July 18
Departing for Heidelberg we had about a 4 hour bus ride and stopped for lunch in Nuremberg. The city was originally the headquarters for the Nazi party and also the site of the famous Nuremberg trials after the war. We only spent a few hours there, but got to see a lot of Christmas shops and blonde-haired, blue-eyed german boys… We got to see the famous Beautiful Fountain and ate some delicious ice cream frrrrrrom McDonald’s!! Yep Ronald is definitely all over the world. But this was the first time we broke down and went for a stateside classic.
So we drove on to Heidelberg and stayed in Ludwigbourge? Our fabulous German bus driver got us lost, once again, but we did finally make it the Hotel Excelsior. Lauren and I scored a double again. It was dinnertime, so the whole grouped walked into this tiny town which was almost deserted do to it being Sunday evening, but we got to eat at an Italian restaurant that just so happens to be in an old church. It was probably one of our favorite dinner evenings. We actually ended up eating on the patio because the weather was fabulous. Lauren and I split the weiner schnitzel and it was mouthwateringly delicious. The group played a rousing game of Truth or Dare via my iphone app and we ended up shutting the place down. The owners were such great Italian people. They brought their little grandbaby over, Lucia, who had the cutest black ringlet curls and l got to hold her. Then he went to their gelato stand and a couple of the kids in our group tried to catch flinging ice cream in their mouth from about 20 feet away. It was hilarious, especially when it pelted one of the girls in the face! What a night…