Rothenburg, Germany

Rothenburg is a really quaint town with many half-timbered buildings. It is a great little town to visit.

The story goes that centuries ago, there were wars between the Catholics and the Protestants. Rothenburg was Protestant. A Catholic duke said he was going to kill everyone in the town unless the town mayor could drink 3 liters of wine. The mayor did and saved the town. This is commemorated every hour at the town hall, but we weren't there over the hour to see it.

Half-timbered building

Nordlingen is known for its Christmas stores. One store had a gigantic nut cracker out front.

Rothenburg had nice gardens with a good view of the town and city wall.

Gate to Gardens

View of Rothenburg from the Gardens

Rothenburg is also known for its Schneeballs, strips of dough in the shape of a ball, fried, and then coated in chocolate, sugar, nuts, etc. We had a chocolate Schneeball with whipped cream and warm Apfel (apple) Strudel with ice cream.

Chocolate Schneeball and Apfel Strudel

Assorted types of Schneeballs

Nördlingen, Germany

On the last day of our bus tour, we took the Romantic Road from Munich towards Frankfurt. In the morning, we stopped at Nördlingen. Supposedly, a meteor hit Earth in this area, leaving a crater in which Nördlingen was later built. Nördlingen is one of the few cities in Germany that still has a wall all the way around the town.

Map of Nördlingen

City Wall and Gate to Nördlingen

Nördlingen is a small quaint town with many half-timbered buildings.

St. George's Evangelical Lutheran Church had a very high ceiling and white walls. It is much more ornate than American Lutheran churches.

St. George's Evangelical Lutheran Church

Munich, Germany

We were in Munich for less than 24 hours, but we enjoyed everything we were able to see in that amount of time.

Our first stop in Munich was Schloss (Palace) Nymphenburg. It is a very large palace surrounded by yellow servants' houses, which are now privately owned and very expensive. The king's wife was from Venice, so the king had a canal dug, so that his wife would not feel home sick. The canal went a long stretch both in front and behind the palace. There were swans and ducks in the canal. There were also beautiful gardens with statues behind the palace.

Schloss Nymphenburg

Canal in front of a wing of Schloss Nymphenburg

Servant's House

Phil and Julie and the back of Schloss Nymphenburg
Wouldn't it be nice to have a house like this?

Then we drove into the city and headed to Marien Platz, the main square of Munich.

The National Theater

We visited Die Frauenkirche (The Church of Our Lady), Munich's largest church. It has onion-shaped domes on the top of both towers, which are typical of Bavarian churches. The inside has high vaulted ceilings and white walls, which we also think is typical of Bavaria.

The Church of Our Lady

We went inside another church that also had white walls. It had a beautifully painted ceiling.

Inside of Bavarian church

The New City Hall

The Old City Hall

The Glockenspiel on the Old City Hall

Each day, the Glockenspiel plays a couple of times. A musical tune is played on bells, while wooden figures dance around. A rooster sits above the king and queen, who are circled by people carrying flags and two knights who joust one another until ones falls off his horse. These are above a conductor and dancing soldiers. The show goes on for 10-15 minutes. We took several videos, which you can watch below.

Video #1 of the Glockenspiel

Video #2 of the Glockenspiel

Video #3 of the Glockenspiel

In the evening, we went out with several people from our bus tour to get dinner and to go to the Hofbrauhaus, the beer hall for which Munich is known. We walked to the outdoor market for dinner. We decided to try a traditional German meal. Julie had Weisswurst (white sausages made from veal) and a soft pretzel. Phil had Munich beef with potato and cucumber salad. Our waitress could carry a bunch of large beer mugs in each hand. We were trying to guess her name and decided on Hilda. It turns out her name was Margot.

Margot, our friendly German waitress

After dinner, we walked to the Hofbrauhaus. It is packed full of long tables and benches. You are seated wherever there is room, which generally means sharing a table with a bunch of strangers. There were men there in Lederhosen, and the waitresses wore traditional dresses. There was a band playing music, and people sang and clapped along. The smallest beer on the menu is 0.5 Liters. Most of the people in the photo below were from our bus tour. However, we were randomly seated with the German couple on the right. Nevertheless, they seemed to enjoy our company and wanted to take photos with us.

The group at the Hofbrauhaus

Phil and his "tiny" beer at the Hofbrauhaus

Band playing at the Hofbrauhaus

Today was our bus driver Slavek's last day with our group, so we took some pictures of Slavek, our tour guide Eszter, and the group. We must have had the best tour guide and bus driver. They really made the trip. Eszter is Hungarian. She was very friendly, always had a smile on her face, and was very knowledgeable about the cities and countries that we saw. Slavek is Polish. He was very jolly and was a great bus driver.

Our bus driver, Slavek, and our tour guide, Eszter

Eszter in action leading the group with her flower

Slavek and the Titanium Bus

The Titanium Group

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague is divided by the Vltava River, with the castle region situated on top of the hill on one of the banks. Prague was the favorite city for many of the people on our tour. We weren't as impressed with Prague as some of the other cities, because many of the buildings required restoration. However, in looking back, we did get some very nice photos of Prague.

Prague and the Vltava River

The first night that we were in Prague, we went to see a water and light show at the Krizikova Fountain. The water and lights were choreographed to classical music composed by Czech musicians. It was a very nice show. We took a very short video that you can watch below.

Krizikova Fountain

Video of the Krizikova Fountain Show

There are a large number of buildings at the top of the hill, which are referred to collectively as Prague Castle.

Prague Castle

We got a tour of the Jewish Quarter. We saw the oldest synagogue in Europe and the Jewish Cemetery where Franz Kafka is buried. The Jewish Town Hall next to the synagogue has two clocks. One is a Hebrew clock that runs backward.

The oldest synagogue in Europe

Jewish Town Hall & Hebrew Clock

Charles Bridge is the oldest bridge in Prague that connects the castle district to the old town. It has 30 statues on it, and there were artists selling their crafts on the bridge.

Charles Bridge

Entrance to Charles Bridge

Artists and Statues on Charles Bridge

Julie & Phil on Charles Bridge with the Prague Castle in the background

St. Nicholas's Church in the Old Town Square

Phil in Old Town Square

Tyn's Church, the entrance of which is hidden by shops

Much of the Old Town Hall has been destroyed. However, the Astronomical Clock has survived. It has many dials to tell the day of the week, month, year, time, Christian Holidays, etc. On the hour, statues of the 12 apostles process through two windows on the clock and then a cock crows. We recorded a video that you can watch below.

The Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall

Video of the 12 Apostles processing through the windows of the Astronomical Clock

Ornately painted building in Winceslas Square, which is named after Good King Winceslas

In the afternoon, we took an excursion of the castle district. We first toured St. Vitus's Cathedral, the largest in Prague. It is a gothic cathedral with a very high ceiling and beautiful stained glass windows. It is much like Notre Dame in Paris. We also saw a small part of the medieval castle, including a royal throne and a great hall that was used for jousting on horses. We also saw St. George's Basilica. The main santuary was fairly plain with large portions of the ceiling fresco destroyed. However, there was a fancy side chapel that had the bones of an unknown person displayed in a glass case. Then we walked down Golden Lane, which had very small shops, including one where Franz Kafka once worked. At the end of the lane was the prison with torture devices on display.

St. Vitus's Cathedral

Inside St. Vitus's Cathedral

Painted shields of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia

Painted entrance to St. Vitus's Cathedral

Our tour guide had a very interesting way of speaking. He spoke very slowly, and he often started a sentence with the same phrase that ended the previous sentence. We couldn't help but take a video of one of his explanations.

Our tour guide talking about the Rudolfinum Concert Hall

Prague is known for its handmade marionettes. There were many stores filled with marionettes. We found an open air market, where several vendors were selling marionettes and other wooden toys at reasonable prices. Phil did a little bargaining, and we bought ourselves a Bohemian Princess marionette.

Marionette Store

As we were walking through the Old Town Square, a commercial was being recorded. We aren't really sure what the commercial was for. A couple was seated at a little bistro. These men in orange suits waited on them, while extras walked back and forth in front of the camera.

Commercial being recorded

About 19 Czech Kronas are equivalent to $1. We found it very difficult to trade money in Prague, though. The exchange kiosks were not very tourist friendly. They gave a significantly worse exchange rate if you were exchanging less than a couple thousand dollars. Luckily, some of the stores would let you pay for merchandise with US dollars.

Czech Kronas