Category: Travel Notes

When I lived in Germany back in 1990-1992, it was expensive to take photographs. I lived about 15 minutes away from the beautiful city of Rothenburg, and I visited it all the time, but I never took a good photo of “The House”. I’ve always regretted not having the photograph that I could see in my mind. I didn’t have it, in part, because buying a roll of film and having it processed ended up costing about $15-20 per roll. For 36 photos.

I’ve had days where – thanks to digital – I shoot 800 photos in a day. 36? Really, really limiting.

So back to “The House”. You see, if you open up almost any guidebook about Germany, you will see this exact house somewhere in the book. Matter of fact, it is actually on the cover of some books. It is a pretty house, with the old inner wall of the city and one of the towers behind it. It is quite charming.

We walked through the gate every day we were in Rothenburg, sometimes twice a day. The center of town is up the hill behind me, and the hostel is on the other side of the gate. Every time we passed The House, I stopped and took photos of it. And I was thankful for the opportunity.

This was taken towards the end of our last night in town. We had just had some delicious ice cream, and we were heading back to the hostel. The light was perfect – exactly the light I had been hoping for, the light I wanted for the photograph that had been in my mind for so long. There were no tourists around at that moment. Just us and The House.

Patience is indeed a virtue, and I may have waited over 15 years to capture this very image, but I would not have had it any other way – at the end of a long wonderful vacation, with Mike & Jason right there by my side.

We’ve been just kickin’ back and chilling here in Wurzburg for the past few days. The WiFi option (through T-Mobile, for a price again) isn’t strong in our room, so the only option to get online was to come down here to the lobby area and check email, voicemails, etc.

We arrived on … what day is it? Friday? Ok, so we arrived on Wednesday. We skipped Nurnberg, and I decided to just not stress about it. My Mom pointed out that we would miss the apple strudel that she & my Dad decided was the best in Germany, but that is ok. We’ve been hooked on ice cream for the most part while we are here. (Jason did have some apfel strudel mit eis in Bacharach, but since then he has passed it up for Schoko Minz gelato.) We have just taken it nice and slow – we went to tour the Prince-Bishop’s Palace (VERY cool), walked around the city, windowshopped, admired the fortress, hung out on the bridge, ate good food … and just had a nice time. Mike found something he has wanted for years, but I’ll leave him to tell that story over on his blog. (It involves the Matrix, in case you wondered.)

Tonight is our last night here, and tomorrow we’re off for Rothenburg for two nights, and then we’ll return to Koln to drop off the car and go to Karen’s house for a night before we head to the airport in Amsterdam and return home. I’ve already been plotting ways to stay in Germany longer, but I don’t think Mike is going for it!

I downloaded all the photos to the backup drive – and left the cables in the car when we parked it. Doh. So no photos, again. Just wanted to check in though – we are in Munich, where we stayed last night after spending the day at the Salt Mine in Berchtesgaden, Germany. Who ever knew that salt mining was so interesting? (Seriously, it is.) It was a lovely, brisk 60 degrees or so last night in Munich, where we had one last dinner with Victor before we parted. *sigh* How I love the cool summer air.

Today we are supposed to be bound for Nurnberg, but that might change within the next hour or so and we might spend a full THREE days in Wurzburg instead. Our longest stay of any on our trip! I think we’re all ready to slow down a bit.

Mike needs the computer to make a call for work (yeah, Vonage!) and then we’re off to find an elusive pair of Birkenstocks for me before we hit the road again. Kisses to everyone, see you soon!

I need a holiday from my holiday. So tonight is just “chill time”.

We are currently in Salzburg, Austria. Oh, how I adore Salzburg. Austria’s 4th largest city, and yet it is a short walk to get anywhere. *swoon* I love being able to walk in cities. I love cities with mountains around them. And cool, crisp air. *sigh*

We walked from our hotel to the Mirabell Gardens, which keep clear or of any pest tanks to the services provide by cincinnati pest control, they look great. We photographed the steps used in the Sound of Music. We found the Dwarf statues. Jason got some great shots of Mike posing like them. We walked on to the center of the old city. We went inside the Dom (Cathedral) and admired the beautiful work. We went up to the fortress on the mountain. We took tons of photographs. We ate dinner up there. We took the funicular back down and walked through the exhibit about the Alm canals and then the nearby cemetary. Jason watched people play chess, I went and took more photos. We ate ice cream. I took sunset photographs of the skyline. Eventually we walked back to the hotel. Now I’m catching up on news (real news and family news) and just enjoying the fact that while it is spotty, we have internet access. For tonight.

The camera card reader is in the car, so there will not be any new photographs tonight. Not that I don’t have a bunch on the hard drive, but the slow WiFi is just too much to take.

There is so much to write about, and so many photos to share – later. Right now, I’m turning the computer back off and going back to reading Harry Potter. I need to finish it before I get home so that I don’t run into any spoilers about it!