We got up and had breakfast. See pics of hard boiled eggs – too pretty to eat. Breakfast was also pretty, but we ate it before we took a picture. We stayed in 2 places in Rothenburg both terrific. The eggs are from the first one and also a pic of the outside and a pic of Marsha and myself in front of the pension. Then we walked around Rothenburg and also took a city tour. Tour guides give a great deal of historical information. Almost forgot to mention the pic of St Barbara cheese. We walked the perimeter of the city most of it on the ramparts – we also were able to go up into one of the towers (many stairs) and get a panoramic view of the city. see pic. Also many more pics on my camera. At 5:00pm there was a concert on the main square by the “Sound of America honor band and chorus”. Great concert and the kids who played came into the crowd and thanked everyone for coming. We met a teen from Florida. Great group and their performance was fabulous. See pic. Then we went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by Karin, the proprietor of the 2nd place we are staying. The portions here are so big we don’t bother with an appetizer anymore. I had pork in a creamy mushroom sauce with cranberry and pear and a salad. Marsha had fried Camembert also with fruit. All the food is so pretty. It was a beautiful day and nice evening so we ate outside. We spoke to the people on each side if us – pretty good since they didn’t speak English and we are not good at German. Then we went to the next house where we stayed. See pic. Karin and her husband were sitting on the patio and insisted we have a glass of Frankonian wine with them. Also see pic of where we stayed. We are having so much fun wish you all could be here. Again it is late 11:15pm – time flies. I found CNN on TV and we are watching about the plane crash. I should also mention there is Italian food especially pizza everywhere in Europe. We are committed to eating local food.

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.