Chapter Eight
Auf Wiedersehen and Beyond
We actually slept in a little compared to previous days. The tour was over, so no more early breakfast times in order to be out the door as a group to get to our first activity. Nope, we slept until within half an hour of the breakfast cut off time, then we went downstairs to enjoy our final amazing Austrian breakfast. We didn’t see anyone from our tour, I assume we were the last to check out. But it’s Sunday, and just like in Germany, Austrians take the day of rest very seriously.
We strolled down the block with our luggage to the train station, making our way to the central hub. From there we boarded what is known as the ICE Train. No, not THAT ice, this one stands for Inter City Express. But it did quickly escort us out of the country and back to where we came from. We enjoyed a laid back five hour ride through Bavaria to Wurzburg.
Why Wurzburg, you may ask? Well, we’ve already talked about Melissa and I having some great beer and some amazing food. We talked about seeing live music with fun and enthusiastic crowds. We showed you our fresh bunderhosen and dirndl. It’s truly a shame we couldn’t put all these things together into one big festival. But alas, Oktoberfest is eleven weeks away. However, thanks to folks like Rick Steves and Ben and Camile from Near From Home, I happen to know that somewhere in Bavaria, there’s a smaller community version of Oktoberfest going on nearly every weekend through the summer. This weekend, they’re celebrating Saint Kilian in Wurzburg at the Kiliani Volksfest!
We got off the train and took a cab to our hotel, which is strategically located within staggering distance from the fairgrounds and a short walk from Wurzburg’s famous “Wine Bridge”. We quickly settled in and donned our trachten and headed to the festival. It can best be described as a county fair, beer festival and music festival rolled into one. It goes on for over a week and has a revolving lineup of musical acts. The headliner this night was Höhner, a popular band from Cologne that had people dancing on their tables, singing and waving giant mugs of beer around, spillage be damned.
Many times through the evening, we were approached by locals who started conversations with us in German. They were quick to switch to English once they realized we were from Tennessee, but that didn’t stop me from trying to speak German. At this point in the trip, my German was getting much better, especially when it came to reading menus and train station signs. We had a great time and headed back to the hotel when the band finished around 10pm. We had another city to hit in the morning.
If you read the intro, you might recall that this whole trip came about because I looked through my dad’s photo album from his service in the army. In 1964 and 1965, he spent 18 months in Ansbach, Germany. And that’s where we headed next. We boarded a train and rode less than an hour to Ansbach. It might be the cutest little German town we’ve seen so far on this trip! Not very touristy, a great cross section of Germans doing German things in a small town environment.
I walked along the roadways, through alleys and across squares finding statues and buildings that my Dad had photographed. In some cases, I recreated the pictures to the best of my ability. It was a true “walking in your father’s footsteps” experience, and one I’ll never forget.
