Kaiserslautern, Baumholder and the Mosel

We got up late as usual and hit the road to Kaiserslautern. This is a town that Mr D visited on his way to Baumholder. I know that there is a large US military base so there would be lots of American in this town. We found this diner on one of the main roads. They had notices that US $ would be treated the same as Euros. This is a bit of a savings for those paying with US $. Mr D had a club sandwich and Mrs D had a stuffed baked potato. I had buffalo wings that were excellent but suffered the rest of the day. The staff and menu are bilingual and the customers were mostly American.

It seemed that everything was bilingual and lots of Amercian businesses like Geico and Enterprise car rental are there. This would be the perfect spot to visit if you wanted top go to Germany but not leave the US behind.

Baumholder was up the road a bit and has certainly grown since Mr D went on maneuvers here. The picture represents only a small part of the military housing in the area.

After Baumholder, we went up the road to Luxembourg. I didn't get any pictures. We drove around in the rush hour traffic but managed to see a few things. We returned to Germany and made our way down the Mosel. I enjoyed it but if I had to choose, I would take the Rhein Valley trip rather than the Mosel. If I were a wine lover, it would be a different story.

We departed the valley before we got to Koblenz. We went up out the the valley and caught the Autobahn home to Worms. It was the first time I had driven on the Autobahn in the dark. Mrs. D was bothered by it but we made our way home in just over an hour.

Quick trip to Heidelberg

On Monday, I got up and walked around the northern part of Worms. I took over 100 pictures. I also got a sunburn as it was the sunniest day so far. I didn't give sunscreen a thought after two weeks of rain and clouds. It also turned out it was another holiday - Whit Monday. I got back to the apartment about 1:00. After a short rest, we went for a drive to the east. We started off at Bensheim and went south to Heidelberg. The city is on the Neckar. When I was younger I thought it was on the Rhein. We weren't all that impressed with it but did manage to visit the castle and get a few good shots. Heidelberg does have an excellent public tranportation system. There was an extensive light rail network.

Results of Synagogue Arson

I went back to the synagogue to see what had happened last week. I was surprised that the firebombs were used in multiple locations. Using fire on a stone building is thankfully not all that harmful. Worms does not have a Jewish community. This building serves as a historical remembrance of the thriving Jewish community that once existed in Worms.

Checking out Speyer

After getting back from the mountains, we needed to take it easy for a couple of days. Mr. D caught a bad cold and then the altitude bothered him a great deal. On Sunday we drove around a bit and ended up in Speyer. It's the next major town up the Rhein from Worms. It's a bit more touristy. I think there was an Imax theatre and a transportation museum. The parks were very crowded as it was a fairly decent day after a rainy period. I left Mr & Mrs D in the car and ran to the Dom to take some pictures. It's impressive but I don't think it compares favorably to the Dom in Worms. Maybe I'm a little biased. I managed to find the road through the square so they could get a closer view of the Dom.

On the way out of the Dom, I held the door for the guy in the last picture. I'm not sure who he was but he was walking around like he was the big boss.