A few pics from Nuremburg (Nürnberg)

 From my trip in July:

I sat here in the castle grounds just relaxing and doing a puzzle had three nice conversations with three separate sets of Germans:  

Last time I was here, they were having a Medieval festival here, in the moat of the castle.  Thanks, Nuremberg, for ruining all other medieval festivals for me!   

Bamberg, Germany

From my trip in July, this is the town hall, built diplomatically on the bridge between rival parts of town...as best I understand.  

Old town:

A super cool place to live (except maybe for the tourists constantly taking pictures of you and your house).

Overwesel and Bacharach, Germany

 Just some fairytale villages with old town walls and castles along a river.  Yawn.  

Oberwesel:

Bacharach:

Loreley on the Rhine

Legend says that above the narrowest and most treacherous part of the Rhine, Loreley sits and combs her hair, singing and bewitching the sailors below, drawing them to their deaths.  

Because this is such a fun and wholesome thing to do, they have a perch with a handy comb for tourists to emulate her:

  

And here's a link to my favorite song about her:  "Loreley" by Blackmore's Night

https://youtu.be/tUhmjmkLnxY?si=9qDJVxQx7uHRhzRf

Rhine Cruise

You can take short boat trips on the Rhine for reasonable prices, especially considering the castles-per-kilometer and the number or beautiful little villages and hillside vineyards.  Some pictures from my trip, only from Boppard to Sankt Goarshausen.  I've also done it from Sankt Goar all the way to Rüdesheim.  Highly recommended.  Note:  round-trip tickets are currently only a little more expensive than one-way tickets. 

My boat:

Various villages and castles:

Boppard, Germany

 A few pictures from Boppard, on the Romantic Rhine:

Other highlights from Vienna

 The Belvedere Palace and grounds:

The Volksgarten with the rathaus in the distance:

Sunset on the Danube, from the fun Donauinsel area, with its "beaches" and swimming docks:

The Globe Museum, with interesting globes like this one, where the Americas are just completely missing, made in Nuremberg circa 1492.  The Ancient Greeks and Romans knew the world was round, and had calculated its circumference very accurately as of about 200 BC, but they didn't know enough about what filled up all that space to bother making a ton of terrestrial globes.  They made a lot of celestial globes, however, showing the stars and their relationships to each other.      

Once Europeans figured out the Americas were there, they did their best.  I say that lightly, but it amazes me how much people could figure out and build and make without all the technology and information we take for granted now.