Rothenburg and Another Shot of Wurzburg

On Wednesday we said goodbye to our host family the Pattinsons and headed out for the final leg of our trip in the Bavarian State of Germany. Our first stop was back in Wurzburg to visit the Residenz which we missed on our first visit to the city because of time constraints. We had so many people tell us that we must visit the Residenz that we thought it was probably worth the trip.

The Residenz is actually a palace that was built by the Prince Bishop of Wurzburg as a display of wealth to his city-state. For a long period of time, Wurzburg was it's own independent state with it's own laws and own currency.

Inside the Residenz we were not allowed to take any pictures, which is why we have so many!

Kurtis holding up a car in the parking lot or the Residenz.

The very pretty royal garden.

The entrance with the grand staircase.

Kurtis looking up at the worlds largest vaulted ceiling fresco painting.

This room was enormous.

The green room, my favorite in the whole palace.

View from the rear gardens.

The rooms in the center section of the palace were original with restoration, but the two wings of the building were completely destroyed in a mysterious fire in 1945. I am of course joking, it is not mysterious at all, but it would seem that the German way of dealing with WWII is to not talk about it.

When we finished up at the Residenz, we headed back to the Hauptbahnhof (train station) to pick up our packs which we had stored in a locker. We were now headed towards Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber.

A visit to Rothenburg was recommended to us by Kurtis' uncle Bill who had visited the walled medieval city during his time in service. We reached the city and found a place to stay for the night, a nice little pension (bed and breakfast). Then we set out to explore the city.

One of our first stops was to the tower in the center of town where we climbed a rickety old staircase and then eventually even a ladder to get up to the top. It was a tiny lookout space around a big bell, but the view was amazing and it was turning out to be a really beautiful day!










We took a stroll on top of the medieval walls around the city, going through areas that haven't changed in almost 1000 years.









Riding on a canon.

Kurtis scaling the fortress wall.

We also came across an amazing antique shop (the first we had seen with reasonable prices) and we bought a really cool old map of Bayern (bavaria). We heard that the city was especially beautiful at night (which is why we chose to stay the night) so we headed out for a walk just after sunset and managed to catch a part of the night watchman's funny tour.



Kurtis in front of the window of his dreams.


Rothenburg at night.

When we woke up the next morning we were delighted with our lovely breakfast selection (so delighted that we packed some up for lunch!) and we got all packed up and headed back to the train station to head to Nuremberg for the day.

In Nuremberg we pretty much just wandered around. I was feeling sick (maybe food poisoning?), so we just took it easy for the day. Our friend Mattias put us up for the night in the nearby town of Erlangen. Kurtis made us an American meal of hamburgers and French fries, which we once again ate before taking any photos!

And that brings us to today! Right now we are riding on a train to Fussen, the city closest to castle neushwanstein, which we will visit tomorrow. On Sunday or Monday we will travel to Munich and Kurtis will finally be able to say that he has been to Oktoberfest! We are so lucky to have met so many really great Germans who have hooked us up with a place to stay in Munich. It is very hard to find anywhere to stay during Oktoberfest and VERY expensive (150 euro per person per night for DORM beds in a hostel!!!). So a big thank you to everyone who has helped us out!

A Weekend in Prague!

Our English hosts Aaron and Emma recommended we visit Prague (Praha) if we had the chance so we decided to make a weekend trip out of it. Prague is only about a 3.5 hour ride from where we were in Hirshfeld and we took a rideshare there for 60 euro for the 2 of us. We arrived around 8 pm and met our couch surfer for the weekend. After a failed attempt to find some place to change money and grab a bite to eat we settled for a handful of snacks and went to bed.


Our couch surfer host Frantisek.

We woke up well rested and hit the town. Our first stop was the tourism office (which took quite a while to find) where we got a map and some info on a free tour that was starting in 15 minutes. We hurried outside, met our guide and stopped to see the magnificent (or not so magnificent) automated astronomical clock. The clock was the thing back then (1338) because of its moving figures that would come alive every hour.




They recently added a trumpeter because the crowds were a little dissapointed with the show.

We started our tour shortly after and it was a pretty awesome next 2.5 hours. The tour took us through old town and the old jewish quarter with tons of information from our very knowledgable Australian (Czeck born) guide.


Church of our lady before tyn.

The old town square.

The old new synagogue (oldest operating synogogue in the Europe).

Clock with hebrew letters (numbers?) that runs backwards

Statue based on a dream of Franz Kafka

One of three remaining powder towers, there used to be thirteen!

The tour was very interesting. Prague is a unique city because it saw almost no damage at all in WWII, our guide told us that this was because it was Hitler's favorite city. She also explained that the Old Jewish quarter also sustained no damage because Hitler wanted it to become the "Museum of an Extinct Race", scary. After the tour ended we wandered off to see the Charles Bridge, the only part of old town that the tour didn't cover.




Built in 1357, finished in 1402.

The statues weren't added until the 18th century.

Tons of people and artists on the bridge, we bought two prints of the city.

St. Jakob's Church, we visited this on our tour but we had to return to it later in the day to go inside because they were holding mass. The main reason that we wanted to return was because of a certain mummified body part that was supposedly hanging from the ceiing. Here is the story we were told:

There was a thief that came into the church disguised as a traveling monk, he sat down in the pews and pretended to pray. He sat there for hours until eventually he was unsupervised at which point he hid himself somewhere in the church until after closing time. Then he emerged from the shadows with intentions to steal a valuable necklace that hung around the neck of the statue of the Madonna. He climbed up the statue and just as he was reaching for the necklace, the statue came to life and grabbed him by the wrist. There he hung until morning when the clergy members found him. They tried to pry the statue's hand, but it was no use, they were forced to call in the executioner. The thief's arm was severed from his body at which point the statue finally resumed its prior position. The thief was sentenced to death, but the church was left with his arm, so they decided that as a warning to all people considering stealing from the church, they would hand his arm from the ceiling of the church to show what happens to those who steal.

AND SO...

There is the arm!

The next day, we walked down to the Jewish Quarter again (it was Saturday when we went on the tour so everything was closed for shabbat) and got a pretty good look at the old Jewish Cemetary.


100,000 people burried in less than a square block.

Then we hiked up yet another hill to Prague castle.



The huge gothic church at the castle.

As if climbing the hill wasn't enough, then we climbed the tower too!

View from the top.







View of the church before we could go in because they were holding sunday mass.


Possibly the closest we will ever get to wearing Lederhosen!

Birds of prey, up close.

Finally got into the church!

Us and every other tourist in Prague!

We had a great (and very exhausting weekend) in Prague. We probably walked 15 miles around the city in two days. Our ride back was squished and kind of terrible, but totally worth it!

Discotheque!

It's a small world. Last year during Lollapalooza weekend, Amy met 2 German travelers (Max and Matthias) at Treasure Island in Chicago who couldn't find any place to crash for the night. She invited them back and we hung out for a couple days. It turns out that the 2 of them are from Schweinfurt and were in the area for the weekend while we were here (crazy coincidence)!

We got in touch with them and they invited us out for a true German BBQ. Max picked us up and took us on a drive around the area as we searched for a very special beverage for the evening. The beverage is called Federweisser and is basically partially fermented wine so it is sweeter but still contains alcohol. We had to drive a while trying to find a wine maker who actually had some. From two 25 gallons jugs, out in the barn where the wine is made, the lady filled up some empty liter bottles that Max had in his car. We got to taste a bit as well and, as described, it was like a carbonated white grape juice.

With the bottles topped off and plopped down in the back seat, Max drove us up to a point in Schweinfurt with an amazing view of the surrounding area.


Max in his car







We then drove down the hill to Max's parents place (beautiful house, by the way) for the feast. There were about 8 of us around the patio table, drinking beer and federweisser and eating a spread of cucumber salad, corn salad, regular salad, pork belly on a stick (tasted like bacon coiled on a stick), steak, bratwurst, a croation meat thingy on a stick, and some breads. I ate one of everything and was pretty stuffed. Unfortunately I didn't have time while shoveling food in my mouth to take any pictures.

We finished up the feast and went down with Max and Matthias to the city center and had a few beers outside and within the nearby bar "Cinema". It's legal for people in Germany to drink on the street so thats where you found the majority of the people. Once we downed a couple drinks (and a redbull for me) we went to the discotheque (It's just a club, but Max and Matthias always wonder why Americans think clubs in Germany are called discotheques).




Amy, Matthias, and I

We rounded out the night at 4 am with a cab back to Max's place, some pickings at the BBQ table, carbonated water, and bed! The next morning we all sat down for breakfast that Max's Mom laid out (Delicious!) and were dropped off back in Hirschfeld.