Lakes, rivers, castles and churches

Hello from Heidelberg!

We got here late this afternoon, 38 degrees on the thermometer, and Carmelo and my human were absolutely desperate for a shower, or better still, a swim! After trying their luck at the local river, the Neckar, and deciding they were not THAT desperate, they checked out the closest public swimming pool. Although you normally have to pre-book a time slot, they were lucky to get in and enjoy a refreshing cool down. Well, at least I was left in the shade...

Our parking spot for tonight is right next to some large sports facilities with a nice beergarden. And this is also where my human might have a very hard time keeping a civilized face tomorrow, depending on how Germany is performing against Portugal in the European Championships. She likes to cuss and swear during games, the more important the game, the more colorful her names for the referee. I’m not so much into soccer, I enjoy things like pole vault and autogenous training. What? WHAT?

But I have to update you on the last few days, before we look into the future. 

After my human got up early for a run, some Yoga on a little pier full of bird poop (don´t ever believe what Instagram tells you, they are all full of bird poop) and one last swim, we left the Rothsee on Tuesday around noon and drove to Gmünden, a little town in the Spessart Forrest. Her aunt works there at the moment, so we went for a visit. She had never seen me before, so it was time for a formal introduction.

We stayed till Thursday morning, checking out some old castles, a couple of little villages where the 21st Century is still lightyears away, and generally had a good time. If I may say so myself, her aunt was mightily impressed with me! 

Burg Rieneck

Gmünden am Main

Our next stop was Würzburg. A city which seems to consist only of churches. A must visit is the "Marienburg Festung", a huge fortress mainly from the 13th Century. From up there you have a great view over the whole city, or rather, over all the church towers. Math isn’t my strong suit, it’s harder if you don’t have fingers to practice with, you see. But there were many!

Festung (Fort) Marienberg

The "Residenz" is another worthwhile place to see. Built in the 18th Century with over 40 rooms, it housed many nobles and aristocrats, including Napoleon. On long dead Italian guy painted a fresco which covers the ceiling of a massive staircase, 677 square meters! It is the largest one piece fresco on a ceiling in the world! The gardens behind the huge palace were impressive, too, according to my human. An OCD person’s dream! Every blade of grass cut with scissors to the exact same length. No wonder she enjoyed it!

Is it just me, or does anybody else think this weird?

The huge fresco, just a part of it

After a leisurely stroll through the city we decided to move on. The parking spot we had decided on didn’t really suit us, so we put in another 60km and drove on to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. By the time we got there we were all hungry and decided to let the town be for the day and go exploring tomorrow. 

The night outside was perfectly still and quiet, but because my human tossed and turned all night long, she kept waking me up over and over again as well. That made for two sleepy heads this morning. Only Carmelo was fit as always. He sleeps like a rock. 

So them two took off without me and I caught up on some snooze. They took the bike to town, only a few minutes from our parking spot and explored this very old settlement. It’s famous for it’s well preserved town walls, on which you can walk around to get a good overview, and for the picture perfect little half-timbered houses. 

Town hall of Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Part of the old town walls

Miss McCracken, do you want to marry me? Rusty White Mc Cracken! Pure gold!

A specialty when it comes to food, are the snowballs. They are made of  strips of dough which get then bunched together, like snowflake to a snowball, I guess, then get deep fried and covered in powdered sugar, chocolate, and other stuff. Don’t let the chocolate fool you, it is only on the outside! There are over 20 variations and every bakery makes their own. I was warned not to be deceived by the tasty looks of those things and just stay away from them. As if! 

Here is how to go about eating those things. Do it at home! Put on coffee. About half a liter should do. If you eat the thing by yourself, great! Half will land on the floor, some in your hair and the rest possibly in your mouth. But it doesn’t matter, because no one is there to judge. Try to bite into the whole thing. You will look like a terrier who stole the ball from his Newfoundland pall, but that’s ok, too. 

If you want to share it with someone, use slight force to break the thing up. Maybe utilize a hammer. And remember, half a liter of coffee, that’s per person. You’ll need it to swamp the stuff down. 

All right, once that’s done, enjoy town some more. It really is pretty. If you decide to do some cycling, hire a bike with an "E" in the name. Otherwise it is quite the challange. Judging from how my human looked when she got back to me. But the Tauber valley is indeed worth spending some time. 

After a terrible lunch in a local restaurant (open packet, slap into pan, heat up slightly, slap on plate, throw at guest) we headed west about 160km towards Heidelberg. And that’s where I am writing this now. Tomorrow we’ll  go and see what this place has to offer. And then the game at 6pm. I guess I hide behind some trees, just in case.