BMW M235i European Delivery: Days 3 & 4

One of the best things about traveling to new places is experiencing different food. I’m sure that, when you think of German food, you imagine the pretzel and bratwurst that you had at the Oktobefest at your local German Catholic Church. While you may not be far from the truth, at least in Bayern (Bavaria, a state in southern Germany), the best meal of the day here is Frühstück. You may know it as breakfast. Nearly every hotel/B&B/pension/guesthouse serves Frühstück on your way out. Meat, cheese, and bread are a common sight. Delicious jams and yogurt.

In Langenargen, we stayed at very small B&B (really, it was just someone’s spare room) and she was not able to serve breakfast (no matter, it was super cheap). We did, however, discover the most wonderful thing about small towns. The bakeries. So many delicious foodstuffs for breakfast and it is cheaper than Starbucks. Have a look for yourself and then please wipe the drool from your keyboard. I have since seen them all over the place.

Have I mentioned the McDonalds? They are everywhere. Like one in every Landkreis (county), at least. Not much else in terms of American fast food’ but the Germans must love them some Hamburgler. And no, we did not go. Even if I did, I would not tell you.

On our way out, after Frühstück, we walked to the lake. It’s winter and this resort town is not very busy, but we did make a friend in this giant swan. The lake is so beautiful in its wintery state; I can only imagine what it looks like during summer. Directly across the lake lies Switzerland. Here they have boat races during the summer. Langenargen is a great stopping point on the Bodensee, especially when we had the town to ourselves.

The Romantischestraße is a theme road that joins several roads from Füssen in Lower Bavaria up to Würzburg in the Franconian region. Lots of small towns are linked together along a very fun road to drive. This is mainly a summer-tourist trail, so we were very lucky to have the roads and many of the sights all to ourselves. We joined the Romantischestraße in Landsberg Am Lech and stopped in Friedberg. where we walked around the picturesque town. For lunch, we had döner kabobs, which are more or less Turkish gyros. They were delicious. The young Turkish guy serving us was extremely nice and conversed with us in English. He even gave us some tea “zum mitnehmen” (to go), which seems to be a very uncommon thing in Europe. I believe the Germans would rather be focused on what they are doing instead of multi-tasking. This is the point where we could have a long conversation about work vs. personal life and how the Germans keep them separated, unlike Americans, but I digress.

It was very interesting to see the landscape change from snowy Alpine to green farmland. It’s a bit like going from Colorado to Iowa, or so I imagine, since I have been to neither. I wish we had stopped at more of the interesting places, but we just didn’t have enough time. We attempted to stop at least once every hour or two and find something interesting.

A short stop in Augsburg to see the famous St. Ulrich Kirche and its spectacular architectural design.

Along the way, I stopped at a gas station to fill up. I had a little miscommunication with the attendant and he wound up charging me for the OTHER blue car’s gas. Of course, I used my credit card, which complicated the matter. I also discovered that, in Germany, you pump first then pay. He was so angry with me that he yelled “sheiße” at me over and over until, realizing I’m American, he just started yelling “shit”. Eventually he gave me a refund in Euros and I pumped the €9,27 he charged me and left. It was actually kinda funny.

Finally, we reached Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber. I’ve been reading about this place for months as I planned the trip and couldn’t wait to see it. It’s the town that Walt Disney based Pinocchio on and is one of, if not the, best preserved medieval European towns. The town features a full and complete wall, along with defense towers to guard. Some of the wall was destroyed during WW2 but was quickly rebuilt after. Donors from all over the world helped to rebuild the city’s wall – you can find the donor’s names in stone along the wall. We found one from a couple in Fairfax, VA.

It was dark when we arrived again, so we checked into the Altfrankische Weinstube (Old Franconian Wine Bar), a really beautiful small B&B that I had found online. This place was charming and inexpensive and I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. We went downstairs to the Stube to have dinner where we met Herman the German. I had Spätzle for dinner, which is mac and cheese, more or less.

Every Wednesday, Herman and his friends come to the Weinstube for the English Conversation Club, where they speak only English and get to know as many of the tourists as they can. They were so wonderful and friendly and told us many things about the town we may have never known. Herman’s family has lived in Rothenburg for over 3 generations. He showed us old newspapers from the war and some articles where travel guy Rick Steves has talked about his club. We had a blast with them and they taught us that, in Bavaria, when one didn’t hear what another said, they say “Ehhh?”, which is more like a grunt. My sister and father known this sound well, because it is the sound that my mother, my uncle and their father always make when they say something and want a response from you. Maybe I am German after all! In return, we taught them “Haters gonna hate” and “They hate us cause they ain’t us”, which we all found amusing. We even wrote it in their guestbook to remind them!

We walked a portion of the wall at night and the town was completely deserted at that point.

The next morning,we enjoyed a very delicious, very German Frühstück before heading out to explore the town.

Rothenburg is amazingly beautiful. I cannot express how fantastic the architecture really is. I found myself taking hundreds of photos. Although the town is very touristy, it’s easy to overlook the dozens of bar shops and Christmas stores and get to what really makes the town great. We found a small antique store with fresh stock and I bought an old spice tin and a coffee mill from the 1930s for my new place back home.

The most picturesque part of the city is inside the walls. You literally drive through a narrow gate to get into it. It was surreal driving my brand new car inside gates that have kept our enemies for centuries and facilitated part of the German surrender during WW2. The wall is completely intact and mostly original, save for what was repaired following the war. We even found the soldier’s crapper.

If you are ever in Germany, for any reason, do not miss this place. It should honestly be the 8th wonder of the world for being so well preserved.

After spending the day in Rothenburg ODT, we got back on the Romantischestraße and headed north to Würzburg. Along the way, we stopped for lunch at the Hot Wok in Weikersheim, a really cool Thai place where the owner was super friendly and chatted with me in German. The food was top notch as well.

After that, we walked around the corner to see the Weikersheim palace, a breathtaking private residence with some of the best gardens in all of Germany. What happened next was a bit surprising. During this trip we have done a lot of wandering about in places where you normally wouldn’t find tourists. It’s brought us some interesting stories thus far, but this one may be the best.

We rounded the corner to the back side of the palace to see what we could see and were about to leave, when an older lady came out of her house. She spoke English and refused to speak German with me, insisting that she is an American and we could speak as Americans. Fair enough. She gave us a piece of candy and invited us inside, as it was very cold. Turns out, she is a Princess and is married to an Austrian prince whose family owns the palace. Her house is a 400+ year old house adjacent to the palace. She told us some very, very interesting stories about her life and then walked us around the palace and through the gardens. We got the extra super secret tour, no doubt about it. I could go on and on about her life and the conversations that we had, but that’s for another time.

We capped the day in Würzburg with a walk around the Marienburg fortress before returning to Rothenburg, where we enjoyed our stay so much we extended it an extra night.