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after breakfast we walked a half block to a tour bus to take the romantic road tour.  We drove through the countryside for a little over an hour and stopped at Harburg Castle.  It is one of the oldest and best presevered castles complexes in Germany.  We were only allowed to take pictures in the courtyard for the most part.  This castle was definitely designed for protection.  It was a huge stone structure on the top of a mountain.

Approaching the Castle from the outside.

Mike by the well in the court yard that was dug through several hundred feet of rock!

We walked on several structures like this.  They are sturdy as can be even though from below they look questionable!

Our guide let me take this picture even though it was inside.  It was dark in this particular area so I was not sure that it would come out.  I could not see him in my view finder but the flash sure did capture it perfectly!

After leaving the castle, we went to Rothenburg.   The drive was so picturesque, as we saw really wonderfully painted pictures on the houses in the villages we drove though.  They had various themes and they all have window boxes full of flowers.  It was like being in a fairytale.  While we did not stop along the way I was able to get some photos but most were blurry from either the sun hitting the window or the fact that the bus was moving but the one on the below is clear enough to share...

It is an old medieval town in the Franconia region of Bavaria.

This was a beautiful little town and my Granny would have loved the flowers!

She not only sold me something for my cold but  handed me a free package of tissues and two chocolates to make me feel better! 

I thought their building printed on the chocolates was interesting.

           of course a German restaurant…complete with a couple of steins of beer. .

Rothenburg, depends heavily on tourism and the people there speak very good English. There was an Orchestra comprised of High School students in the square. We stopped and listened when they played God Bless America and Stars and Stripes Forever. We were so far from home and the Band were US students.  There were signs around town welcoming the Ambassadors from the United States.

As we were leaving, I saw through a window Bavarian Pretzels that were just coming out of the oven. Well anyone who knows me well, knows I love soft pretzels, so I bought one even though I was still full from lunch. Halfway up the street, I took a bite and if we weren’t on our way to catch a bus I would have turned around and bought a half dozen more. It was the best soft pretzel I have ever had in my life. None of the others in Bavaria even came close.

That night we were going to go to the Hofbräu House but we got back later than we had anticipated and decided to find something closer to our room. Knowing German would have been helpful as the only thing we understood was the number of Euro the bill came to.  Oh well pointing works well.

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