Today we traveled from Lauterbrunnen in the Alps to Rothenberg on the "Romantic Road" in southern Germany, taking five different trains, and it was really exhausting. We were up before 7:00, had a quick breakfast, and caught the 7:50 Junfraubahn train for Interlaken. It was a beautiful, sunny day. (Too bad it couldn't have rained today and been sunny yesterday!)
At Interlaken we had a half-hour break, so we spent our last Swiss francs on some postcards, and then caught the train through Bern and Zurich to Stuttgart. That's when things came unraveled a bit. Stuttgart was extremely crowded, and we had only 10 minutes to change trains. When we got to the platform, our train wasn't there! There were a lot of train officials milling around, though, so we asked where our train was and found that it had been cancelled (along with 50 or 60 others) because of a German rail strike.
We were able to catch a later train to Ansbach, but it was extremely crowded (as you can imagine with all of the people trying to make alternate connections.) Fortunately, once we got to Ansbach, the trains from there to Steinach and from Steinach to Rothenburg were still running hourly, so even though we were late, we were able to catch a later train. That got us into Rothenburg a little after 6:00 instead of before 5:00 as we originally planned.
Rothenburg is one of the best preserved medieval walled villages in all of Europe and is a real tourist destination. Our hotel was only a few blocks from the train station, right outside the old city walls, and we were checked in by 5:00. On the way to the hotel we noticed a mall, so before we went out exploring, we headed over there to pick up some supplies. I'd managed to catch Kathy's cold so now both of us were sniffling, sneezing and coughing. We found a pharmacy and picked up some cough drops, the German version of Tylenol, and some "Wicks" Nyquil. (The logo looks just like the "Vicks" logo in the states, so I'm pretty sure it's the same company.) Then, Kathy picked up some makeup and cleaning supplies, while I picked up a Doner Kebap sliced meat pita sandwich and a Coke which we shared.
After taking care of business, we walked back to the old city and took a quick stroll through the streets. Since neither of us were feeling very well, though, we decided to get some dinner and then just go back to bed. Our guidebook had a recommendation for a Chinese restaurant, so we headed over to Lotus China and had a non-German dinner for a change. After that, we headed back to the hotel, I chug-a-lugged some Nyquil, and was lost to the world.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
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I think "Wicks" would be pronounced "Vicks" in German, just like wienerschnitzel is pronounced vienerschnitzel
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