August 11th, Wurzburg, Germany　

It was pouring rain this morning so after another great buffet breakfast we got 1 hour of WIFI for 3 euros. This isn’t much money but I resent paying for wireless when it’s free in so many less expensive hotels and pensions. I always used to resent paying for local calls in hotels when I was business travelling too. It just seems like their opportunity to gouge the customer one more time.

Anyway, we booked hotels in Trier, Germany, near the Luxembourg border for 2 nights and then 2 nights in downtown Brussels, Belgium. We had also arranged last night to spend another night here because we like the hotel so much (despite the lack of free WIFI). We’ve been enjoying the steam bath and pool area in the late evenings after we get back from dinner. Our room is great too.

The rain tapered off by 10 so we hustled down to the train station in 20 minutes and caught the 10:41 regional train to Steinach and then another one to Rothenburg ob der Tauber where we arrived at 11:48.

Rothenburg is the best preserved walled medieval town in Germany. It’s only a short walk from the train station to the old walled town. We climbed the lookout tower, walked around the ramparts a bit and then wandered into the old square. There were hardly any tourists compared to what we’re used to - maybe several hundred but no big crushes in narrow streets. We almost felt lonely.

We had our usual picnic lunch in a nice little yard behind the museum and then wandered down to the castle gardens and back up to the main square. At 2 pm the bells on the old city councillors’ tavern clock rang. This time, instead of apostles appearing in 2 windows, there was something different. Two windows did open but standing in the windows were 2 wooden figures of old German guys both holding steins of booze. The arm on one pivoted up bringing the stein to his mouth. Apparently there’s a legend that some conqueror was about to demolish the town. On a whim, he said he wouldn’t if a town councillor could drain a huge tankard containing 3 ¼ litres of wine in one fell swoop. The mayor did it and the town was saved. Now this is commemorated every hour and on the anniversary of the event they have a festival, no doubt with copious quantities of beer and wine consumed.

Eventually we caught the trains back to Wurzburg. It’s really beautiful countryside with lots of vineyards. Wurzburg is a centre of the German white wine industry. A lot of the steep hillsides, especially those facing south, have huge areas of vineyards on them. Anita bought some local white wine and it’s quite nice. I’ve been sampling a lot of German beers but I keep forgetting which ones are the best. I wonder why.

All of the pictures are from Rothenburg except the last one which is the view from the restaurant where we've had dinner the last 2 nights.

Thursday, August 12^th Wurzburg

It was drizzly again this morning so we had a leisurely breakfast and then did some catching up on laundry and re-organizing. After a while we walked downtown and found a spot for dinner. We were going to walk along the river park but the rain got harder. Instead, we picked up a few groceries for lunch today and tomorrow on the train. It looks like it’s clearing up a bit so maybe we’ll get out later. Time now for another hour of internet research.