WOLFGANG'S 70th GEBURTSTAG

Hi everyone. This blog is about Wolfgang's 70th Birthday that he celebrated on the 8th of May. Actually, it's been pretty much the entire month which is the way it should be on your 70th birthday. Here in Germany, you are in charge of your birthday. If you want a party then you have to host it. No such thing as a surprise birthday party and NEVER before your birthday. It's considered bad luck to recognize a person's birthday before the actual date.

For Wolfgang's birthday, he decided that he didn't want one big party so we took a trip to Rothenburg and then a week later, we had dinner with the Annette, Jörg, Johanna, Christiane, Thomas and Cousin Rita. On the 27th, we had a party here for our friends including Ella. Here are some photos from our trip and at the end there are a couple of photos from our dinners. Enjoy and here's to Wolfgang and his decade in the 70's.

Leaving our house in of course, our Opel Astra Caravan.

Stopping at a rest stop and eating a little lunch.

Arriving in Rothenburg. OK, interesting fact about Germany, when you see a sign like this, you must slow to 50Kilometers an hour or what is otherwise posted. Every town no matter how small or big will always have a town sign at every entrance.

Yep, that's me top left window.
This is one of the entrances to the Altstad of Rothenburg. Every entrance has a gateway like this because the town is completely walled.

This Gateway was also the hangman's tower where everyone was hanged. It was built in 1388.

Our hotel on the left. Green house. 6 total rooms, a great beergarden and restaurant. We thought it was a wonderful location and really nice people.

Here's the beer garden. Our room is the window behind us. The law in Rothenburg is that all restaurants and bars must close at 10PM.

The house dog "Duke" and his person. Duke is a mix of Dalmation and black lab. A great guy.

The next few pictures are of the town square and it's famous clock. The guys in the clock move.

Wolfgang climbed to the top of this tower. Here pictures of him and what he took while he was up there.

This is the ultimate Christmas Store.

First afternoon in town, just have to have coffee and cake in the town square.
Great place to people watch.

Of course, we had to take pictures of all the different beers along the way and each kind of beer has their own style of glass.

Heading to St. Wolfgang's church. We didn't go in because you had to pay.

OK, so now we are going to show you the wall. You can walk around just about the entire city on this wall and we did on the morning of Wolfgang's birthday. It took about 2 hours.

Wolfgang left window.

OK, so some people are just being a little too rustic, I think.

Wolfgang's birthday was also on Mother's day this year. I don't know if these guys were here singing because of this or if they are always there on Sundays. They were fabulous and were dressed in some kind of Russian military outfit. No idea why.

This is probably the most famous picture location in Rothenburg of the little yellow house behind Wolfgang.

Gateway to the Garden. The face was suppose to bring bad luck to all who entered with bad intentions. I don't know how well it worked for behavior problems but interesting theory.

This is outside the town and in the valley below. The mayor of Rothenburg had it build as his hunting lodge. I'm sure there was a really good reason but it just doesn't pop out at me of what it could have been.

If you ever wonder if we are too mean to people in our towns or prisons, just one visit to a museum housing stuff used to punish people in Medieval times will definitely change your mind.

Rothenburgs Easter fountain. Again all real eggs.

Where we celebrated Wolfgang's birthday dinner. Sat out in the back garden and had a wonderful dinner.

When I asked the Waiter if he would take our picture for Wolfgang's 70th birthday, he followed it up by bring us this bottle of Champagne for a toast. A very sweet surprise.

We took a day trip to some towns around the area. There is a road in Germany called the Romantic Road because it goes through some of the prettiest little cities and towns.

A great surprise town for us. It has a residence palace that was just fantastic. Pictures inside were forbidden but really an incredible place to visit.

Town square outside the residence.

Look, is that Heidi's grandfather!

The next few pictures are of the gardens outside the Residence. Really beautiful.

POLIWOGS!!

This was at the entrance to one of the little towns we drove through. I think it says it all.

Rothenburg from the valley below. Notice the bridge. The layer below is an original Roman bridge and they just built over the top of it somewhere along the line.

The rest of these pictures are from our drive home.

OK, most of you know that one of Wolfgang's favorite sayings is "Leck mich am Arsch" which translates to "Lick my Ass". I know but it's true. Anyway, there is this guy whose name was Götz von Berlichingen or Goetz from the town of Berlichingen. He is famous for starting this saying. I mean, look him up, it's true. So today you have learned something. May not be all that nice but you have to admit, it's interesting!

This is Wolfgang and his girls. A good looking family isn't it.

Here we all are in our garden after going out for dinner.
Yes, I know I look like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

This is the final party from Wolfgang's birthday month. It was great fun.
This is on our terrace outside our Wintergarden.

OK, that's it for Wolfgang's 70th. He had a great time celebrating it this month but there is something about having your age start with a 7 that isn't so comfortable.

ZUM GEBURTSTAG WOLFGANG. We all love you!