We were riding the rails again. On the way to Rothenburg we stopped on Würzburg and put our luggage in a locker at the train station. We went to the Residence (palace) and court gardens. I thought this place was more opulent than Versailles. I bought some post cards and took pictures of them since no photos were allowed in the Residence. The Versailles gardens were nicer. We stopped for a snack- pretzel for each of us, wine for Marsha and a Radler for me. It’s -1/2 lemonade and 1/2 beer. Then on the train to Rothenburg. There was a mix up with our accommodations, but all turned out fine. We took the Night Watchman tour. It was really good. See pics of Rothenburg and gate.

I am adding pictures of our food. Plus when we got back to Frankfurt we walked around the city some more and took more pics.

Happy 4th of July!!! We took the train from Frankfurt to Koblenz. The first part of the trip was thru mostly industrial areas. Then the train ran parallel to the Rhine river. Stunning scenery with castles high above the river and picturesque towns along the river bank. When we got to Koblenz we were met by the Kortmanns. Only Dominic and his mother,Michaela were able to meet us. They drove us to the Koblenz palace which is right on the river and we took a boat ride on the Rhine. See pics. We took many pics both on the phone and with the camera. We ate lunch at a restaurant along the river and I took pics of everyone’s food. Marsha and I also had a glass of Ahr valley red wine. We are unable to get this wine in the US. Then a cable car ride up to the fortress. It is also huge with many lookout places. We spent approximately 2-3 hours on top of the mountain looking at the museum, fortress and scenery. Then we took the cable car back down and walked along the Rhine some more. We had a wonderful visit with the Kortmanns whose hospitality is unsurpassed. I am writing this on the train back to Frankfurt so it is only 7:30 I forgot to mention that we went to Deutch’s Eck or Germany’s corner where the Mosel and Rhine rivers meet. You can see this on the pics.

The day started cold and rainy so we decided to go to the US Embassy to check on a few rules we need to clarify. We took the U Bahn (subway) and it was under construction. We walked quite a distance in the rain and found the Embassy but it closed at noon and we got there at 1pm. We then returned to our B&B for the afternoon because it was raining quite hard. It stopped raining in the evening so we set out to find a restaurant for dinner. We went and crossed the river, Main. See pics. Naturally we found a nice restaurant, the Strewwelpeter, I had liver dumplings with kraut and mashed potatoes and Marsha had fried potato cakes with mushroom sauce and kraut. See pics. It was after 10 so we headed back across the river. See pic. Tomorrow is Koblenz with the Kortmanns.

We made it to Frankfurt around 6pm. On the train we passed thru Cologne and I saw the bridge of locks that my son Brian was telling me about. People place locks on the chain link fence of the bridge. There are thousands of locks if not tens of thousands. When we got to Frankfurt we had to figure out the subway system and also how to buy a ticket from the machine. Well we got all that done, has a short ride on the subway and then walked a few blocks to our B&B. We met Alexander the owner and he was very hospitable, We are in the center of Frankfurt and it is warm here!!!! The center of town was hopping- full of shops and restaurants. We decided to eat before it got too late. We weren’t very hungry so ordered light. The appetizer was a cheese in vinegar and spices. Very unusual but good. I had curry wurst and Marsha had like a flatbread pizza. All good, but too much food. See pics and picture of our waiter. We walked around some more and decided to head back. We ran into a Croatian street festival – see pick. It is 10:30 and getting dark and we are in for the night. We will do sightseeing tomorrow.