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Posted May 4, 2001

Tell Max He Was Right

Max, the good-natured, Austrian-born waiter at St. Basil's Restaurant in Reston, told us not to miss the city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, on our trip to Germany.

We didn't, and the old walled city proved to be a highlight of so many highlights and surprises in this country of unbelievable scenery and history.

Rothenburg could be the setting of almost any movie portraying the era of knights and kings. While its cobblestone streets threatened to destroy my wheelchair, the spirit of gallant knights and chivalry managed to take me from caf€ to caf€, trying out any number of local beers and sausages.

The local German population was more than helpful, pulling me up cathedral stairs and steep streets. These Germans are a friendly bunch, but we found it better not to mention "the war."

That phrase became somewhat of a joke, after a tour of The Residenze, the home of the Prince Bishop of Wurzburg, in which a tour guide continued to mention that the building had been destroyed by the British Royal Air Force during the war.

Finally, a British tourist confronted the guide by saying something like, "Well, you started it." After that, we felt it prudent not to mention "the war," especially considering that our travel companions are from England.

In Rothenburg, however, the history of ancient German wars is exactly that: history. It's a place not to miss. I must apologize to my friend Max, however. He wanted us to walk along the top of the wall just as night fell. "It's so romantic," he told us.

But neither my wife, Betsy, nor I, nor our traveling companions could muster up the energy to do it. Too much beer and sausages, I guess.

For my entire life, I have wanted to visit the country from where three of my four grandparents came. I grew up in a home where German was spoken occasionally, and the sounds of the deep-throated language have often fascinated me.

Many of the words I hear on this trip remind me so much of the words my dad and his mother-in-law, my grandmother, used to say.

The surname Grein, uncommon in America, was so common in one German town that it took page after page after page in the local phone book to list them all. There is even a city in Austria called Grein, where Betsy and I will spend two days toward the end of our trip.

The biggest surprise to me about Germany is its extraordinary variety, from Americanized Frankfurt, industrialized Augsburg, to the soaring Alps in the south with the tucked-away castles and churches.

We drove the "Romantic Road" to this area in the south of Germany, as it meets Austria and the Alps. Outside our hotel window, we have a view of snow-capped mountains and two castles: Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangau.

It is from here I write this column, at Schwangu-Horn, Germany. It is a fairytale land of beauty and history, of long-held traditions and hospitality. Tell Max at St. Basil's that he's right. Germany is quite a place.

And that's Our Town this week.