Photo Recap: Days 11-12, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Deutschland (Europe 2008)

The night before we left München to go to Rothenberg, a few guys at the Jodelwirt had said there was a massive snowstorm, people were stuck in their cars, and trains were being diverted. (One guy practiced his business English on me since he now had an American boss and needed to really practice. After we talked for a while, he made a very interesting move (had a bit of an "german efficiency" feel to it) - the conversation hit a lull, so he just said "Thank you," turned back to his table and sat back down with his friends and that was it. Not rude, just abrupt since I had served my purpose and that was that.



No matter to me, we were off to Rothenberg the next day - three train changes and a 15 minute walk from the train station through wet streets and pulling our luggage over cobblestones. The thick, heavy snow was perfect for snowballs and our hotel, the Gasthof Griefen, was spectacularly old and creaky - right in the center of town.

From my journal:

The cutest medieval town you can ever imagine - cobblestones, churches, old buildings, horsedrawn buggies, and OLD WALLS! The best preserved, too, and we literally had it all to ourselves.

After dinner at our hotel, we joined the Nightwatchman tour! as random people gathered in the main square, amongst closing [christmas market] booths and softly falling snow, a dark figure emerges from the street, holding a huge axe-looking thing and a black cloack, with a lantern. Come join the Nightwatchman's tour - it was an awesome tour of the city, with stories about history, love, architecture, and more. We both really loved it and had a drink of Franconian wines after, at "Zum Holle" before hitting the sack.

Other highlights:

* Catching the Nightwatchman giving a tour later that night...in German.
* The Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum.
* Ryan's shoes were officially kaputt (after being soaked through in Ljubljana) and stinky - so we literally ran back and forth between the same 3 stores (on opposite sides of the town) since Size 13 shoes aren't too commonplace. We bought a pair from this cute Polish girl who was still learning German and English. She did know some Japanese and Chinese (the town was very popular with the tour groups). So, the shoes we bought on the last trip in Stuttgart were layed to rest in Rothenberg.




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Tschüß!!