Gertraud's Altstadt Hotel

Because of my late travel plans I was forced to book lodging "on the economy". In other words, all the good hotels were full. So I did a web search and chose a hotel in Amberg that had almost five stars and a bunch of positive writeups. It turns out this was a good call. The delights of the city are many, as previous blog posts attest.

All of this led to the Altstadt. The Altstadt is on the outer edge of the old walled city of Amberg and therefore close to everything, especially delicious restaurants. It's also owned by Gertraud S.-P., pictured below. There are layers of stories here, both about the hotel and the owner, but I've only begun to peel them back. The layer I have not been able to peel back is the "-P", which apparently refers to Gertraud's (latest?) husband, a rather gruff, tattooed man who pretends not to speak English and to whom Gertraud says he has only been married a couple of years. Hmmm.

As for Gertruad, she was Amberg's "Princess" in 1972, which one can see from the painting with the crown behind her in the photograph below. She also had pictures of herself from around that time which reveal that, quite frankly, she was at one time a ravishing beauty. 

Now she owns the Altstadt Hotel, also pictured below, and a shot showing her welcoming another guest as he steps into the hotel lobby.

It is also worth mentioning that the Altstadt is across from the train station, which makes it great for people watching. Pictured below, the train station complete with bakerei and Subway. My Ford Focus ST rental car is second from the left. I wasn't too thrilled about a Ford Focus until I discovered just how fast it can go on the Autobahn. Now I'm a big, big, big fan. Oh, yes. 'Nuff said.