Day 4 (1) -- Munich to Nuremberg

Today we were excited as we knew by sundown we'd be aboard the river ship settled in for the trip down the Danube. We checked out of the hotel--our car didn't have the complimentary liters of water as it had for our aborted trip to Schwangau two days before, but we still looked forward to a small auto tour through southern Germany by way of Rothenberg ob der Tauber.

In our once previous trip to Germany in the '80s we'd been through the town before. We were told it was the place for Hummels and that was certainly true then.  The day started out cloudy in the mid 20s, but the autobahn was clear of any snow so it turned out to be an easy drive.

Like all things, Rothenberg had changed.  Before we'd come in April--now we were attempting to visit during the high Christmas season. We pulled into the first parking lot and were astonished at the number of parked buses--there must have been 25 or more! This was not a good sign as far as we were concerned. We were also not excited to spend 5 Euros to park outside the walls, just to walk into the city.

Der Apfel Pie

One of the things we remember about Europe is that when McDonald's converted to baked apple pies in the U.S. back in the '80s, Europe did not follow that trend. So we always try to eat at least once in a McDonald's in Europe, just to clog the arteries a bit for the great taste of the fried apple pies. We decided to try to eat lunch at Rothenburg, and so set our trusty GPS to guide us to the nearest location.  Well, evidently there is a McDonald's INSIDE the walls of Rothenburg. Our GPS had no problem suggesting how to drive into the inner city. So we tried it. We finally gave up at the "no cars 11-1600 hrs" sign, just after we'd seen the tour bus go by. LOTS of people. We figured there must be more than one McDonald's in Germany, so we pressed on for Nuremberg, skipping Rothenburg.

Anspach Church
(and Christmas Market)

Anspach is on the road to Nuremberg.  What a cool-looking city! With a very old city center just off the highway, it wasn't overrun by tourists. We took a photo of their central church in our search for lunch. The restaurant ended up being on the main drag. The employees were very helpful and patient with us as outside of "apfel", "bitte", and "danke", our German was pretty pitiful. This particular location had a McCafe in it, which looked pretty good for a space to stop and take a morning break in the future. But we did get our apple pie...

We arrived that afternoon in Nuremberg. The car needed to be dropped at the airport and we read somewhere that taxis charge for additional passengers, so we first stopped at the ship, which was docked at the Nuremberg port...well sort of. Turned out the "port" section was basically alongside the canal with some other ships with the same idea of going south--two of them were in fact other Viking ships.

Check-in was published as starting at 3:00 p.m., but we found out later early arrival was no problem--they even had food set out for those who arrived around lunchtime. Plus they provided shuttles to the city center for those who wanted a jump on the Christmas Market. The map on the Viking site gave a clue to the actual location, but Google maps photos of the area showed a river boat in the exact spot. We checked in, and I drove to the airport to drop off the car. They closed at 6:00 p.m. according to their website. Really it was a "fill out your form and drop it into the box" return. The counter person inside would not check me in, even though I was there around 4:30 p.m. I took a cab back to the port--the cabbie figured out "Viking boat Nuremberg Port" and he took me through town, which although slower was the shortest route.  I was getting concerned when 6 Euros had clicked off the meter and we hadn't gotten off the airport site, but we arrived with 27 Euros showing on the meter.

The Welcome Location

 After a quick unpack, we visited with friends and went to the lounge for the "Welcome Briefing", prior to a 7:00 p.m. dinner in the restaurant. The first of the "Viking Daily" documents were placed in our rooms. These consisted of four pages that outlined the next day's events, along with brief histories of the area. A nice item.

The Odin parked between the Freya and Embla, all new for 2012.

After dinner it was quiet talk as we looked forward to the tour beginning.