A day in transit

I can't believe my time in the hometowns of my ancestors is over already! The time I spent there was better than I ever could have imagined. I made some wonderful friends and will treasure the memories forever. But now it's time to say goodbye and move on to the next phase of my trip.  

I left Turkheim about 9 o'clock this morning and drove to Ulm. Luckily I had just made a trip to this area yesterday and it was somewhat familiar. Willi had given me some good instructions, and I also had the GPS I rented from the rental car company. I was so glad Willi and I had gone yesterday because if I had listened to the lady in the GPS I would have gone down every little gravel road between Turkheim and Ulm! I did pretty good until right before I got to Ulm and somehow I ended up on a side road instead of the main road into town. I got to Ulm, and to the train station just fine but because I wasn't on the main road, I was not able to find the gas station to fill the car up before I turned it back in.

The system for returning cars here was quite different than what I'm used to. They want you to pull into the parking garage and park the car in a spot designated for that rental car company, and turn in the key and your parking receipt to the service desk at the train station. No paperwork, no questions, just turn in the keys and go.  So.... we'll see what happens since the car only had a quarter of a tank of gas. I imagine it will show up on my Visa bill next month.  Gas is even more expensive here than it is at home.

Other than the fact that my luggage was way to heavy, the rest of the trip went fine. I had to change trains in Ausburg but there was an hour in between so plenty of time to find my way to the platform. In total, it took about 4 hours to get to Nuremberg.

At Nuremberg my hotel is right across the street from the train station less than half a block away. I took a nice nap and then walked back over to get something to eat, because there are tons of places to eat and shop at the station. 

A genuine, authentic German McDonald's Cheeseburger!

My room at the InterCity Hotel in Nuremberg.

In the morning I will take a taxi over to the pier where the cruise ship is docked.  They said I could arrive any time after 9 o'clock, but can't check into my room until after 3 because there are passengers disembarking here and they need time to get the cabins ready. So I will probably leave my bags and see if they have a shuttle or optional tour of Nuremberg that I can take.