Some more random photos

Road out of Nürnberg:






Bern, Switzerland:
Logging road near, Sugeheim, Germany:


Small castle near Sugeheim:



Knights in Rothenburg:



Rothenburg, Germany:







Crossing the Rhine in Köln:

Day Thirteen: August 31st Leaving Nürnberg, Germany

One nice thing about staying here another night was the fact that I found a reasonable, centrally-located, historic hotel: Hotel Deutscher Kaiser. It was the same place I ate that great meal at yesterday. And it was across the street from the hotspot I found! Perfect!
One odd thing was that there were 2 doors to my room. Meaning, you open the front door, walk in less than 1 foot, close it behind you and be encased in between 2 doors 1 foot apart. Then you open the other door to get into your room. And there's even a coat hook in the middle. Strange.
I was happy to stay there, though. Close to everything, cheap and historic: how could I go wrong?

But really, I want to get the fuck out of this town already, I swear!
It is very beautiful and historic and I enjoyed seeing it but I wanna put this whole thing behind me. I should've left for home today but I will NOT end my trip with this. No way.
So I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my car rental. I can't wait to get on the road again.

*break*

Just arrived at a hotel in Uffenheim, Germany. And damn it's cheap! Only 29€! I'm on the perimeter of a cluster of castles and castle ruins. I plan to get up early and take a drive back into the hills/mountains to check them out tomorrow morning. There are at least 8 castles in this area. It'll probably take me around 3 hours to see them all if I stay on track.

After I finally left Nürnberg today I headed into the the wilderness. Nürnberg seems to be a pretty popular tourist destination. I had no idea, but I'm not surprised after being there.
But I had to get away from the crowd after 2 days there. I drove north toward the castle region I'm in now. And the transformation was amazing. Nothing like seeing a sign saying you're entering a town, only to see that you're leaving it less than 20 seconds later. Over and over again.
It was refreshing.

I got to the area earlier but it's fairly mountainous and not clearly charted on the map so I didn't get to check any of the castles out before nightfall. But dammit if I didn't try!
I found this road that clearly led to one of the castles (near Sugenheim), but it was very, very close to nightfall. I started driving up, up, up this road and next thing you know it turned into one lane.
Then one narrow lane.
Then one narrow lane with very bad structural integrity.
Then I found myself on (at least) an 10% grade going up into black woods at nightfall on a road I couldn't turn around on. I'm not ashamed to tell you guys that I freaked out! I mean...it was a straight shot up a tiny mountain road and it was dark! I pictured a pack of axe murderers appearing in the road before me. Not one axe-murderer, mind you...but a pack! So I turned around somehow and drove back down the mountain as fast (and carefully) as I could. It was definitely my scariest driving experience so far.
But I am going back up there tomorrow morning! ;)

I gotta say, there's nothing quite like pulling out a map of a country and saying, "Hmmm...where do I want to go next?"
This really has been the trip of a lifetime. But I am starting to get homesick.

Sorry, I didn't really get any pictures today, just this one from Uffenheim. And again, because of shaky driving syndrome it's a little blurry...

Day Twelve: August 30th Nürnberg, Germany

And I thought we were nerds!...




OK, so I got stinkin' drunk last night. I puked all morning. Real nice. I had like 4 large beers over the course of a few hours, but then I drank a 1/3 of a bottle of wine by myself. That's what did it. But I feel much, much better now.

I plan to rent another car today and start driving back toward Frankfurt/Köln. I'm thinking I'll probably fly back home on Saturday afternoon.

I don't really want to bash anyone, so I'll just say that our "friend" in Nürnberg is no friend of mine. He was very nice the first night. Let me wash my clothes, gave me a bed to sleep in...
I know he's got a lot of stuff going on, so I never expected a guide or even a host. Just wanted a place to sleep is all, which we talked about a few days ago. But when I showed up, he acted like it was a complete surprise! He just told me a couple of days prior that Monday he'd be back from taking care of shit elsewhere and he'd make sure he'd be around for a couple of days.
Well, who knows what happened but he put me out after one night. Didn't even say "Sorry, but you can't stay here" or "something else came up" to my face. Instead, he acts vague, says he'll call me later, then texts me to say he'll "pass" on hanging out. What the fuck is that? "Pass on hanging out?!?!" You kidding me?
I dunno. How could I know when this "friend" won't tell me what the fuck he's mad about? The only thing I can think of is the fact that I smoked *ahem* on his balcony, but I TOLD him I was going to go downstairs to smoke, and instead he told me to smoke on the balcony. (because I would NEVER smoke in someone's place if they didn't smoke)
Or maybe he thought I had a pound of ganja in my backback or something. Whatever. I was in Amsterdam. I had a pinch left with me. Maybe it's because of my rental car fiasco (which I already apologized for several times) Who fucking knows?
But what can I say, and why exhaust myself with this shit when he doesn't even give me the courtesy of an explanation?
SERIOUSLY. What can you say to someone when they don't tell you what the fuck they're mad about? Or if they're even mad at you at all, or just fucked in the head themselves? I suspect the latter, personally.
Anyway, you reap what you sow: that's what I know.

All this time I thought you guys had him all wrong, but in fact I had him all wrong. It's a damn shame because I really did think he was a nice guy. It just sucks to have someone you think is a "friend" treat you like shit.
I'm equal parts angry and hurt about the whole thing.
But moving on...

I'm having a little rest in the park now. I wanted to leave here by now but I'm waiting for a deposit into my account. Hopefully I can start driving back up toward Köln tonight. There's a campsite along the way I can stay at really cheap so that's nice. I only hope I don't sleep on the street tonight! I've got less than 1€ on me. But somehow I know I'll be ok, thanks to my good friends back home.
Let me tell ya, my vacation has been no holiday for them! I decided I'm going to have everyone over for a nice big dinner when I get back. I just gotta.