European Adventure Part Three!

After our 1.5 days in Barcelona, we were up bright and early to catch a flight to Germany. Little did we know the German Airwings Airline was on strike and only 5 flights were leaving Barcelona. The lines at the airport were crazy long and we were lucky enough to be on one of the five flights out! Our friend, Daniel in  Germany was texting Omid and Edgar and keeping them posted on the strike.

We arrived in Stuttgart to Daniel and his sweet sign his daughters had made for us.

 

Daniel took us straight to the town of Heilbronn.

 

We learned that during WWII, the entire town was destroyed except for the city hall and the local church.  

Fun fact: Daniel and his wife Anne got  married in Heilbronn City Hall.

 

 After walking around the town of Heilbronn, Omid spotted a curry wurst restaurant. The last time Omid had curry wurst was 34 years ago when he was only 13 years old and waiting for his visa to enter the US. He was curious if the sausages still tasted the same. To his delight, they did!!! YAY curry wurst!

Toasting curry wurst, friends and making memories!! #prost

 

After our snack, we walked some more around Heilbronn, then went to a café to have a cappuccino in a giant bowl. Omid and I actually had milk coffee, and they were delicious too.  We sat in the sun, talked and people watched for quite some time. ☺

Daniel and I had planned a tentative itinerary of fun places to visit when he was in the US the week before. He knew I wanted to see castles! After our coffee, we were on to our first adventure in Weinbergs.

We stopped at Johannes Kirch which dates back to the year 1200.

The entire area is surrounded by vineyards.
This is the view from the parking lot. Pretty nice!

Vineyard peek-a-boo!

From the churchyard, it was a short walk up to the castle ruin: Burgruine Weibertreu.  Here is a quick synopsis on the legend of the Wives of Weibertreu:

When King Conrad III defeated the Duke of Welf (in the year 1140) and placed Weinsberg under siege, the wives of the besieged castle negotiated a surrender which granted them the right to leave with whatever they could carry on their shoulders. The king allowed them that much. Leaving everything else aside, each woman took her own husband on her shoulders and carried him out. When the king's people saw what was happening, many of them said that that was not what had been meant and wanted to put a stop to it. But the king laughed and accepted the women's clever trick. "A king" he said, "should always stand by his word."

 

 

This first castle ruin was just amazing. The views from 360* were of vineyards.

It was absolutely amazing and a great first adventure with Daniel.

 

AUDI has it's headquarters in Heilbronn. We stopped by the Audi Experience right before they closed (5 minutes!). We got see many beautiful cars.

 

Audi R8

 

 

After this we met other friends of Omid & Daniel and had dinner overlooking this same spectacular view.

First dinner in Germany!
Spaetzle, pork medallions with mushrooms, pesto ravioli and French fries. Yummy!