Rothenburg, Germany: If you don't like the weather wait a minute.

Renee and I sent another wonderful day in Rothenburg, It started with a hearty German breakfast of hard rolls, meats, cheeses, yogurt, boiled eggs and strong black coffee.  Although less than ideal for a low carb, low animal protean diabetic, I loved it.  That gave me the strength to walk a few miles to a grocery store (most of the time was looking for one) and back to the hotel in pouring rain. Then we headed into the old town with raincoats and umbrellas in hand.  It was sunny for first hour.  We had a very nice lunch at an Italian restaurant, Renee having minestrone soup and a salad and I having a salad and spinach omelet.  We then waited in the pouring rain for a walking tour.  The sun and rain mixed it up for the entire 90 minute tour which was well worth the time.  We then got coffee and started looking for a craftsmen's museum.  A house that dates from 12c with period furniture, a nice 20 minute diversion.   We found quick dinner and looked for a bakeshop (for me) and walked back to the hotel in sun and rain.

A long long day with many rewards.

It's been a long long day, it started in Detroit followed by this in Charlotte, NC

The food on the US Air was the worst ever, the kid behind Renee was throwing up, otherwise an uneventful flight.  The flight was followed by renting a car and multiple traffic jams trying to get around Germany.  Light rain and lots of accidents.  It's been a few years since I drove a stick shift and a few more years since I drove in Germany, and I am glad I was not the root cause of any of the traffic problems.  Once we got going we stopped in Wurzburg Germany to stretch our legs before getting back on the road.

While on the road we "remembered" the hard way that nothing but gas stations are open.  No chance to buy water or fruit for the drive or our hotel room.  We did make it to Rothenburg where we found our hotel, walked a few miles around town, had coffee and tea outside and then walked some more and then had a nice dinner.  I then when out and walked some more and had a beer.  I'm now back in the hotel with Renee and all is well in the world.

I did a 7:30 walk of the fortified wall around Rothenburg, what a great way to see the city.

Cool cooler hack, I needed a cooler while in Europe to keep insulin cool (Ice is hard to find).  I looked at power supplies designed to run 12v coolers and they all work on 110v 60hz (and produce 12v 5Amp).  I found an old computer power supply the produces 15v 6Amp and works 110v or 220v 50/60hz.  Put a cigarette lighter plug on it and the coolers runs great.

Truly bummed with flickr today.  In the past I could send an email to flickr with an attached photo.  It would upload the photo to flickr and then post the title and email message to Blogger.  It was great for updating blogs on trips.  I have used to with Boy Scouts on two trips to keep parents informed of our status.  Flickr/yahoo deleted this feature in an recent update.

Example:  http://westquest2012.blogspot.com/