Day 4: Wurzburg

We left our gracious hosts in the morning. Train from Sachsen to Nurnberg Hauptbahnhof (main train station) then the U2 (U-bahn/subway) to the airport to pick up our rental car. Sweet Ford Focus (no sarcasm here... It really is sweet. Can't even be compared to Chris' old Focus). Then hit the road toward the Rhine Valley. Stopped in Wurzburg along the way to see it's Residenz. Beautiful palace in Rococo and Baroque style - Germany's version of Versailles. You know how much I like old stuff - we walked through the palace rooms, with their lavish decor, huge frescos, tapestries, neat furniture, and art. (In much of the art, the "4 continents" are represented. The Americas is always an uncivilized naked woman on an alligator, often with chocolate. So that's what they thought about us in the 1700s.)

The gardens are beautiful - 3 distinct areas (which we learned is the definition of Baroque gardens): French, Italy, and England. I probably wouldn't have come up with this realization on my own, but having been to those places - these gardens really did symbolize what we saw in those countries. French - nicely trimmed trees with rows of shaded park benches, just like in Paris. England - sort of a "messy", casual park with sporadic benches. Italy - terraced with a small vineyard. Really, really pretty - beautiful tulips! This park is open, free to the public. Wouldn't it be nice to get to walk around this with a sandwich (or brat) on your lunch break?

Back on the autobahn headed for the Rhine. Skipped along the outskirts of Frankfurt along the way, not much interest in seeing a big modern city. (Our GPS had somehow converted back to German. After trying to find the language settings for about 15min, we decided to go with it. So we're now [attempting to] navigate in German. It's a great educational tool.)