Thursday July 8, 2010

Ok...slightly out of order!

We slept in this morning. The bells at the church started ringing at 5:30 a.m., but I rolled over. The temperature was pure heaven! It was cool, so the down comforter felt good. It is interesting that, in a bed for two, there are two separate mattresses and two separate sets of blankets. The two edges of the mattresses butting up to each other prevent any snuggling. The last day of breakfast at this hotel was really good. I had cheesecake for breakfast. It sounds odd to an American to eat that type of dessert for breakfast. However, it wasn't sweet and wasn't heavy, like the cheesecakes I'm used to at home. In fact, the majority of their pastries aren't.



We packed up and started our journey back towards the Bode's home. On the way, we stopped at Rothenburg, the midevil walled city. There were mixed feelings today. Matthias and I loved the old city and wanted to see more. The kids were ready to go on strike though. We went through a bunch of shops. There was every type of food, clothing, jewelry and weapon shop imaginable. Our highlite was the Christmas store! It was wonderful! We purchased a bunch of ornaments and decorations and had them shipped home.

The group stopped for a dessert, called a "snowball", at a cafe. It is almost like a pie crust, wadded into a ball and then dipped in dark chocolate. On the way out of the city, we walked along the top of the city wall. We went through a couple of towers and then off to the car.

It was a long drive back. When we stopped for gas, it was the cleanest and nicest faciility I had ever been in! We had to pay .50 euro to go to the bathroom, which was odd. But it really was extremely clean and neat. We all napped on the way back.

We went to the Huhnerrahof beer garden, near their home, this evening. The name means "chicken yard". We had Spanish chicken, with olives, pepporcinnis and lemon. Rumor has it a couple dunkels (dark beers) made it to our table. Then we were off to their house. The evening was cool and great to sit outside, in the yard. We sat out back talking, until around 11:30.