CRAILSHEIM

June 26: Today our goal was to drive from Puxe, France to the vicinity of Crailsheim, Germany. Since the Odyssey, we were trepidatious about getting lost again. We chose a route through Metz, Saarbruken, Mannheim, Heilbronn to Schwabisch Hall and Crailsheim. From Metz to Schwabisch Hall was autobahn. Even thought the directness of the autobahn is a major improvement over the local roads of southern Germany, it's still confusing. You can't just take the I-75 to I-20. No, you have to follow the signs to the various towns. If you want to get to Crailsheim, you follow the directional signs to Nurnberg (at least until you reach Nurnberg, then you have to find a new destination). Since we're not intimately familiar with German geography, the navigator (me) has to have a map at the ready all the time. The directional town might be 100 kilometers away, and if you take the wrong road, it's a nightmare to circle back to the correct road--if it can be done at all.

Countryside in Baden-Wurttemburg

We drove from Puxe to Crailsheim in about four hours without incident. We found the Hotel Schwarzer Bock near the center of Crailsheim, which was plain, but very comfortable. Wifi! We walked around the lovely, tidy Swabian town, which may be the ancestral home of my husband's family. If not, it's somewhere in Baden-Wurttemburg, and we can pretend. We then ate dinner at Bayrischer Hof where we had what would probably be our last Bavarian meal. I had pork schnitzel with forest sauce and spaetzle and my husband had steak and fried potatoes. The salads were delicious. It was a green salad, but underneath was a bean salad, a curry-rice salad and of course, potato salad.

This looks a lot like the 1880s postcard at the top of this entry!

600-year old Johanneskirche in Crailsheim

Town Hall and Johanneskirche of Crailsheim

Tomorrow. we drive to Munich, then home the next day.