I did finally manage some sleep, and woke sometime after 7:30, I think. Then it was shower, pack, and take one more look at Nürnberg.

And, of course, get coffee. Places to get a cappuccino aren’t quite as easy to find here. It could be, though, that we just aren’t looking in the right places. Yesterday we couldn’t find pretzels and today we saw a few stands we probably walked right by! They were the one thing I’d read about that we were supposed to try so we finally bought some. So, okay, well … they were fine, but nothing extraordinarily special. But at least we got them. Mission accomplished. Yesterday we were also looking for an ATM on the way back to the hotel and didn’t see any. Today I saw a lot of banks as we walked the same route as yesterday! In any case we found a nice coffee place that also happened to have pastel de nata. Yum!

From there we walked back to see the Christmas Market one last time.

We came across a stand that made some sort of special treat called Frisch Frånkishe Küchle (fresh Franconia’s pulled out donuts) and it would have been so very wrong not to try them. And if I’m having one shouldn’t I have cocoa as well? Of course I should! I was sorely tempted to keep another souvenir cup because this one was slightly different, but I was strong and brave and turned it back in. Feel free to send me a medal. Or at least a certificate of congratulations. (KIDDING!)

We saw a group of people taking turns taking photos of each other so Dan offered to take a photo of all of them. Dan is very good about offering to do that. One of them then took a photo of us in return.

Then it was time to start back to the hotel.

We finished our packing and went to the train station. Not realizing (stupid me!) that we could have ordered food on the train this time we stopped in a train station place and had mediocre sandwiches. Ah well. Live and learn. Maybe.

Then to the train we went. I didn’t realize I’d gotten upper level seats, and while carrying our luggage up stairs isn’t a breeze we managed and sitting up higher is rather nice! As we got seated a man behind Dan’s chair was talking ever so loudly on the phone. Clearly a business call. Clearly an American. But wait … signs on the wall show both “Psst” and an image of a phone crossed out. Go figure. I wouldn’t have said anything. Instead I’d probably have seethed a while. But a man across from us immediately went over and pointed to the signs. So the man talked a bit more softly but stayed on his phone for a time. Meanwhile a couple behind the man who signaled no talking/phones was yakking. The woman across from the man (I’m assuming his wife) shushed them. So we have the Quiet Police here on board and I can live with that!

View from the train:

We had two legs for our journey. The first ended in Stuttgart. We had 13 minutes to switch trains, something I wondered about when getting the schedule, but of course this is not a flight so things are much easier to deal with. Sort of. Turned out it was 11 minutes! We had to go from track #11 to track #9 which is no biggie, but our car was all the way toward the end of the track. When we arrived there and got in two younger guys (maybe 40s?) had already decided they wanted our seats. But I looked at my phone app, pointed to the seats, and they did move … taking at least one other person’s seat! That woman just moved elsewhere, but I have to say I find it supremely rude for people to take reserved seats!

Dan and one of the seat thieves:

The second leg was less that 40 minutes and then we were in Heidelberg again! From there we needed to get back to Greg and Jan’s. I had found an app that allowed us to get tickets in advance. Only problem was the app didn’t allow for the time we had requested. Heh. By the time we arrived in Heidelberg those tickets had expired. So much for that app. It was only about an $8 loss, but it just seemed so darn stupid.

We got safety to Jan & Greg’s, and while Jan was still working Greg prepared a lovely dinner. We all had a super time, and stayed up far too late for the working couple. We can sleep in (not that I’ll sleep!), but they have to get up at 5:00. Eek!

Tomorrow we go to Mannheim for another concert and I am really looking forward to it: my favorite oboist will be playing! Stay tuned for more on that. Meanwhile, off to bed we go. G’night!