June 21 - Luxembourg to Bad Mergentheim, Germany

Saturday
This was another of those days that greatly exceeded our expectations. All of our connections (surprisingly) went like clockwork. We had to change trains at Trier, Koblenz, Mainz, Frankfurt, and Wurzburg (for Bad Mergentheim). We had three train connections with less that 10 minutes for changing trains and platforms within the stations, and we made them all easily. The countryside was gorgeous and the trains and slow trains were very comfortable. The mountains, the hilltop castles, the riverside and the small towns are lovely to view and study. Vineyards and fields continue to produce wondereful crops in this part of Europe. We had a long visit with two young ladies (28 or so) who were returning to their jobs with a tax firm in Munich. They had been taking some training in Frankfurt. We really enjoyed visiting with them -- Katharina and Bernadett. We were also happy to be able to buy an inexpensive map of the Tabour bike trail in Wurzburg. We had fruit and nuts to munch on through the day.
Many things could have really derailed our day. Our first connection was in Trier, Germany, where we had only 6 minutes to change from Trier Sud to a different platform in Trier Nord. We loaded up to rush out of the train at Trier Sud. Two woman practically held us down to keep us from leaving the train, and trying to tell us in German that it was the wrong place to get off, even though it said, “Trier Sud.” It turned out that the Trier Sud town was ¼ mile or so from the main Trier station, which had Trier Sud and Trier Nord platforms. Had we missed that train, our whole schedule would have been messed up. Phew!!
Secondly, we found the train station closed when we got to Bad Mergentheim. We had been planning to take care of several items at the tourist information center there, like finding a place to stay and renting our bicycles for the next 3-4 days. However, a city tourist place downtown was very helpful in calling for us for a place to stay and in finding connections for us to rent bikes, since we couldn’t do it at the train station. We arrived at the information center just 15 minutes before it closed and at the bike station just 15 minutes before it closed. (Like at home, things close early on Saturdays here.)
Our “home” for the night is lovely.



It is in a private home, less expensive than most of the places we have stayed, and a complete and lovely apartment with three rooms (including a kitchen) and a bath. Everything is neat and clean and tastefully decorated. We have a patio where we ate a (small) box of ice cream we bought uptown.



Later we had supper and tea on the patio. We enjoy the flowers in the flower boxes and the interesting homes all around. I would recommend this home to anyone traveling in this part of Europe. You can check it out at:
http://www.ferien-im-entengässle.de
(You have to have the umlaut on the a. If you don't know how to do it, ask Lukas Stähr!)
The bikes we rented are very nice bikes and as cheap as those in the Netherlands. We rented them for four days of riding on the Tabour River Route in Germany. We hope to get to the walled city of Rothenburg tomorrow.
We took a walk uptown to the city center, the castle, and the lovely park here in Bad Mergentheim.



This is a neat and typical German town that’s not overrun by tourists. We love to visit places where life is the normal life of the people who live there, not a showplace for tourists!