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Budget airline Ryanair saves overhead by using non-mainstream
airports, a la Southwest Airlines. But little did we know
that their supposed 'Frankfurt' airport was actually 80 miles
west of Frankfurt... making our drive to Bamberg, 80 miles
east of Frankfurt, much longer than expected. Thank
goodness for the autobahn though; we made great time!
After the long drive and a quick dinner at a roadside Burger
King along the way (where we struggled to communicate with the
young non-English-speaking cashier), we arrived at the posh,
historic Hotel Residenzschloss and headed straight to bed.
A tame Friday night. Bamberg:
Exploring the medieval town of Bamberg the following morning,
we discovered that much of Germany would be joining us!
The annual Bamberg festival is quite an event, not unlike
Oktoberfest - biergartens lining the streets,
Bavarian-costumed Deutschlanders on parade, music, and lots of
beer and brats... washed down with more beer and brats.
Not unlike a Big Ten tailgate party. The town is charming,
and we enjoyed seeing the old streets and buildings, but our
favorite part was just finding a seat at one of the long
biergarten tables to German-watch and enjoy some of the
local brew - Rauchbier, a dark red beer with a smoky
bacon-flavored aftertaste (meat lovers like us and the Germans
can appreciate such things). It was so tasty, it even made
a beer lover out of Caroline! That night, the real party
started. The many streets of Bamberg were all
shoulder-to-shoulder with giant-beer toting revelers looking for
the next spot to refill their giant steins. It took us 15
minutes to walk about 20 yards (10 yards in one direction, then
giving up and returning to 'less crowded' streets). True
chest-crushing-lack-of-crowd-management-madness. Everyone
else seemed to love it, but we decided to seek safety across the
river. The highpoint of the night? Definitely
hearing the band on the main stage singing '99 Red Balloons' (in
German, of course)... I mean, c'mon! How stereotypical can
you get? We were hoping to see David Hasselhof make an
appearance to give us a rendition of 'Der Kommissar', but no
luck...this time, anyway.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber:
We took off early from Bamberg for a drive down the 'Romantic
Road', the scenic north-south route from Wurzburg to Füssen
with some of the most well preserved medieval villages and
castles and scenic countryside in all of Bavaria, so our
guidebooks told us. The ride to get to this route was
probably the highlight, driving through beautiful countryside
and small farm villages, dotted with red-tile-roofed houses.
Eventually we made our way to our destination for the night -
the world-famous and totally charming walled town of Rothenburg
ob der Tauber. Due to being largely ignored during the
Renaissance renovations, it's the best preserved example of a
medieval walled city. You can definitely get a feel for
what it was like living in a walled city 700 years ago (ignoring
the souvenir shops and photo-happy tourists, mostly Asian and
American) and it was fun to walk on the town wall around the
perimeter of the city, seeing it from above. We took the 'Nightwatchman's
Tour', which started at dusk. The costumed,
lantern-and-weapon-toting Nightwatchman was perfect in his role
- the highly entertaining and informative tour was definitely a
highlight of our trip due to our humorous guide's excellent
delivery. The lightning storm brewing behind him really
added to the atmosphere, and we even managed to pretty much
finish up prior to the torrential rain starting. We highly
recommend it to all of you with plans to rush over to Rothenburg.
Alpine Southern Bavaria:
We set off on the early side (for us, anyway... around 11am)
from Rothenberg in order to drive the remainder of the the
Romantic Road route. It started raining almost immediately
after setting off, and several sections of the route appeared to
be closed off with no detour signs... So we took the highway
straight to the southern end of the route, figuring we'd drive
back north the next day on our way to Münich.
The lovely German farmland abruptly turned into the stunning
scenery of the Alps, with tall, jagged mountains setting the
backdrop for the chalet-style homes dotting the green hills in
the foreground. We quickly found a hotel (no small feat
for us) in downtown Füssen, then decided to take the 20 minute
drive into the Tirol region of Austria for dinner. Not
much going on in Reutte, Austria, so we headed back to Füssen
for Italian food, since we were only about 50 miles as the crow
flies from Italy. Enjoying tasty food and wine in a
restaurant filled with Italian tourists, it hard to remember we
were in Germany. The rain rarely let up all day, so there
wasn't much site-seeing for us in this region... hoping tomorrow
it clears up so we can take photos of those handsome cows
wearing their stylish, Bavarian cowbells. |
Caroline looks happy to fly the budget airways!
Typical German - they all dress like this... really!
Mmmm, bacon beer! A beer lover is born.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
The Nightwatchman poses with the silly tourists before setting
off on the tour
More rain... aren't we cute in our matching jackets? Don't
answer that.
Fashionable cows wear the latest in cowbell-wear
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