Smart Travels Europe with Rudy Maxa Germany’s Romantic Road Germany’s Rhine
GERMANY’S ROMANTIC ROAD
The Romantic Road winds through some of Germany’s most picturesque countryside complete with medieval villages and Baroque Palaces. We start our journey in Wnrzburg where we visit the spectacular Baroque Bishop’s Palace or Residenz and taste wine at one of Wnrzburg’s many wine festivals. Next we visit the castle of the Teutonic Knights in Bad Mergentheim and a short distance away the Deutsches Auto Museum in the Renaissance Castle of Prince Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Every July the medieval town of Dinkelsbnhl celebrates the day the children saved the town during the Thirty Years War. We get a front row seat complete with dancing, music and an historic reenactment. We finish our trip in Rothenburg, the best preserved medieval walled city in Germany.
GERMANY’S RHINE & MOSEL
For centuries the Rhine has been a natural border and the main route for trade, people and ideas. We start in the ancient Roman city of Trier and travel up the Mosel River visiting vineyards and ancient castles. We’ll take a scenic cruise down th Rhine for a sailor’s eye view of famous Rhine castles and the lovely but dangerous Lorelei. In Koblenz we’ll see where Julius Cesar destroyed two Germanic tribes but was never able to conquer Germany, and just down stream we’ll see where American troops first crossed the Rhine during World War II at the bridge at Remagen. Our trip concludes in the city of Cologne where we’ll visit the modern art museum and sample Kolsch, the local beer.
PRAGUE & BUDAPEST We leave Western Europe behind as we venture to the exotic cities of Prague and Budapest. In Prague, we marvel at the startlingly beautiful old town and tour the labyrinthine castle that haunted writer Franz Kafka. Bohemian glass dazzles us as we browse the flourishing shops in this former Communist country, and we witness the scene of the Velvet Revolution. Then it’s off to Budapest…