{"id":3681,"date":"2015-09-07T10:42:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T15:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3681"},"modified":"2015-09-07T10:42:46","modified_gmt":"2015-09-07T15:42:46","slug":"european-vacation-day-10-theyre-firing-at-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3681","title":{"rendered":"European Vacation: Day 10 They’re firing at us!"},"content":{"rendered":"

How lucky can we get?\u00a0 We woke up this morning to rain pouring down.\u00a0 Berchtesgaden was getting a good soaking, but we were going to be leaving today.\u00a0 After breakfast, we packed the car and headed down the hill.\u00a0 The rain was light by the time we were heading out of the city.\u00a0 This was another chance for us to see the countryside and enjoy the beauty of the German Alps.<\/p>\n

We got to the autobahn and headed toward Munich.\u00a0 Today, we are headed to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.\u00a0 This is a walled city from the Renaissance period.\u00a0 I decided this was a cool place to stay the night before we leave Germany for Krakow.\u00a0 It turned out to be close to where Rich\u2019s friend, John Wolfe and his wife, were staying.\u00a0 We decided to meet up here for a bit.<\/p>\n

As we drove north, the rain stopped.\u00a0 The clouds hung around and it was windy.\u00a0 It would be a good day to drive.\u00a0 We worked our way up the autobahn with little issue.\u00a0 Some of the construction sites would slow down, but nothing too bad.\u00a0 We were making good time.<\/p>\n

We stopped at a rest area for a break.\u00a0 I parked right next to a replica early 1900s racing car.\u00a0 It reminded me of Barney Olges\u2019 Indy car.\u00a0 The name on it was Alte and Sexy.\u00a0 There were two older Porsche rally cars nearby.\u00a0 Everyone was standing around this car.<\/p>\n

While I was stuck in line for the ladies bathroom, Rich said the guys who owned them came out.\u00a0 They explained they were driving the cars up to Frankfurt.\u00a0 I missed seeing them leave.\u00a0 Tour buses from the casinos just cause you missed so much.<\/p>\n

We got a call from John about halfway to Rothenburg.\u00a0 Apparently, he had trouble finding a place to park.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know what this would mean for us at this point.\u00a0 We promised to call him once we got closer.<\/p>\n

When we reached the city, there were cars and buses everywhere!\u00a0 The navi was trying to take us into a road that was shut down.\u00a0 After circling the city for a bit, we opted to park out in a bus parking lot and walk into where our hotel was.\u00a0 As we got into the walled city, we discovered there was a Ren Faire going on right in the middle of town!<\/p>\n

We found our hotel and went to the front desk.\u00a0 We explained where we parked.\u00a0 The poor guy who helped with the cars just shook his head.\u00a0 He was going to have to walk out there to get the car and bring it into the city to put into their garage.\u00a0 At that time, he would bring our luggage to the hotel for us to get.<\/p>\n

Rich called John and made arrangements to meet nearby.\u00a0 While Rich waited outside, I waited in our room for the phone letting us know our luggage was here.\u00a0 Pretty soon, I heard Rich on the landing with the porter and our luggage.\u00a0 So much for plan A.<\/p>\n

We tipped the poor man for getting the car and luggage to the hotel.\u00a0 Then we were free to go in search of John and Andrea.\u00a0 We walked down the street toward the main square.\u00a0 We were surrounded by visitors and costumed people.\u00a0 Rich needed to stop for coffee in a local coffeehouse.\u00a0 After a few minutes, he came back out.\u00a0 Apparently, the place was overwhelmed with orders.\u00a0 Coffee would have to wait.<\/p>\n

We found John standing outside of the Christmas Museum just down from the square.\u00a0 Andrea was inside shopping for ornaments.\u00a0 Kathy Wolfhart is a designer of ornaments here and this place is very, very popular.\u00a0 We stood outside talking and waiting.\u00a0 Pretty soon, it was time for John to go for his parking.\u00a0 He let Andrea know and headed off.<\/p>\n

I had never met Andrea before, but Rich had.\u00a0 He recognized her when she came out of the door.\u00a0 We stood talking as we waited for John.\u00a0 We noticed that they raised ropes around the street and then cannon started to go off.\u00a0 The thing was so loud and scared us, even though we knew what was about to happen.\u00a0 It went off twice for about 10 rounds each.\u00a0 The ropes were lowered and the crowds could get down the street again.<\/p>\n

John returned and we decided to walk down the street and see what was down that way.\u00a0 We ended up around the old city wall on the south part of the city.\u00a0 There were two booths there manned by friars.\u00a0 One sold Dunkel beer and another wursts and brotchen.\u00a0 We decided to take a break and talk for a while.\u00a0 The sun was warm and we got caught up on the current happenings.<\/p>\n

After a bit, it was time to start up the street again.\u00a0 We wandered back to the square and down the street toward the old castle ruins.\u00a0 Down that way, we could get to the old wall where you walk the ramparts and look out of the arrow slits.\u00a0 Rich and John went up to have a look.\u00a0 The stairs were not that protected and we decided to watch from ground level.<\/p>\n

At this point, it was getting chilly outside with the wind.\u00a0 Only John was dressed for this sharp change in temp.\u00a0 The rest of us were getting cold.\u00a0 Walking about helped, but not totally.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it would get worse as the sun was going down.<\/p>\n

Back on the street, the stores were closing.\u00a0 People were beginning to leave the city in droves.\u00a0 Even a large bus was trying to come down the narrow street.\u00a0 It was time for the city to close up.\u00a0 John and Andrea were thinking about heading back out themselves.\u00a0 We walked up toward the gate where they parked.\u00a0 John decided he wanted to see where we were staying the night and we walked to our hotel.<\/p>\n

After John and Andrea left, we went up to rest for a bit.\u00a0 After warming up, we decided to go downstairs to eat and not have to go back out in the chilly wind.\u00a0 Rich had the trout and I got the venison stew.\u00a0 Both were very good.\u00a0 The hotel even did their own homebrew and Rich got a glass of their beer.\u00a0 It was OK, but not quite what Rich likes normally.<\/p>\n

After dinner, we returned to our room to rest and get ready for our flight tomorrow.\u00a0 I pulled up our flight info and needed to print our boarding passes.\u00a0 I checked with the front desk and they could print them if I sent them in an email.\u00a0 When I went down to pick up the passes, the owners were curious about the email address of Zurekbrau.\u00a0 She wanted to know if we owned a brewery.\u00a0 I said that it was the name my husband used and he was a homebrewer.\u00a0 They found that very interesting.<\/p>\n

I worked on my blog entries as we were being serenaded by people sitting at the open bar areas around the hotel.\u00a0 They could actually sing.\u00a0 They kept up for quite a while.\u00a0 I quit hearing them about 10:30.\u00a0 Rich said he heard them up until about 2:30.\u00a0 Around 9:00, the cannons went off for quite a while.\u00a0 I assumed it was part of the show for the nightwatchman taking visitors on the rounds.\u00a0 I had wanted to do that, but it was too chilly out there in the dark.<\/p>\n

So another day had gone and it was going to be time to leave Germany for the next stage in our trip.\u00a0 I really love Germany and enjoyed our stay.<\/p>\n

\"Alt<\/a>
Alt and Sexy in the parking lot of the rest area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Front<\/a>
Front of our hotel in Rothenburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another view of our hotel at the Markusum Tower of the wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Standing<\/a>
Standing on the old wall and looking into the valley below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich and John with their Dunkels from the friars.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"More<\/a>
More of the buildings in Rothenburg as we walked along.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One of the gates in the old wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich and John up on the old wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wandering<\/a>
Wandering the streets with Andrea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How lucky can we get?\u00a0 We woke up this morning to rain pouring down.\u00a0 Berchtesgaden was getting a good soaking, but we were going to be leaving today.\u00a0 After breakfast, we packed the car and headed down the hill.\u00a0 The rain was light by the time we were heading out of the city.\u00a0 This was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3681"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3693,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3681\/revisions\/3693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}