25 Nov 11 Days in Germany
17 November to 20 November – Heidelberg
Like all the old German cities we saw, Heidelberg (the old part) was beautiful because so much attention has been given to restoring and preserving, even after the devastation of 1945.
In particular in Heidelberg we enjoyed the trip up the mountain in the funicular, where it actually snowed, and which included a visit to the castle.
The Necker River (which joins the Rhine very close to Heidelberg) provides a lot of opportunity for very pretty walks, although the “Philosophers’ Way” is an old walking path that becomes extremely strenuous, especially if you start from the wrong end. We started the right end and that was tough enough.
20 November to 23 November – Pfalz Area (Wienstrasse Region of South West Germany)
This is a famous wine growing area along the Rhine Valley and we enjoyed very pretty day trips in the hire care, from our base in the small village of Esthal.
The GPS was generally pretty good, but did send us on some crazy and totally unnecessary “farm paths” through vineyards.
23 November to 25 November – Wurzburg
Warzburg may have been our favourite German city. It’s very beautiful and although small has great shopping at good prices for food and clothing.
One of the fun things about Wurzburg is the social scene on the old bridge. We saw that afternoon and evening, even in freezing weather, it’s crowded with drinkers, many of whom appear to have brought their own beer, wine, or gluhwein. Just quietly chatting, no hooligans, no idiots jumping off into the river – it was an eye opener.
23 November to 28 November – Nuremburg
Like Germany generally at this time of year, it was cold. One day it briefly got to a toasty 9 degrees, but more likely it was between 2 and 4. Even John wore gloves so you can imagine how cold it was.
Nevertheless with the Autumn colours everywhere it was also very beautiful. We spent our days basically walking around the old part of the city, visiting churches and castles, most of which have had to be seriously rebuilt after 1945.
One of the highlights was visiting the old beer cellars under the city. They’re very extensive and several levels deep. During the war tunnels were built to join up most of them and they were used as bomb shelters and also as escape routes away from the burning city to the borders beyond the bomb site.
On our final (wet) day we enjoyed some more walking and visited the castle, which was very interesting.
Tomorrow we leave Nuremburg at 3.50 am Perth time 28 November, to arrive 6.50 pm Perth time 29 November. Taking a train, a 4-hour bus ride to Prague, a flight to Doha, and finally a flight to Perth.
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