Road trip

DAY 11 of “Chancellor Watch” – Both the SDP and CDU parties called Wednesday's talks "fruitful" and "serious". But added they were still not ready to formally negotiate, or decide on a chancellor.

A three-day weekend is quickly approaching, thanks to a German holiday on Monday. Never to waste the travel possibilities of a long weekend, Buddy and I have decided to check out a stretch of Germany known as The Romantic Road, or Romantische Strasse. This section of German countryside runs for 180 miles between the cities of Wurzburg in the north and Fussen, located in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps to the south. Clearly, this vast amount of touring cannot be adequately done in three days by “Young travel standards”, so we have decided to visit the upper section of this area in our upcoming weekend.

The name itself is not intended to attract lovebirds, so to speak, but rather uses the word romance to mean wonderful, fabulous, and imaginative. And of course, this road started out as a road on which the Romans traveled.

For this trip, we’ll concentrate on the crown jewel of The Romantic Road, Rothenburg-ob-de-Tauber. Although it can be fraught with hordes of tourists, this time of year should help us manage this challenge. We’ve been told if we only have time for one town on the Romantic Road, then this is place to visit. Supposedly, this town is the best preserved medieval city in Europe. So, we’ll start in Wurzburg on Friday PM and head south as far as Dinkelsbuhl, seeing Rothenburg-ob-de-Tauber somewhere in the middle.

Wurzburg is about a 3 hour drive, so this is Friday night’s destination. And yes, road trips do require the careful packing of the vehicle to ensure that all necessary roadtrip paraphernalia are included. This includes the proper selection of CDs to ensure road trip appropriate music is in order, travel books in the offchance we see something not on the itinerary and need more information, road snacks and beverages, camera, reading material (usually in the form of Entertainment Weekly magazines that are now piling up in my living room), sunglasses (although today’s clouds, cool weather, and gray sky may negate the need for these)…just to name a few.

Pictures will be forthcoming, so check back regularly.