In the picture above, we are at PDX on Friday morning, March 21, awaiting our flight to San Francisco, and our connections to Frankfurt and Munich. We each had a backpack with all of our stuff inside, and were traveling light. Upon arrival in Munich, we went to the Budget car rental office to get our car. We were told that since our flight was seven hours late, the economy car we'd reserved had already been released and they had nothing for us. But then the lady said, rather grumpily, "Well, I guess I'll just have to give you a free upgrade." She wrote down the location in the parking garage where the upgraded car could be found, gave us a key, and we were on our way. We finally found the car, and it turned out to be a 2008 Mercedes convertible with only about 300 km on it (pic on yesterday's blog post). Plus it had a built-in navigation system. Sweet! At first we could only get the nav to speak German, but Mark asked a random guy walking through the parking garage if he could help us to get it to speak in our native language. This guy only spoke Russian, but we were able to get across to him what we wanted, and he sat down in the driver's seat, played with the controls on the nav system, and before long, we were hearing directions in a British accent - fine with us! Having that nav system really saved us from probable disaster, as we were able to locate towns, hotels, points of interest, etc. with relative ease.
The first destination on our itinerary was Fussen, in southern Bavaria, near the Austrian border. Our plan was to drive the Romantic Road over the next few days. The name of the road comes not from any "romantic" connection, but rather from the fact that the ancient Romans used that road for trade and travel for many centuries. The road is dotted with medieval towns and lovely scenery, which is why we chose to visit there. On our way we passed through Oberammergau, shown above, which is where the famous Passion Play is staged every ten years - next showing in 2010. My mom was able to see the play in 2000, so we thought of her as we walked around the quaint village. We heard that the weather had been so nice for the previous two weeks, but the ground was covered with snow when we went through. It was beautiful.
When we checked into our hotel that night, which was the night before Easter Sunday, there were these sweet little eggs on the night stand by each side of the bed. We thought they might be plastic eggs, or chocolate eggs, but no, they were real, hard-boiled eggs. Mark and I had been following the Daniel diet for Lent, and had eaten no eggs (or meat or dairy) for 43 days, so guess what we did? Of course! We ate our little bedside treats with pure enjoyment!
The Hotel Sonne in Fussen offered a complimentary breakfast, and, as usual in wonderful Europe, they had an impressive spread. Not just cold cereal and juice, like at the local Super 8 in the USA. No, they had eggs, meats, wonderful breads, fruit, and some stuff we passed on, like fish, head cheese, pickles, liverwurst, etc. You'll see the two individual coffee pots on the table, too, which we found to be typical everywhere we went. YUMMY! And such a treat for me, to be served in such style.
This is the round-about in front of our hotel - ours was the pink building on the left. We explored the church and fortress on the hill above the village before checking out and moving on. More about that in the next post!
We then headed north to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is a medieval village that has been totally preserved since before the Middle Ages. Check out our bed at the hotel. Or, our "crib," as it seemed to be! Evidently couples don't sleep in full-sized beds in Europe. Every hotel we stayed in had two twin-sized mattresses pushed together to make one bigger bed. Comfortable enough, but still different from what we are used to. And always soft down comforters on top - nice!!!
In the afternoon, we went on a tour of the city with this English-speaking guide who grew up on Rothenburg. Yeah, Mark took a lot of pictures of her (oh yes, and of the sights, too).
That night we went on the Night Watchman's Tour. This man has been performing this tour every night for the past seventeen years. He stays totally in character as he takes visitors on a tour of the city, explaining the important role of the night watchman, and just how things really were in the Middle Ages. He was very entertaining - a real highlight of the trip.
