We landed in Frankfurt about 9:00 Thursday (Donnerstag) August 28. Marty was alert and raring to go, but Don does not sleep well in an airliner seat. It took some searching and asking to find the car rental desk, but we finally did. We thanked Providence many times for the widespread usability of the English language in Germany. "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" was almost always met with either "Yes" or a shrug and "little bit".
More wandering, searching and asking got us from the rental desk to the section of the airport parking garage where our car and attendant were ensconced. This was the first of several adventures with parking garages we had over the next few weeks.
We checked out our Opel Astra hatchback, loaded our luggage, and began the driving experience by almost slamming into the garage wall, mistaking the first gear slot for the reverse slot. Don would take some time to relearn driving of a manual shift car.
We knew that returning the car on the day of our departure would be another adventure since we would be driving in from Bacharach about 60 km away, trying to fill up the gas tank near the airport, find the return garage and section, and leave time for security and check-in. So our planning included using our Garmin GPS to record our position at the car rental/return location and thus having the Garmin guide us back three weeks later. We did not anticipate, however, that the position we wanted to record would be indoors! So the first couple of minutes after we got the Astra in forward motion in the garage were hectic. Don is trying to maneuver the strange car to the exit, Marty is trying to get the Garmin ready to navigate to Hotel Victoria in Nuremburg the second we get a clear sky so we don't miss a turn and start the wrong way on the autobahn, and we are trying to review the procedure for recording a waypoint while in motion. We were hoping there would be a little clear area where we could stop for a minute and gather ourselves before actually getting on a high speed road, but nooo - the garage exit dumped us right out into speeding traffic. What a way to start the day! But somehow we got it all done without serious mishap and the next thing we know we are cruising at 120 kph on the autobahn toward Nuremburg.
The Garmin GPS was a blessing (we bought it in the US with western European maps as an extra) but, even so, translating what you saw on the display into what actual turns to make could still be challenging. The streets in the "old town" sections of the cities are never, ever, laid out in a rectangular grid. And the street signs are sized and placed so that they do not distract from the charm that you came here for. We got better at navigating with practice.
Anyhow, after a few passes by it we made our way to the doorstep of the Hotel Victoria. This required us to drive up onto what appeared to be an outdoor cafe and stop next to some diners. Marty jumped out and forayed into the hotel to ask for help, hoping the clerk spoke English and that I wasn't arrested and towed away before she got back. As it turned out, my stopping place was a perfectly acceptable unloading point for hotel guests even though we seemed to be on a pedestrian surface. (As we could see later, with a clearer eye, there was a subtle distinction between the driving surface and the pedestrian surface. The paving stones were laid in a different pattern.)
The hotel concierge then gave us directions to their parking garage and how to get the car in and how to operate the doors with their tokens. All of this done via a book of photographs they had prepared and which made it all very clear. However, as we would find out the next day she neglected to tell us how to get the car out of the garage.
The Germans can't stand a view without a flower in it. We saw several of these hall decorations during our trip. Much more pleasant than the motels we stay on U.S. trips.
We were delighted with the room decor almost everywhere we went. The bedding is typical, from the pillows folded like table napkins to the single cover (not tucked under the mattress) for the sleeper.
Just outside our hotel Marty enjoys this example of medieval defense architecture. Most of the "old towns" we visited had at least remnants of walls.
Also just outside our hotel was a courtyard devoted to craft shops (Handwerkerhof).
An especially cute craft shop with a cute name. One gets used to seeing "Weinstube" (Wine Bar) signs. In German, "Puppen" means "Dolls", but "Puppenstube" is a little hard to translate. "Dolls Bar" sounds like a strip joint.
A typical sight in the "old towns". This particular one is St. Lawrence's Church (Lawrenzkirche). This is a good place to say that many German cities were heavily bombed in WWII. Nuremburg was no exception, so much of what is seen today has been rebuilt. Decisions were made based on the extent of the damage.
Here is an example of something (sculpture) being salvaged and put up on a newly built structure. In case it isn't obvious, that is a street sign below the sculpture. Almost every street sign we saw was attached about 3 meters up on the corner of a building, sometimes very hard to see from a car. The street is named after the celebrated medieval artist Albrecht Durer who lived here the last part of his life.
One thing Don always enjoys seeing is a sundial (left). In this case a double. It suited the location and orientation of the tower it was mounted on.
Don also loves clocks. This nice example (right) has a moon display and an automaton.
The "Fountain of the Seven Virtues". Fountains are very popular in the old towns. Their style runs from simple pipes to elaborate sculptures like this one.
At this outdoor cafe (left) we had one of our first samplings of German cuisine. We had lots of pork. It was always delicious.
Don enjoys finding a distant cousin. (But then we are all distant cousins.) We found several Grimm businesses on our trip. Interesting that the sign is in English.
Two more examples of ancient ruins apparently grafted on to modern buildings.
We spent only Thursday night in Nuremburg. Friday morning we trundled our luggage the 60 meters or so to the parking garage, used our tokens to pass through the pedestrian door and loaded up for our trip to Rothenburg. We easily maneuvered our Opel to the exit door which we knew would be closed but expected its opening mechanism to be obvious. It wasn't. It did not have an attendant. It did not open automatically by detecting our presence. It did not have a pedestal with a button reachable from the driver's window. Marty got out to look around for clues to the exiting process. Just about the time we were thinking we would have to park again and go back to the hotel to ask for help, (How embarrasing!) a lady in native costume (very popular for those in the tourist businesses) walked in through the entrance door right next to where we were parked scratching our heads. Marty made it clear to her in a combination of sign language and English that we wanted to raise our exit door. The lady responded (in English, of course) that raising the door was accomplished by pulling a wire hanging down vertically from the ceiling about 10 meters from the door on the approach. Perhaps in backing up to re-park we would have noticed this wire and given it a try. We'll never know.