7/27/2008, Vilseck, Rothenberg ob de Tauber

So last night I took my evening "constitutional" around town. Vilseck is really a very beautiful and quaint village, nice old German buildings, a beautiful, onion-domed, church, very nice and friendly folks decked out in traditional lederhosen and dirndls – no really, beautiful, quaint, old, church, and lederhosen and dirndls, I think there was a wine festival going on downtown. They were all very nice, though. I felt right at home.

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Today we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. About an hour from here by car, Rothenburg is the German Disneyland (and I mean that in the best aspects of the word). If you were to imaging the typical German village that you see at Oktoberfests and in movies and things like that, Rothenburg is your place. Of course it comes with the huge crowd of tourist to match.

We started by hunting down a place to eat. The nice café had wonderful food on the central square, straight from central casting. Amazing views and good food – give me a break. Oh, yes – and it’s also a brewery. Can you believe it? So the house Kellerbier is a nice, pretty golden brown color, with a sudsy ring of foam winking at you from the top. Nice balance of hops to malt without blowing you out of the water, and a little tang of the hops on the back of your tongue. A wonderful little session beer.

Walking around after lunch it is a little hard to believe this place. You see another one of those places that defies description without using that trite, overused travel vocabulary. And that’s OK. It was swell. We went to Käthe Wohlfart Christmas store and ogled ornaments. We looked at great old buildings, with every new square a new panorama of amazing views. There are the cute building signs. The half-timbered construction on walls. The amazing churches. The fortress walls. It was all so cool and all so tritely tourist. I loved every minute of it.

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Z is putting her college degree to use tonight and taking some pictures of Keyra’s college friends. It should be an entertaining end to a wonderful day.

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On a more serious note, I am sad to note the passing of one of my biggest fans, Florence Gross. Pat Zollner’s mom (of polka band fame), Florence always told me that I was her favorite trumpet player. It was always a joy to see her face in the audience at Mt. Angel, and I will miss her this year, and every year.