Medieval Times

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After breakfast in our hotel and some quick castle souvenir shopping for our nieces, we took a cab to Fussen and hopped on a 4 hour train to Rothenburg. The German countryside was beautiful though flatter than what we had seen. We played cards while watching various animals grazing along the ride-cows, sheep,horses, even alpacas. We reached Rothenburg-another 1 platform station-in the early afternoon. It was a significant walk to the hotel and within minutes from the station, we entered the town gates to old medieval Rothenburg. It was as if we were on a movie set but, in fact, the city had been preserved and maintained as a medieval attraction for nearly 100 years. Walking the cobble stoned streets of the historic town, we found our hotel which was equally as historic and very German in its decor. We checked in and took some time to relax before exploring the town. We planned to take a 20:00 nightwatchman tour so had some time to run errands and walk around before the tour, singing patriotic songs in honor of the 4th of July along the way. We went to the town square where we instructed to go for the tour and about 200 people had the same idea as us. There were a couple of big school groups from the States excited as we were to hear from the night watchman. It was a great tour through the town hearing about the fascinating history of this small town in Germany that was the trade center for those traveling east and west as well as those traveling north and south. However, since the early 1900s it was a town that has survived on tourism. After the tour, we went for dinner and enjoyed garlic soup and mushroom and bread dumplings. After dinner, we walked along the fort of the now empty town exploring narrow, winding streets and wondering about life during the medieval times.

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