We started the morning driving to Würzburg. The car has navigation that it does help to set to the correct version of the town. Apparently not only is there a town called Würzburg but the region is called that so i accidentally picked the wrong town so it took us the scenic route. Mostly okay except for the single car road yet not a one way road thru the woods. There was a low fog cloud most of the way that was for a very nice view.
Once in Würzburg we went to the residence / palace. We walked around as well as took the tour. It was interesting that the only piece that was not destroyed in WW2 was the main staircase whose ceiling is one a of the largest domed ceilings with an alfresco paining. I guess the big thing for destroying things in WW2 other than bombing was setting buildings on fire. Since it was a block ceiling it was not affected by fire. The other areas were recreated, i guess they took pictures and anything that could be pulled off the walls was taken to preserve. The picture directly above was near the christmas market, but this was more popular. It was right on a rivers bridge and everyone was on the bridge outside it drinking wine. Real wine not that hot stuff.
The Palace also has gardens. They had this gnome looking trees with statues under them. Very nicely trimmed but just a little odd. Next to that is the christmas market, this neat stand was serving a large vat of warm wine, so i tried it but i think ill stick with the hot chocolate. Below is a a guy in a strait jacket, not sure what his story was he was right outside of a cathedral. Seems like this place has gone between being Presbyterian and Catholics so it likely symbols something. The church he was sitting outside of had a giant menorah right inside the entrance at the start of the aisle that lead to the alter. No information on that may need to look it up.
This is the palace entrance.
From Würzburg we drove to Rothenburg. The sun goes down about 4:30 so most of the pictures seem to be taken at night even if its not really that late. The drive over was on the 7 which we found out later is one of those no speed limit roads. So now I understand why every car we see is either a BMW, Mercedes or Audi. We quietly cruz at 130kph (80mph) and everyone is flying by.
Rothenburg is a walled town that is very well preserved. The last activity of the day was taking the night watchman's tour. So there was this guy in costume with a candle lantern and this large part axe, part joust, part pick looking thing. He talked about the fact that there use to be 6 night watchmen that would walk the town. He cracked a bunch of jokes and gave a great history of the town. It was only partially bombed during WW2 and would have been fully destroyed if not for the mercy of one US general that offered them the option to surrender, which they did. As with other places they talked about the chamber pots being tossed out the window, and the plague that eventually occurred, due to rats and flees, killing 40% of the population.
These are called snowballs. They are round kinda like a really crispy donut with added flavors. I tried the apple cinnamon. It was really good. We also had a sausage that was wound up onto a bun like a hamburger. It was real good, we seem to be eating a lot of our meals at the markets. I was able to acquire two more christmas mugs. So at the christmas market if you get a drink such as the hot wine or hot chocolate you pay extra for a mug, you can keep the mug or return it for the deposit. I am now up to 3 mugs.
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