June 9, 2013. Thunderstorms, Palaces, and Braueries
We were surprised at how quickly the weather had changed; overnight, it became very cloudy and the skies were somewhat threatening this morning. After a great breakfast buffet at our hotel (included in the room rate), we took a quick ride on the U-Bahn to the Nuremberg airport, just north of town, to pick up our rental car. We had planned to visit Bayreuth today. Chris' father had lived there as a child in the 1940s, so we were interested to see the city and take some pictures to bring back to him.
After an easy drive through some beautiful countryside, we arrived at what we thought was the Altes Schloss. But our location sure didn't match the guidebook's description. We were looking for something outside of town, with nice gardens, but my GPS had put us in the center of town near a building called Schlosskirche. We did find a church tower nearby to climb, and when we made it to the top, we ran into a tour group whose leader told us that the tower was normally locked, and we'd have to exit with his group - otherwise, we'd be locked in! That left us no time to take pictures of the view from the tower. Oh well, at least we'd been able to climb it!
We wandered the streets looking for the Neues Schloss, and finally found it a short distance from where the GPS had placed it. As we entered, the skies finally opened up, and we were treated to an very intense rainstorm. Luckily, we were inside. Here, we made our best purchase of the whole trip: a 14-day Bavarian Castles Pass for 40 Euros. This pass works on a large number of castles throughout Bavaria, and is an incredible bargain.
We stopped by Maisel's Brauerei, which is an old brewery which has been converted into a museum. The functional brewery is now in a larger facility elsewhere in town, but the museum houses much of the original equipment. The hops smelled great.
And you get a half-liter sample at the end of the tour! Not quite a 20-liter sample, like the size of this monster stein, but it made for a very enjoyable lunch stop.
Then we were back on the road looking for the small town of Sanspareil with its famous rock garden (also included in our Castles Pass).
We drove through other charming small towns and found Sanspareil without a problem. The rock garden was a little different than I expected - more trees and fewer rock formations, most of which had been enhanced. But overall a very enjoyable stop.
Then we were back on the road looking for the small town of Sanspareil with its famous rock garden (also included in our Castles Pass).
We drove through other charming small towns and found Sanspareil without a problem. The rock garden was a little different than I expected - more trees and fewer rock formations, most of which had been enhanced. But overall a very enjoyable stop.
It was not crowded, and the coolness of the forest and the grottos was refreshing. There was also a "hunting lodge" nearby that we visited - the view of the countryside was beautiful from the tower.
From there, a fast ride down the Autobahn back to Nuremberg, to meet Sven for dinner - he was an exchange student who lived with my Mother and younger brothers for a while, 15+ years ago. I haven't seen him since the mid-90s but we recognized each other right away! After we returned the rental car, Sven drove us back to the city to meet his wife and we had an enjoyable dinner in their apartment.
We had great home-made schnitzel with pilsner, reminisced over some old stories about my younger brothers which shall of course remain unpublished, and shared some travel stories before Sven drove us home. Turns out, we'd both been to Rome recently and it was nice to share our experiences there.
Tomorrow is our anniversary. We were supposed to be taking the train to Vienna to catch the Avalon Affinity, but not to be. So we'll stay here another day and see what else we can do, before going to Munich on Tuesday.
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