Day 65 and Day 66

That's a fairly boring headline, isn't it?  But it shows that we are in the final weeks of our 3-month tour.

Day 65 and Day 66 we are driving from Prague, Czechia to Brugge, Belgium. We're only driving 3-4 hours each day ("only" says the passenger!) so we can see some sights along the way.

Day 65

We arrived for our stopover in Nuremberg, Germany and, darn, it was pouring down raining. We checked into our hotel and when the wind let up, we put up the umbrellas and walked a couple of blocks to the old town (below) for dinner.

We found a nice place for dinner (below) ...

But, of course, had to eat inside (below). Is it strange for you to see us in sweaters and sweatshirts in July?

The Mister had some liver dumpling soup (below) ... I shiver as I type that ...

... and then a Bavarian pork something for dinner. But look what's on my plate! (below)  I try not to eat what I call "foreign meat" (that's all meat outside the U.S. -- Earl groans at me) so I ordered this dish which was "homemade noodles with onions."

Sounded okay -- and it was delicious. I wasn't expecting the onions to be fried onions on top of the noodles -- but thank goodness they weren't those greasy canned Durkee onions! These were homemade and fantastic!  Of course, it was a typical Bavarian meal in size. I couldn't even eat half of it.

Gotta show you two funny things from the breakfast buffet at the hotel this morning (below) ...

Of course, this is in addition to cucumbers and tomatoes and baked beans and sand cake. Never heard of ginger water! They did have lots of breakfast items I do like, so no complaints.

Day 66

We traveled to Cologne, Germany, on Day 66 (Friday) and the sun was shining so we checked into our room and hit the streets to go to old town, a block away.

We split an almond pretzel (below) as we walked ...

We sat and had a beer watching the foot traffic on the Rhine River (below) ...

Cologne's old town isn't as charming as some other cities' ... and soon evolves into foot traffic for name brand stores. No, thanks!

We'll stick to the side streets and more authentic places in that case (below) ...

Earl made me laugh when we passed this place (below) ...

He said, "That's what you say when you want one beer in Germany: Ein Stein, bitte!" (Bitte is "please.") He cracks me up.

We even managed to see a real bride and groom (below) in Cologne today, saying goodbye to their family and friends after the wedding.

I was tickled to see a shop of 4711 Cologne (below), invented 220 years ago here.  I used to wear that ages ago and had no idea it's from Cologne and was invented at a 4711 house number in this city.
 

There is supposed to be a cathedral in Cologne but one look at it and Earl and I knew it was just a facade.

You come around the corner and there it is. What a fake -- don't you agree?

I even saw a replica of it (below) in a museum gift shop, PROVING the cathedral is a fake.

 

Okay, I'm done kidding.

On a serious note, I was very happy when Earl spotted these markers (below) in the sidewalk in Cologne. 

We saw these in Prague. They are stolpersteins, or "stumbling stones," a brass plate placed in front of a home where a person lived, before becoming a victim of Nazi terror. The brass plate gives the person's name and birth date and what happened to them. This project was begun by a German artist named Gunter Demnig (below) just in 1992! 

Talk about one person with an idea doing something important! As of October 2007, Gunter Demnig had already laid more than 13,000 stolpersteines in more than 280 cities. Wikipedia says he expanded his project beyond the borders of Germany to Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, and Hungary. It's very moving to stand right in front of a house ... and learn about who lived there and what happened.

Thanks for reading my blog! Next time I write I will be in Belgium. Never been there before!

Jane