On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by honeybee723

Didn't they all have mistresses back then ?

and you can see what was in it for the mistresses, if that's the sort of thing they had built for them.

[lazanya]

Great update!

[chezp]

Friday 26 March – part five: what is with our credit card today?

We made it down easily enough and, again were able to wander around, getting some photos of the exterior and the town below, before we had to pay anything. The rain hadn’t relented at all at this point and we were both very glad of our think waterproof coats.



We then went to pay and decided to get a guidebook as well. It came to €15 ($20.25), so I got the credit card out and the woman started to tell me in German that she didn’t accept it. I’m sorry, but I can see a credit card machine from here... We told her to forget it and then she told me that we could pay for the entrance in cash and she’d put the book through on the credit card. Well, that still left us paying €10. Not good enough. : We said no again and suddenly she could take the entrance on the card (€10) and we’d have to pay cash for the guidebook (€5). It was all very weird, but we agreed on that and finally got our entrance tickets and the guidebook. What her problem was, I have no idea.

We entered and I was a bit disappointed to begin with, as there were a couple of vans parked up that were in places exactly where I wanted to get photos. I worked around them very carefully.



It was a bit odd here, as they seemed to have various areas that were exclusive to tour groups and we didn’t have the option of taking a tour by purchasing tickets individually, which seemed a bit unfair. I guess it’s how they want you to visit, but it didn’t help us....

At least we were able to see all of the exterior of the castle and we were able to get some great views down towards the town, although we had to content with a bus load of Japanese, who had just been dumped there and literally pushed us out of the way to get their photos. At least they didn’t have long there and soon had to go, leaving us to get some photos with the tripod. Fortunately, the rain all but stopped for long enough to allow us to do that.



I was particularly pleased to get such a lovely view of the Altes Brucke (old bridge) below that dates from the late 18th century and the main market place with the church next to it. It is a beautiful old German town and well worth seeing.



We then went inside the castle and found the massive wine storage vats that were kept here. As Mark said, with the biggest one, if you managed to finish that one, you’d have a seriously big headache. You could ever walk up and over the things, thanks to the addition of steps and viewing platforms. It was really fascinating.



We were going to use the toilets here, but unfortunately the French influence has obviously arrived here and they were charging €0.50 ($0.68) to use the facilities. We decided we could wait until we reached our hotel....

We headed out and it’s a great shame that the new funicular railway wasn’t running. I wasn’t aware that they had a funicular here and that’s probably because the information posters informed us that it only opened on 1 January 2010. Sadly, it wasn’t running, as it was down for work. Mark went back to get the car and drove down to meet me, while I went to get some photos of the station and the railway tracks. It looks lovely and I wish it had been working.



Next: keep moving or you’ll freeze to death!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures from the castle! Strange about her not wanting to accept your credit card!

[honeybee723]

I the pictures of the castle! They really enjoyed their wine didn't they ?

[KMB733]

Wonderful pictures of the castle!

[pamcarey]

Great pictures! My DH went to Heidelberg in high school, so this gives me an idea of what I saw. How strange about the credit card!

[disney_duke]

Wow. That's a lot of wine. Holy smokes! Even with the clouds and yucky weather, your pictures are still excellent!!

[oldmom]

school has ended here and the art historian is no longer coming to read your TR with me every morning. he said to compliment you on your photography skills and your descriptions. it has made him decide to travel to Germany this summer to visit his family! They live in Stuttgard and several of the towns you've been in.

[lazanya]

Great pictures of the castle!

[luvnwdwgal]

Can't wait for more Cheryl!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by oldmom

school has ended here and the art historian is no longer coming to read your TR with me every morning. he said to compliment you on your photography skills and your descriptions. it has made him decide to travel to Germany this summer to visit his family! They live in Stuttgard and several of the towns you've been in.

That's wonderful news - I'm glad I was able to help inspire him.

[chezp]

Friday 26 March – part six: keep moving or you’ll freeze to death!

We set out on the road again, driving through Heidelberg, with me getting some photos as we did.



Once we got back out on the Autobahn, the rain made it almost impossible to photograph anything. It had turned into a mean day, almost impossible to believe that we’d had such good weather only a couple of hours earlier.

As we got towards Frankfurt, the cloud did lift and the rain turned into more of a drizzle. There was certainly a heck of a queue of traffic heading out of the city and suddenly we hit it as well, but fortunately we were coming off at that junction, which meant we avoided the worst of it.



Soon we could see the skyscrapers of Frankfurt, which made a lovely sight and we saw more of them as we drove into the city.



We saw many, many hotels, mostly in the business district, but none of them were the Hilton. That was actually a good sign, as it turned out that it was much closer to the main sights of the city than the other hotels.



We crossed the river and then found it staring us in the face on the left hand side. I went in, checked in and discovered that, once again, I’d got one of my cheap upgrades. I like this system! I asked about parking, but didn’t quite get what the guy said to me and we headed round to park the car up, discovering then that it was valet parking only, so we had to reverse back and then hand the keys over, something we were a bit reluctant to do, but there was a good reason, as we were to find out shortly.

We headed up to our room on the seventh floor and it was lovely and big.



We also had a nice view of the city.



We had some down time and then I suggested going swimming. On the way, we changed up some of the last Swiss francs that Mark still had and checked the restaurant menu, deciding to go there for dinner. We also went to see valet parking and explained that we’d left something in the car and a guy escorted us down to the parking garage. I really wish that we’d taken the camera with us, but as we were going swimming, we hadn’t. The sight that greeted us down there was amazing. Our car was parked on a slope, with the wheels locked in place, and for a good reason, as we saw some nearby that had been stacked on top of each other, as they obviously moved up and down.

We had a real nightmare finding the health club. We tried following the signs, but they weren’t clear and we ended up at a barrier entry. I suggested going back to the first floor, where it was signed from the elevators, so we tried that and we seemed to walk forever to get to another elevator. Good grief, were we ever going to get there? Fortunately, this elevator brought us out in the right place and we were handed our locker keys and off we went, with Mark saying that he “wasn’t sure about this, as it all seemed to be lane swimming.” To be honest, that was music to my eyes, as I’m a lane swimmer by nature anyway.

When we got to the pool though, you could see that everyone in there was taking it pretty seriously. We found a lane with just one woman in, who got out almost as soon as we got in, and the first shock was the temperature of the water! Oh my goodness, how cold? Mark stood there in shock, but I figured the best way to deal with it was just to get going and swim, which I did. I managed about 10 lengths in total, but you did have to keep moving, so that you didn’t freeze to death! That’s something Mark didn’t do and he was really cold as a result.

We soon got out, with Mark declaring this had been a bad plan. I got changed, deciding to opt for a shower when we got back to the room, but Mark decided to shower down there. He apparently had a complete nightmare, getting his locker to open and I must admit that it took me a few attempts as well. At least I had enough of a grasp of German that I could ask anyone for help, which of course, he didn’t have. I think it was a scary few minutes for him, shall we say?

We headed back to the room, where I showered, washed and dried my hair. That done, we headed down to the restaurant for dinner. We were going to go for the set menu, but when we were seated, there was no sign of it in our menu, so we opted to go a la carte, as we saw some good choices on there. Mark asked for the clam chowder, which we planned to share, but it never showed up and it was never charged to us, so I assume our server just didn’t write that one down?

For main course, I went for the handmade ravioli, with crayfish, asparagus and lobster bisque and that was absolutely divine.

Mark had the rack of lamb with baked potato, which rolled up complete with cream cheese on top of it and he was very happy with it. Having seen all about the making of Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned sheep at the Mercedes-Benz Museum earlier, there were lots of jokes about it being Dolly.

As we’d both enjoyed our main course so far, we decided to go for dessert, but that was a mistake, as we waited and waited for it, then we waited a bit more and still a bit more. I reckon we easily waited 20 minutes or so for it. Was it worth it? Not really, sadly. I had the Dream of Chocolate, which was chocolate brulee with raspberries, strawberries and blackberries, but it wasn’t great. It was Ok, but nothing special and they put a cake with it and that didn’t work at all.

Mark had the apple pie with deep fried Bailey’s ice, along with nuts, and he was about as impressed with his as I was with mine, as he said his was far too dry. It wasn’t a great end to the meal and it was a shame, as the main course had been so good. It was a pricey meal too, as it came to €88.60. ($120)Don’t ask me why there are no photos – I could’ve sworn we took the camera with us, but obviously we either didn’t, or the photos never got uploaded.

Pacific Colours:

Entree 9½ 9
Dessert 6½ 5
Service 6 6½
Atmosphere 8 8
Value for money 6½ 7

Average score: 7.20

By the time we finished dessert, I was pretty much dead on my feet and it was straight up to the room and off to bed for me.

Today we drove xx miles.
The weather today was warm and sunny with temperatures in the high 60s in the morning, then rain and much colder later on.
The best thing today was the Mercedes-Benz museum.
The worst thing today was how the weather changed so suddenly.
Today we tried visiting the Mercedes-Benz museum
And the result was it’s an amazing place and well worth a visit.
The most magical moment today was looking down on Heidelberg from the castle.

Next: the centre of this city is stunning!

[chezp]

Just so you know, there won't be any update tomorrow until late afternoon our time (lunchtime EST).

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures of Frankfurt! Sorry about the cold pool, and the bits of the meal lacking!