TravelswithCharie

  Graz is the second largest city in Austria. Just two and a half hour by train from Vienna, it's the perfect long weekend getaway. With loads of history, architectural diversity and lots of terrace cafés, this UNESCO City of Design has plenty to offer and will easily keep you longer than planned. The Kunsthaus or art museum has been called many things - the friendly alien, whale and porcupine. It looks like a giant pickle to me from this angle. The rooftop of the Kunsthaus that gave it the nickname, friendly alien. View of the red rooftops of the old town with the Rathaus in the center, taken from the Schlossberg. Old town Graz is a Unesco designated World Heritage Site. How to get up to Schlossberg (Castle Hill)? There are 206 steps to climb to the Schlossberg. Thank goodness there are other choices to reach the top. There’s a lift at the bottom of this hill and a funicular just down the street. The funicular fare is included with the day transport pass and the lift fare is €1.30

Rothenburg ob der Tauber has been on my travel bucket list for years. And I finally got there  last November. It is an enchanting place.  With its half-timbered houses, clock towers, colorful façades, schneeballs and beer steins, Rothenburg ODT oozes with medieval charm.  It's no surprise that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I was partially filmed in Rothenburg ODT. This is a common dilemma in Rothenburg ODT. Which direction to take? It's hard to choose because every cobblestone street seems to be competing for the best dressed street award. And they are all winners in my book.  After walking half a day, an inviting table for two with colorful flowers to warm a cold November day. I love how these two half-timbered buildings anchor a street that leads to another intriguing square. The Plönlein (Little Square) is the most photographed square in Rothenburg ODT. But I found more picturesque neighborhoods than this. That's the bea

The last time I was in Frankfurt am Main was to drop off our rental car and catch a flight home. This time around, I was planning to stay in Frankfurt for a couple of days before leaving for the U.S. But as luck would have it, I had to change my itinerary and stayed a little bit longer than expected. Which was a good thing. Because Frankfurt has changed in the years since I visited and I had a lot of catching up to do. Most of Frankfurt was destroyed during World War II. But its historical center was painstakingly reconstructed in the 1980s from original floorplans. These pretty half-timbered buildings on the Römerberg in the Alstadt (Old Town) provide a rich contrast to the city of skyscrapers.  This building in the Alstadt has an unusual roofline. The grey-tiled roof flows into the dormer windows like a wave. The Römer with its three-gabled façade has been the City Hall of Frankfurt since the 15th century. The Gothic-style Frankfurter Dom or the Imperial Cathe