded town centre pleasantly calm. The Altstadthotel zum Hechten, which offered all the modern comforts right under Fussen Castle in the old-town pedestrian zone, was our choice of accommodations. Owned and operated by the same family for generations, it exuded an air of old-fashioned hospitality. After a delightful dinner on the patio of a cozy Old Town restaurant , we strolled the picturesque Reichenstrasse in the heart of town before retiring.

Day 7: May 26, 2005, Thursday
Continuing our drive through the mountain setting of the Bavarian Alps via the Alpenstrasse (Alpine Road) today, the “King’s Castles,” or Konigsschlosser were soon in view. We chose not to take the extra day battling throngs of people and considerable waiting and walking that it would take to tour the two magnificent castles of “Mad King” Ludwig II (one of which is Germany’s most popular tourist destination) but instead opted to view them from afar. Neuschwanstein Castle, the ultimate fairytale castle with fairytale turrets in a fairytale Alpine setting and built by a fairytale king, is difficult to see except from the air, but we managed to catch several glimpses of it. The huge, yellow Hohenschwangau Castle was more easily seen. We finished the morning with a stop at the Wieskirche, a masterpiece in a meadow. It is a pilgrimage church located in an alpine meadow and is one of the world’s most exuberantly decorated rococo buildings. Being a Catholic holiday (Corpus Christi Day), mass was being said when we arrived, so we joined in progress and worshipped the remainder of the mass in absolute awe of our surroundings. Behind its rather sober exterior façade, the interior shimmers with a superabundance of woodcarvings, gilded stucco, columns, statues, and bright frescoes. It was quite a moving experience.

We picnicked alongside the road to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and then dipped into Austria again, waving at Innsbruck as we motored through and arriving in Salzburg mid-afternoon. We parked outside the city walls (can’t park inside unless you have hotel reservations) and walked through an underground tunnel to the historic old town inside the city walls. We peeked inside the Baroque Salzburg Cathedral (where Mozart was the organist for two years) and stopped to watch a car race being held on the Residenzplatz. We found a little hotel on a cobbled back street under the fortress, the Hotel Restaurant Weiswses Kreuz, at a very reasonable price for Salzburg—120 euros for a triple. It was the most we had paid so far, but the room was actually a suite with our own den/dining area.

We were then faced with the daunting task of moving our car from outside the city walls to the hotel, which involved circling the Old Town and finding the one entrance into it. That mission accomplished with the help of our GPS, we took the funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which was built in the 11th century on a rock 400 feet over the city and the Salzach River. It seems to have been a good investment because it was so foreboding, nobody attacked the town for a thousand years! We enjoyed the incredible views of the city and the mountains spread out before us. We decided to have dinner at a lovely outdoor restaurant on Mozartplatz and then relaxed in the peaceful roof garden of our hotel.

Day 8: May 27, 2005, Friday
Every place we have stayed, including this one, has included a wonderful breakfast of sliced meats, cheeses, eggs, rolls, pastries, a variety of fruit, yogurt, cereal, and juices. We then met our tour guide at 9 a.m. for the city sightseeing tour that took us past/to the following sites:
• Mozart’s home, where he lived for 25 years
• Mirabell Gardens and Palace
• Hellbrunn Castle and Gardens
• Leopold Palace on a stunning lake (used in The Sound of Music film)

Being somewhat disappointed in Salzburg, we decided to depart immediately after the tour for Munich, the fun-loving capital of Bavaria. Aware that most hotels would cost over $200 a night, Rick Steves had recommended a cozy pension perfectly located in the Old Center that we set out to find. We made our way into the bustling city of 1.5 million with the help of the GPS and were within ¼ mile of the pension when we drove smack-dab into the pedestrian-only zone and found ourselves inside a maze of walkers going in all directions. It was like being dropped into the middle of an ant colony. We couldn’t drive forward or backward, turn left or right! Finally, we were able to “crawl” backwards out of the alley. It was no easy trick and not funny at the time, but in retrospect it’s hilarious!

Thanks mostly to the GPS, we finally found the Seibel Pension and yes, they had a single and a double room left (49 and 69 euros, minus 5 euros for the “Rick Steves discount,” for a total of 110 euros or about $140). HOWEVER, the rooms were on the 5th floor, there was no elevator, and the bathroom we shared was down the hall. So, we dragged our bags up the 96 steps to our rooms, opened the windows (it was summery, about 85 degrees), and set out to explore Munich, considered to be one of Germany’s most historic, artistic, and entertaining cities.

We had a quick lunch in the beer garden of the Viktualien Market, a small-town-open-air-type market, a block away from our pension. The experience reminded me of the beer gardens at the Fayette County Fair or the Hostyn Picnic: dozens of picnic tables full of people having a good time and drinking beer and eating sausage.

We traveled by cab to the cluster of Munich’s three great art museums, the Alte, Neue, and Moderne Pinakotheks (old, new, and modern) and selected the Neue to tour because its reputed fine collection of 19th century works. One of the most delightful surprises of the trip, the museum was superb with its showcase of Monet, Renoir, Degas, etc., as well as some very impressive German artists, particularly the Realists.

From the museum we walked about 40 minutes to the Hofbrauhaus, the world’s most famous and touristy beer hall, where tourists and locals alike come to have a great time. We dined on Munich’s famous Weisswurst, pretzels, beer, and apple strudel served by Bavarian-dressed waitstaff and listened to a Bavarian band in a lively atmosphere. En route to our pension afterward, we stopped at the tourist information center in Marienplatz to inquire about tours for the next day and then continued a leisurely stroll toward our pension. Bill and I stopped at a tiny street café to have cappuccinos before turning in.

Day 9: May 29, 2005, Saturday
A great breakfast (including a yummy cherry kaffee kuchen) began this amazing day of stepping back into history to a dark and painful time that everyone wants to forget…but must remember, so that it never happens again. Munich Walk Tours provided the escort and insight for the two fascinating walking tours we took today. First, we took a 5-hour tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, and in the afternoon we experienced a 2 ½-hour tour of Hitler’s Munich, called the Third Reich Tour.

Probably the most gruesome result of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was the building of the concentration and extermination camps, and the first of these was Dachau, built in 1933. Our guide was a treasure-trove of historical knowledge and was as effective and appropriate in his sobering delivery as the Night Watchman of Rothenburg had been in his setting.

We met our guide at the Haupbahnhof (train station) and took a 20-minute train ride to the town of Dachau, a pleasant 40,000-people suburb of Munich. From the town train station, we boarded a bus that took us to the camp. The moment we stepped through the only entrance into the camp (the one through which all prisoners had to go) and through the iron gate with the taunting slogan Arbeit macht Frei (Work makes you free), we could feel the solemn silence that dominates the atmosphere. There was a saddening and unsettling pervasiveness throughout the tour, as we followed the route of the prisoners to the barracks, the roll call square, the prison cells, the barbed wire fences with guard towers optimally spaced, and of course the gas chamber and the crematorium.

The crematorium buildings are where the horror of Nazi Germany really sinks in. So many people died that they had to build a second one, this one complete with “showers” (gas chamber) and three large ovens. The incredible evil that once took place here is further visualized through portraits and accounts of the torture and medical experiments displayed in the museum and in a 22-minute documentary film.

Some of what we learned and/or saw during the four-hour tour:
• It began as a work camp, and the first prisoners to arrive in 1933 were political prisoners (Communists and Social Democrats) who were to be converted to Nazism by hard labor, humiliation, and torture.
• 32,000 died of work, hunger, disease, & mass executions.
• The Nazis who ran all future concentration camps were trained here, and Dachau became the model for other camps.
• Most of the demonic innovations for Hitler’s mass killing originated here.
• It was a departure point for shipments of people destined for gas chambers in the East where most of the mass murder took place, conveniently distant & far out of view of the German public.
• Each of the 34 barracks was designed to hold 200 prisoners, but conditions were so overcrowded that each actually housed an average of 2,000 prisoners, sleeping in stacks 8 to 10 people high. Once a night the prisoners were awakened so that they could change positions. Body heat of other prisoners was all that kept them warm during the freezing winters, and they hoped that the person next to them would not die during the night because their body would then get cold and not offer any more warmth.
• The people in the city claimed not to know what was going on inside the camp until U.S. forces liberated the camp in 1945 and forced the public to go inside the camp and see the horror for themselves.
• Today, all German schoolchildren are required to visit a concentration camp.
This was a powerful and uncomfortable sightseeing experience that I will never forget.

The afternoon tour explored the dark side of Munich’s history as the birthplace of Nazism and the horrors and atrocities that took place in the concentration camps. The same knowledgeable guide took us to all the important sites that played a role in this black chapter of Munich’s history. Among the places we visited were
• the building where Hitler was first exposed to Nazi theory as a young German soldier ordered to spy on them;
• the Hofbrauhaus (yes, the very same touristy beer hall of today), site of Hitler’s first mass meeting and many other Nazi rallies;
• the Feldherrnhalle, where Hitler led many mass rallies;
• the Memorial to the German Soldier, which is very understated and plain (There is an air of embarrassment regarding the World War II German soldier);
• the current government building, which is a combination of the old (with bullet holes from the war still visible) and a new wing made of glass to represent democracy’s fragility and transparency;
• Hitler’s prototypical Nazi building, the first he built in his idealized Nazi style (it now houses modern art that he so despised);
• the Nazi headquarters building where you can see the remains of the swastika that once hung over it.

After all the walking, we were quite tired, so we had an early dinner at the Ratskeller. A Ratskeller is a cellar restaurant in a Rathaus (town hall), where one can typically find good, inexpensive food and wine. Munich’s Ratskeller has a dark, woody interior with carved wooden chairs and tables and painted ceilings. I ordered a German favorite called Jagerlendchen, pan roasted pork loin with mushrooms a la crème, vegetables, and spaetzle noodles. A leisurely stroll took us back to our pension afterwards.

Day 10: May 29, 2005, Sunday
We departed Munich after another great pension breakfast and headed north toward Nurenberg and then Bayreuth, where we exited the Autobahn and enjoyed a scenic drive westward to Hollfield. A very attractive stretch was along the Wiesenttal through a nature park, an area called Franconian Switzerland because of its Alpine beauty. A small detour of 6 km from Hollfield took us to the Sanspareil Park, a romantic rock garden with natural caves, where we had lunch under “Umbrella Rock.”

Continuing to Bamberg, we found the U.S. Kaserne (Army base), where Bill showed his 40-year-old military ID as proof that he was a former soldier, but instead of the ID “paving the way” onto the base as we had anticipated, the officer confiscated it! After 20 or so minutes of waiting around in disappointment, the civilian officer of the guard appeared. He took information from the ID and empathetically, but reluctantly, gave it back to Bill. We hightailed it off the base before they could confiscate anything else (like my camera!).

We continued on the scenic B22 to Wurzburg and then finally into Frankfurt, where we checked into the Airport Novotel around 6 p.m. to await our flight home the next morning. After dinner, we chatted for about 45 minutes with a young G.I. from Pittsburgh named Earl. He is a medic on R and R, about to return to Iraq for his third tour there, having been wounded once and receiving the Purple Heart. He was supposed to be out of the Army last October, but with no replacements available, no one is getting out when they are supposed to. He painted a grim and disturbing picture of what life is really like for the American soldier in Iraq: We are in a lose-lose situation there, and the country of Iraq is hanging on by a thread, on the verge of chaos. The primary job of each soldier each day is simply to stay alive. There is a car bomb, a suicide bomber, some kind of killing around them every single day. Although disturbing and disheartening, it was an enlightening conversation that I wish all Americans could have so they could get a true sense of what is going on, uncensored by the media or the government.

Day 11: May 30, 2005, Monday, Memorial Day
After our last typical-German breakfast of this trip, we turned in our trusty rental car around 9 a.m. We are quite pleased with our experience with the Volkswagen Golf. It took us 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles), and it got fantastic mileage on each fill-up. The range/capacity of the diesel tank was about 900 kilometers, so we only filled up four times at a cost of about 45 euros each time. Diesel was about 1 euro per liter in Germany ($1 euro = $1.25). Making the conversions, we found that we got the equivalent of about 38 miles per gallon; therefore, although the price of diesel was about twice what we are paying in the U.S. right now—about $2.00/gallon for gasoline—the Golf got twice the mileage of my Blazer…so it was a wash! One big difference, however, was the price of a liter of oil. We had to add a liter in Munich and paid 15 euros for it ($18.75)!!!
We didn’t have a lot of time to relax in the club lounge in the Frankfurt Airport because the terminal had to be evacuated due to a piece of baggage left unattended that had to be checked out by security (we saw a bomb-sniffing dog to in). We waited in the main terminal for about 40 minutes until we got the “all clear.” The flight left on time, and we enjoyed the 8-hour flight to Newark in our Business/First Class accommodations. In Newark, a 2 ½-hour layover went quickly in the lounge before boarding our flight for the last leg home, arriving at IAH around 7:30 p.m.
We all agreed that it had been a fabulous trip, and we each attempted independently (no one peeked at anyone else’s answers) to identify our “favorite” or “least favorite” experiences. Following are the results.

Linda, Bill
Favorite city: Rothenburg, Rothenburg

Least favorite city: Liege, Liege

Biggest surprise: the heat, Wiebke/Irna

Most emotional event: Dachau tour, Dachau & cemeteries

Most boring: parts of Salzburg, getting lost

Most fun: night-watchman tour, night watchman tour

Favorite experience: Bamberg Kaserne, Kornwestheim

Least favorite experience: lost in Cologne; traffic stoppage & price of water

Biggest disappointment: Liechtenstein & Salzburg, Salzburg

Most pleasant surprise: Munich & art museum, Munich museum

Favorite meal: Kornwestheim lunch, Kornwestheim

Best unplanned activity: Meeting Wiebke & Irna, Munich

I regret we… got lost so much, got lost in Koln

I loved… the countryside, the German countryside.

I hated… the five flights of stairs, 5 flights of stairs at our Munich pension.

Unanswered question: what some signs meant, more Nazi history

Most unusual sight: “hooker” campers, campers

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Photos

Rhine Gorge
Cruising the Rhine, one of the great rivers of Europe and also one of the most scenic

Bastogne
World War II memorial in Bastogne, Belgium

Heidelberg
View of the city of Heidelberg from the regal 14th century Heidelberg Castle

Nightwatchman
One of the highlights of our trip was the entertaining Nightwatchman's Walk in Rothenburg, Germany.

St. Jakob's Church
The Twelve Apostles High Altar of the Gothic St. Jakob's Church in Rothenburg

Bill & Irma
What a delightful surprise to find Irma after over 40 years!

Wieskirche
Called the "masterpiece in the meadow," the Wieskirche is a pilgrimage church in Bavaria and one of the world's most exuberantly decorated rococo buildings, with this painted ceiling only part of its superabundance of interior decoration.

Salzburg
View of Salzburg, Austria and the Alps from the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which was built in the 11th century on a rock 400 feet over the city and the Salzach River

Dachau Concentration Camp
The horror and incredible evil of Nazi Germany are represented by this iron gated entrance into the Dachau Concentration Camp with its sarcastic slogan, "Work makes you free."

Sanspareil Park
Lunch under Umbrella Rock in Sanspareil Park near Bamberg

Comments

[David W]

Thanks for the tour
Good overview of some of my favorite places. Too bad about Saltzburg. There is a great old monastary there that makes it own beer and sells in and a thousand things to eat for lunch at cheap, cheap prices. That might have saved the city for you! Cheers!