Well I enjoyed my bike ride the other day so much, I got up early and biked 5 Miles to the little town down the road called Detwang (I was also still trying to work off that pork shoulder and potato dumplings!). It’s one of the oldest villages in Franconia dating to 968. Found a cute church, a nice hotel/restaurant for a cold drink and a pretty house along the way. It’s nice how many houses do lots of flowers in their window boxes. Just makes the places so cheerful.
I then came back and did the tour of the town that the Tourism office gives. While the Night Watchman Tour was fun, this was more the real history of the town. It was interesting to learn the reason most of the town was spared from mass bombings during World War II. So Hitler had told his main leaders to never surrender but it just so happened that the main leader who was stationed in Rothenburg was away for the weekend. It also just happened that the primary US Commander’s mother had visited Rothenburg back in the early 1900’s and had several pictures of the beautiful city on her walls while the US Commander was growing up and he always wanted to visit there. So when the orders came in to bomb Rothenburg he did not want to do it and went to try to convince the German leader to surrender. They both knew the end of the war was near (this was April of 1945 and the war ended in May 1945) and Dresden (we’ll visit that city together in about a month or so) had just been ferociously bombed and almost completely obliterated so he convinced the German backup commander to surrender and thus save the beautiful town. Now is that just all happen stance or what? Guess it was just meant to be. OK, that’s the end of the World War II history for now but plenty more to come over the next two months!
For my evening entertainment I had the most fun visiting with a bunch of local German people. Every Wed night at this restaurant they have what they call the English Conversation Club. The Germans want to work on their English so English people show up and have dinner and converse with them. Only 3 of us showed up (me and a couple from Idaho) but it was so fun meeting them all and talking. They asked a lot of questions about Trump!! Lol
And lastly, when I take the bike in and out of the hotel owner’s garage, I always walk past their cool 1964 red Triumph Vitesse and I just had to share a pic. Has that James Bond feel!
Well we’re off to Nuremberg tomorrow! Happy Hump Day to all!!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 