June 9 -- We woke up and walked a little more in the town center of Bamberg. We didn't really have an agenda or anything particular to see, so we just ambled down roads and enjoyed looking at the fruit stands. The problem with not posting an update for a few days is that I have already forgotten if we stopped anywhere in between Bamberg and our next stop of Rothenburg ob set Tauber, but I'm pretty sure a grocery store for lunch was our only stop. My memory is not helped by the fact that not only had my cold not completely gotten better but it was on its way to becoming a sinus infection, but more on that later. Rothenburg is a small medieval city with most of its wall still in tact. It was a really cool little city. Our hostel for our stay was the old horse mill in town, and although not the nicest hostel we've stayed it, it was old and quaint. I took a nap in the afternoon, while the others walked part of the wall and went to the Kathe Wolfart Christmas Museum. I met them for dinner, and afterwards, we took part of the night watchman tour around the city. It was an entertaining and informational, albeit a little cheesy, hour long walk with a guide dressed as a medieval watchman. It even rained at the appropriate time of our tour when he was explaining how rain had prevented the town from being destroyed by the marauding Roman Catholic army in the 1500s.
June 10 -- We had another full day in Rothenburg. It was so nice to not have to pack up in the morning after several days in a row of that. We downloaded a Rick Steves audio walking tour of Rothenburg and did that most of the morning. It was a really fun way to see the city and to hear about the history of the different buildings. The most impressive part of the tour was definitely the wooden altar constructed to show off the drop of Jesus' blood. The drop of blood was not impressive but the altar was one of the most beautiful (huge) wooden carvings I've ever seen. The main part of the carving is of the Last Supper, and the artist carved Judas as a separate piece so that during Holy Week he can literally be taken out of the picture.
We stopped for lunch in one of many beer gardens, where I had a traditional manicotti meal that reminded me more of an omelet than of manicotti.
That afternoon, I took another nap, and we got some laundry done. We stopped by a tourist shop right before closing time to do a little souvenir shopping. The store is owned by a 90-year-old lady who knows the United States and all its interstates, most of which she has traveled on a Harley, better than we do. She and her son, who helps her run the store, were very generous and gave us a free hand drawn map and free post cards. They told us about the wedding tradition where the bride and the groom drink from the same cup, but the cup has two different sections to it that pivot. We went to another beer garden for dinner (nothing like being in Germany while pregnant...haha), where I had a delicious potato soup.
On a funny note, the kids have learned that in Germany at most grocery stores you can turn in plastic bottles and get 25 cents each for them, they so they have become Germany's newest garbage collectors.
June 11 -- The plan was to go to church at the St. Jacob's Lutheran Church in town, but after waking up, I realized that a doctor's visit was in order as I was pretty sure that I either had strep throat or a sinus infection. Since it was Sunday, I knew that the ER was probably the best option, so the others dropped me off on their way to church. I checked in to the ER. They checked my temperature and then told me that the doctor was too busy to see me but that they would refer me to another doctor's office, so I paid 11 euros and got directions from them to walk about 10 minutes to another doctor's office. After checking my temperature, throat, etc., he wrote me a prescription for some antibiotics and told about the only pharmacy that is open on Sundays. And then he said that he wouldn't charge me anything, but he requested that I send him a postcard from my hometown when I get home. That was a nice surprise!
We left Rothenburg in the afternoon and drove to Nuremberg, where we walked through the Nazi Documentation Center and the Rally Grounds. It was an informative museum with a lot of videos and pictures of how the Nazis rose to power. We spent about 2 hours there and didn't nearly cover it all. Then, we drove to Regensburg and checked in to our hostel. It was another cute hostel that was very family friendly and had many families staying there who were traveling on their bikes, even with little kids. It was inspirational.
June 12 -- We spent the day in Regensburg. We saw a 1000 year old stone bridge and the brathaus that was built to feed the people who worked on the bridge. We also went in to St. Peter's Church. It was amazing and beautiful, of course, but unfortunately, all the churches are starting to blend together, so I can't tell you much about that one.
In the afternoon, we took a 50 minute boat ride down the Danube to a place called Walhalla, which is a monument built by King Ludwig the first that is full of memorial statues of Bavarian kings and other important dignitaries. It is a "new" building, built in 1845 that looks a lot like the Lincoln Memorial. It was a steep climb up from the river where the boat dropped us off and had amazing views of the countryside. The boat picked us up again after 75 minutes, we enjoyed the river back to Regensburg. We ate at another beer garden that evening, and I ordered a meat and cheese platter of which I barely could eat half.
June 13 -- We checked out of our hostel and then went to walk around in Regensburg one last time. We wanted to go up the clock tower of one of the churches to get a view of the city, but when we got there, we learned that it didn't open until noon, so we had an hour and a half to kill. So what did we do? Went to another church, of course. This one was called the Basilica of St. Emmeran. It was a strange church because it had skeletons displayed with jewels and ornate paintings of headless people giving their heads away. We couldn't find any information in English, so we just enjoyed the bizarrity and left. The church bell tower that we climbed was from the Holy Trinity Church, where we went up 125 stairs not meant for tall people. It was a 360 degree view at the top, with church steeples and other towered in every direction. We were glad we stuck around to go up.
We left Regensburg, heading to Munich, stopping in Dachau on the way. We spent about an hour and a half at the concentration camp, walking around the grounds. We decided not to go into the museum (partly because it is not recommended for children under 12 and partly because seeing Fort 7 in Poland was enough for me). The size of the camp was mind blowing, and we went into one of the remaining barracks that was supposed to house 200 but by the end of the war was housing 2000 people. The crematorium closed before we made our way over there, so we didn't have to decide whether or not to go in there.
We drove the rest of the way to Munich, through evening traffic, and we found out upon arriving at the hostel that it was limited to people between the ages 18-35, of which in our group only yours truly qualifies. So we went to a beer garden to figure out our next move. It was the biggest beer garden you can imagine with a playground for the children. The beer is only sold in liters and the pretzels are the size of dinner plates. We ate (I had grilled chicken) and found a nearby hotel with availability. We checked in and found a parking garage with some open spots. I still wasn't feeling the greatest so I was very happy for bed.
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