Breakfast at the bakery, nothing tops that!

Nothing better than being with your children!

In the morning a walk around reveals a beautiful old town.

Bakeries in Germany are magical!

The triangular square at the confluence of the two rivers is called Deutsches Eck (German Corner).

At the Deutsches Eck one can take a cable car to cross the Rhine and go to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.

The Ehrenbreitstein Fortress was once one of the largest in Europe and it is very well preserved as a museum.

The Kurfürstliches Schloss.

In our way to Heidelberg a pleasant surprise: the delightful town of Bacharach!

Original old buildings with wooden structure transport visitors back several centuries. Some of the houses were there earlier than America was discovered by Columbus.

The Heidelberg Castle and Garden are the postal cards of this famous university city.

The Deutsches Apotheken Museum is a must see inside the castle.

Our princess in the castle!

The castle overlooks the old town of Heidelberg.

Germans were always keen on their strategic reserves!

Old town Heidelberg. Unfortunately Carolina had to go back to Bochum and we continued by ourselves. But seeing her for a few days recharged our affective bateries.

Keeping hydrated!

The old town is surrounded by the medieval wall and one can walk all around.

Some of the buildings are really old and show the construction techniques were used at that time.

Walk with us on the old city wall.

Ansbach \240is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia.

Church of Our Lady and the beautiful fountain from 1396.

Nüremberg also has a good part of the medieval wall preserved.

Visiting the Albrecht Dürer’s house. Nürember is very proud of its most famous and prestigious artist.

Dürer was a contemporary of the Italian masters of the renaissance, and he was equally influential.

One of Dürer’s legacies in his prolific work on prints.

Unfortunately the city guide gave me some bad news: the Dürer and the Dürr families are not related, so there it goes my potentially famous ancestor…

The imperial castle.

The house of the city’s executioner was over the river because only “respectable citizens” were allowed to live in town. But since the executioner was an important person nevertheless, he was provided a house over the river, which was not outside the city either. One of these executioners was considered an earlier feminist, because he refused to kill women by drowning and advocated that they should be beheaded as men were.

The view of the castle from the Marienbrücke (bridge) is phenomenal.

The day couldn’t be more perfect. Sunny and light snow.

The Hohenschwangau castle can be seen from the Neuschwanstein castle.

Beautiful view of the valley.

Incredible view of the alpine landscape.

There is a high concentration of woodcraft artisans in town.

Interesting habit of putting rocks over the roof.

Having dinner at the Hofbräuhaus was non negotiable! Weissbier, schweinshaxe and knödel. It can’t get better than that!

The Munich Residence is a huge palace where the Bavarian royalty lived.

The art is amazing.

After Munich we returned to the US. Those were really enjoyable days traveling around Germany’s Southwest and discovering some of the places where our ancestors lived.

Now that our daughter is spending time in Germany it feels like a whole circle is closing. Traveling like this is therapeutic. We are grateful for the opportunities we have to go around this beautiful world.