Rothenburg

Rothenburg ob der Tauber (on the Tauber River, as opposed to the Rothenburg that's almost on the border of Poland) is a very popular tourist destination.

It's a medieval town, with the fortress walls and watch towers (above) around the old town still intact. Rothenburg is jam-packed with shopping and eating opportunities. We thought we'd visit out of season to avoid the large crowds. The problem with us is that we're not really shoppers. So, although we can say that we've been to Rothenburg and done that, we can't say we bought the T-shirt. We did have a nice lunch in a German restaurant on the square.

In all, we had a good reconnoiter trip and now have an idea which of our visitors will or won't want to go to Rothenburg.

We did visit the Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas Village, which the kids greatly enjoyed. No photography allowed, though. That was kind of lame. Here's Meggie in front of the giant nutcracker at the Käthe Wohlfahrt entrance.

The part of the trip that dissapointed me was that we missed our window to go inside the two 12-14th century churches. We showed up 23 minutes after the 4 p.m. closing time. :o( But Alan tried to make me feel better by saying, "Pah, those were only 700 years old anyway." :o)

Alan and the girls in front the old city hall. This square has a fairly accurate sundial. It was only off by 20 minutes.

Standing at the city wall, looking down on the Tauber.