A Trip to Ansbach

I arose early Friday, a gorgeous sunny day, to return my rental car in the nearby town of Ansbach. I was unable to print out a map before I left Texas and had only the street address to work with. Rather than taking the autobahn to Ansbach, I drove the back way so I could enjoy the scenery and the feel of the wind blowing in my hair one last time before I am back "on foot." I drove through the town of Colmberg and took a lovely picture of the castle which I had never seen before. It's amazing to me that I could live here for so long and yet not see so many things.

Excuse me if I am a bit distracted...the Turkish man that works at the internet site is trying to pick me up and it's such an unusual occurrence that I am a bit flustered. Of course, the fact that he's married is a pretty big turn off. Men! I wonder what my protector, Claudio, would say about this guy (who's slipping me his phone number even as I write this).

At any rate, once I entered Ansbach it turned out that I was on the road where the car rental return is located and I found it almost immediately. I was able to get gas at an Esso station across the street and was surprised to find I could pump the gas first and pay after. It's rare to be able to do that at home any more and I was told you can't do it in Italy. In fact, Italy has some confusing cash payment machine that I was afraid to ever try to use. After gassing up, turning in the car was a piece of cake, but since the man did not actually examine the car, I am watching my credit card closely to ensure there are no unauthorized charges for damage not incurred.

I took a taxi to the nice, clean, new-looking train station and bought a ticket for Rothenburg. The ticket agent was nice enough to print out a little schedule showing where and when I would have to change trains and even which track the train would depart from. The alleviated a lot of my stress. The train rides were smooth and I enjoyed lookng out the window, although the scenery was not as pretty as the scenery that accompanied me as I left Italy. After the train arrived in Rothenburg, it was a 1/2 mile walk home.

I am excited that Rothenburg has 4 bookshops, each with a small selection of titles in English. One elderly man has a whole rack of books, so I know I'll be visiting him again. Of course, I am finding that I've read many of the books already so that narrows my selection significantly.

I went out to lunch for the first time since arriving, at a hotel restaurant. I sat inside by myself and ordered naturell mineral water, which has the same rather sour taste as regular mineral water, but none of the bubbles. Lunch was wienerschnitzel, pounded thin, breaded and fried to tender perfection; slim, crispy, salty french fries, and a salad topped with sesame seeds and a sweet dressing. It was heavenly and it was all I could do not to inhale every bite in record time. Only a vision of me looking like a big Hoover vacuum cleaner sucking up everything on my plate in 10 seconds made me leave a few fries and a bite of salad behind. I really wanted to eat them though.

Unfortunately, my previous healthy appetite has returned with a vengeance. Perhaps it's the cooler weather or that I am lonely, but whatever the reason I am hungry all the time. I try not to eat out as the food is simply not as healthy here as it was in Italy, and it' so good that I cannot eat just a little. There seems to be a bäckerei/conditerei on each corner and they have a huge selection of breads and rolls, sweets, cookies, and these wonderful looking tortes and cakes. So far I have resisted all but some brötchen (rolls) and some Italian breads. I feel a torte coming on though.......