Rothenberg

Today we arrived in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a town dating back to 1150 which is still largely intact. Our hotel is a medieval building that is very cool, as long as long as Chris watches his head. We toured a Christmas museum that described the start of the Christmas tradition with really old ornaments and the old Santa who held twigs in one hand to hit the naughty children and gifts in a bag for those lucky good children. Of course downstairs is huge Christmas store with more than you would ever want and then some, it was difficult to find the exit in this multilevel, Christmas music playing, gingerbread smelling store. We managed to escape, um exit, just to find store after store of Steiff stuffed animals, Emma was very impressed. The town is very picturesque and has horse drawn carriages to talk you around the ancient town walls. Tonight we plan on taking the Night Watchman's Tour hosted by a medieval Jerry Seinfeld, how can we beat that? Ciao, the Herzigs

Münchin

Today is our last day in münchin. We went the Deutches museum and their mining section which was amazing, there is a picture Erich and Emma in a mining car. Then we rented bikes and rode around the Englisher garden, which was beautiful and we even got to eat fish on a stick. There is a picture of the kids by the lake. Bye for now

Neuschwanstein and Munchen

We have been out of internet connection for a few days, so here is a catchüp of the past few days. We enjoyed the castles of neuschwanstein and Howenschwangau, rainy day as you can see in the pictures. Emma loves the stories of Mad King Ludwig II and the Wagner operas depicted in the castle paintings (sorry no photographs inside). Most of tour is indoors so we did not get too wet. We then traveled to Münchin the big city, the fisrt day we saw the Residence Palace, Glockenspeil, and a few beer gardens.

TOP OF EUROPE

Today we visited Schilthorn (007 fans will remember it as the evil base from "Her Majesty's Secret Service" ) and had a great view from a rotating restaurant. Next we took a 2 hour cogwheel train ride up to Jungfraujoch, the "Top of Europe" a complex of views, sledding, skiing glaciers and an Ice Palace. The trip up took us from 2600 feet above sea level to 11300 which made for some dizziness. There are three giant mountains, the Eiger(the Ogre), the Monk and the Jungfrau (young women). Erich and Emma are posing in front of the Monk. And what would the top of Europe be without a Bollywood buffet restaurant? There were steep drop offs and fragile snow bridges...oh my. Then down into the Ice Palace, which was a ice tunnel network through the ice glacier, with ice sculptures and delectable walls. The floor was very slippery and fun to skate across. The outdoor area was a blast and the kids went on the Tyroliene (zip line), it was pretty do it yourself and after going full speed into a powder mountain the kids unclipped themselves and crawled back down. After a week of clouds and rain up in the Alps we are glad we had beautiful sunshine today!

Walking through Switzerland

Walk from Murren to Gimelwald.......saw 67 Slugs, dead or Alive.....7 white snails, they were all white....4 Goats, smelled like cheese.......One Bony Cow, it smelt like a zoo......3 nice Cats, one followed us on the trail....Took Cable Car to Valley Floor.....Walked mile to Trumelbach Falls, 10 water falls etches into mountain granite....bus ride, emma left hat on bus.....Cable car and Train back to Murren, saw 21 cows with bells on, sounded like many bells, did not smell.....Back at Hotel, 4 tired people with achy feet.

Today we drove to Oma's hometown of Hausen im Wiesental where we searched and searched for a house next to a bakeri and a Gasthaus. It's a small beautiful town with very helpful people. Helmut Lang took pity on us and brought out his daughter who spoke English and they knew the house and were more than happy to take us there, and a view point and to their house for tea if we had time. After that we went to Schweigmatt to search for uncle Willy's old house. When we entered town Emma stopped to pet the pretty horses and then we drove on only to find out that Willy's house was right behind those horses. It was really beautiful with an amazing view of a city at the bottom of the Black Forest. Then we drove off to find the cemetery where the family was buried. We came upon this adorable old man with a scythe who we figured might know where it was, we drew a picture since cemetery is one word I don't know in German, and he told us it was back up a hill that we had to walk to. We decided not to let him show us. We drove off to the forest with the kids screaming with joy when I asked a chef with a restaurant up there what the deal was. He said that the Schmidts are buried in front of the Willy's house, so off we went. It was actually in back up this beautiful grassy hill with an allee of trees leading to their burial plot. We found what looked like large rocks covered in ivy but they were just hiding. We couldn't fit all the pictures in. Heidi was found shot in the back laying on their driveway in 1945 after a Nazi soldier left their house. It was all very haunted, with a gust of wind enveloping us as we cleared their graves, but I so am glad we went.

Baden Baden and Black Forrest

Today we drove to Baden Baden to visit the Baths....we did not bathe....but we did sample the water. There is a natural spring Tap in town with 105 water.....Salty and full or minerals we had a taste to our health....we each felt one year younger after. Also had a Brunch to celebrate our 18th anneversary complete with Black Forrest cake.

Next we ventured deep into the Black Forrest in search of the Cuckoo Clock Museum......we arrived 5 min after closing time but convinced them to let us inside for a quick look...100's of clocks to see in 5 min (Blitz tour). After museum we went on trek to find the illusive worlds largest cuckoo clock in next town. We ended up getting lost, and could not find the large clock, as the rain started the Balck Forrest tried to swallow us up....We each felt one year older again......Our saving grace was the navagation system in the Land Rover, finally plugged in our Hotel location and we were our of the forrest and back on the Auto Ban in no time.....teqnology concours the black forrest!

Mosel Valley (Wine Country) walk to Burg Eltz

Our Day atarted with a drive to the Mosel Valley, it is wine festival this weekend, we got caught in the middle of a parade. They passed out cups of reisling to parade watchers.....it was a nice morning hike through the forrest to reach the Burg Eltz hidden in the mountains.....Emma found a cave (reminded her of the bony beaner hike from OVS).......

Burg (castle) Eltz was built in 1157 by Eltz Family, who continue after 33 generations to maintian and live in portions of the castle. It was one the only castles not to be inavded or destroyed, and thus left intact with origional artifacts. (guided tour, no photos inside please. We had lunch in the castle: Bratwurst, Franfurter, Pea soup, with hot coco prior to walking back in the rain....Heated seats in the Land rover never felt soo good......

Burg Rheinfels (circa 1245)

It survived an attack of 28,000 French troops in 1692 but in 1797 those Frenchies destroyed it, so we saw the shell. The boys explored a fuchsloch (foxhole) tunnel that was crawlable, wet and they thought very cool.

night before

Ok... not quite packed, not quite sure of what our final path will be, I don't remember much German. We will fill everyone in on all the juicey details with pictures and all. Stay tuned.Guten Nacht, Charmaine