German hotels generally offer a Frühstück or breakfast usually a buffet. Some places it's free, but many places its extra. At the Ramada it was over 10 euro extra - way too much considering I don't usually eat breakfast. But if you don't pay, no coffee. Here it was 5 euro for breakfast and since the first thing we do at the office is get coffee, I skipped it. However, today being a travel day, I decided to get breakfast.
So I checked out of the hotel and walked over to the same place I closed out the night before. Of course, the Polish girl was long gone. I ordered the "sport breakfast" which I expected to be a little something. It was a bunch. A bowl of something sorta like granola with little chocolate chips and yogurt instead of milk. Interesting. Then not one, but two whole wheat bagels perfectly heated. Yum! They don't serve the bagels with cream cheese - the served it with honey!! Double yum. And Swiss cheese on the side just to make sure you know you are in Germany. I made the mistake of ordering the large coffee which came in something that could have been a reasonable soup bowl - oh, well, I definitely won't fall asleep on the road!
Drove from Weiden to Berg Hornberg in Neckarzemmern. My grandmother's name was Hornberg so this is the family castle. Its up an incredibly small (one-lane) road just hanging off a set of cliffs going straight up upon which they grow wine.
When I arrived, I went into the first floor under the hotel which turned out to be a combination wine shop and museum. From what I can tell, the name Hornberg came from before anyone can remember because no one of that name was ever in the castle.
Anyway, after the impromptu wine tasting (it is the family wine after all), I wound up with six bottles. Then I checked in upstairs - very quaint (meaning small). My room was basically just off the lobby about 6 feet from the reception desk.
Room was nice enough with a deck with a beautiful view of the wood behind the castle. No time to linger - time to explore. Back to the wine shop and a ticket and off to the berg. It's heyday was somewhere around 1600, so its a bit worse for the where but it is really big with a high tower. I wound up using up the entire memory card in my camera before going up the tower! That was a first for me.
Dinner time is at the castle restaurant with is a four star affair. When I walked in it was mainly empty. Hotel guests get automatic reservations and actually greeted me by name!! There were only two couples besides myself of hotel guests. The rest were 10-15 person groups from the town celebrating - and all dressed up (unlike the hotel guests).
Of course the menu being all in German with really long descriptions was indecipherable by me. So they bring me an English menu. The stuff was so fancy, I couldn't figure out the English menu either! Anyway, it was great eating in such a swank restaurant and the food was fabulous.
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