Breakin the law...

I went to Wertheim on Sunday to meet up with my friend Lili. It's about half an hour outside of Frankfurt in southern Germany. She would make the 5th person I've met here outside of work that I knew before coming. Just goes to show that it is truly a small world. I got there in the early afternoon and her host family took us to this little fair. It was kind of interesting, except we couldn't get inside the monastery that was the center of the town. I did have wild boar meat for the first time, which was very tasty and not gamy like I had expected. It's much better than deer meat. We did the generic family-esque tour of the area and shortly thereafter broke off to wander around Wertheim by ourselves.
The highlight of the town is a crumbling 12th century castle. The town still primarily resides within the limits of the ancient city wall (which is totally gone). The old town is much more like what I'd expected of German cities from my limited, sensationalized, American movie perspective. It also helps that it's more of a Bavarian design which is what most people associate Germany with, other than Nazis that is. The whole leiderhosen and goofy cap is purely Bavarian and here, outside of Bavaria, nobody really likes the Bavarians. I felt that this image captured the general feel of the altstadt fairly well though.
We parked the smart at the end of her street and went on walkabout in search of the castle which I was intrigued by. On the way there, just down the hill from the path, is an ancient Jewish cemetery. Apparently one of the ancient lords had a mausoleum somewhere on the hill near the cemetery, but we failed to find it. I couldn't recognize any symbols that looked like roman numerals or numbers so I have no idea exactly how old the headstones were, but it was fun hopping the wall to get into the cemetery after hours for some good photo opportunities. This also set the stage for our general disregard of the law for the evening.
We stopped for a coffee and fanta at the Burgrestaurant on one of the castle courtyards overlooking the city and valley below. The weather was surprisingly spectacular and the view was great. Afterwards we went into the tourist area of the castle. At the entrance was a turnstile with a €0.50 entrance fee. The issue was that neither of us had €0.50 coins and it wouldn't accept a €1 coin. After a pair of older women exited the area I did a quick check for cameras and then entered through the wide open exit. This lead into another courtyard area with a staircase that had an iron gate screwed into the wall blocking the entrance. There was absolutely nothing else of interest. At this point I had to comment about how I'm glad I didn't pay the €0.50 to get in otherwise I would have asked for my money back.
Undaunted by a little 4' high gate I jumped over it and helped Lili over. I figured if I was going to illegally enter a tourist area I might as well take it to the limit. We climbed the stairs and wandered around in the upper reaches of the castle which was spectacular as well. The views were very nice and with the slight adrenaline dump of possibly being caught made it quite the adventure. That and I was wearing my old Livonia Brown black leather jacket. I need to get a fedora or some other signature hat.

We finished with a walk through town and then it was time for the long drive back home. Just to come in today for the beginning of a terrible week at work... but that's another story...