Ah, Switzerland. . .

Well, after all the Bavarian cuteness of half-timbered houses, pork, and beer, I made it Switzerland. First stop, Lucerne. It's on a gorgeous lake, small enough to walk around the old town, and the motel had the best food I've had on the trip so far - Hotel Stern Luzern. Highly recommend it.

Lunch at my hotel.

Ok, I Needed This. . .

I have now been in Baden Baden for three days. This is my last evening and I have done no sightseeing. At this point in my trip I needed this. I spent half the day yesterday at the Caracalla Spa taking the natural spring sulfur waters. And today I had a full body massage at Freidrichsbad - the older of the two spas. Can you say relaxed? Ah well, tomorrow starts back to the slogging. Off to Colmar, France tomorrow and then on to Switzerland. Getting excited about seeing the Alps!!!!!!

Stairs & More Stairs

I thought this time that I would be lucky because my hotel has an elevator. However, I did not count on the town being built on the side of the mountains. Hence, to get anywhere in this town you have to go up and down stairs!

Baden Baden Spa Spa

Well, if I wasn't relaxed before, I will be now that I am in Baden Baden. The question is whether to go to the naked spa or the one where you wear swimsuits? Now, I understand that "when in Rome, do as the Romans" but I think it will take more than that saying to convince me to give up deep seeded near paralyzingly modesty for the sake of acting like a local. So, it's to the swimsuit spa. It's newer and bigger anyway.

Life Without Wifi

What in the world did we do before wifi?! It's been 24 hrs without it and I couldn't last another minute. Since my last post I have traveled from Bruges to Bacharach, Germany, and am now in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in the Franconia (aka Bavaria) region of Germany.

Bacharach was a sleepy and charming (and small) Town along the Rhine. I enjoyed my two nights stay (with a balcony). Of course, I did the obligatory Rhine cruise. The area is known for it's many castles along this well used river and it's white wine. The vineyards are locally clinging to the sides of the mountains as are the castles!

Vineyards along the Rhine river.

Rheinfels Castle, St. Goar.

Me, on my Rhine cruise.

Stahleck Castle in Bacharach.

Getting to Rotenburg was challenging. Four transfers with five trains! I missed the first one because it never came (BTW it was 0705 in the morning!). Who said German trains were reliable? After a bit of panic and help from a nice station attendant who barely spoke English I managed to catch a train 30 minutes later with different connections. Now that threw me in all kinds of a dilemma because I only had one itinerary and you need to know which train to catch at each station. I mean the trains are identified by their final destinations and departure times not by the stops in between (where you may want to get off). But I actually caught up to my itinerary three trains later thanks to a delayed train from Frankfurt station. 

My hotel in Rothenburg.

A real Iron Maiden!

Shame mask for quarrelsome women
(Not my description!).

Entertaining Nightwatchmen Tour,

 

House between two gates.

Neck violin for quarrelsome people.