Tyler's visit Part 2

Monday (June 17.)
 
  Trip to Rotenburg ob der Tauber! It was my first time driving in Germany, and my first time driving in over 3 months, for that matter!  Originally I had reserved us an Audi A1 for the week, which was going to be stick shift, and which I was both nervous and excited about, but somehow ( probably for the best) we ended up getting bumped and instead a VW golf was rented to us. I have no idea what an Audi A1 is like, but I will say that the golf was quite a nice little car. It was an automatic, which turned out to be a relief as we drove through various mountainy areas, however we didn't get the navigation system that I reserved with the Audi, so unfortunately on the way to Rotenburg I had to rely on Tyler's directions which he was retrieving from my German cell phone's GPS, which was working very slowly, and thus causing us to have to turn around a few times.

 Nonetheless, we made it to Rotenburg before lunch. Rotenburg is a very old romatic city, one of very few existing walled cities, in which the wall is still intact.
I read a Rick Steeves internet article about Rotenburg before going, making sure that we did everything recommended (because Rick Steeves is awesome and has been around for ever). He mentioned that you can take a walk on the wall, but I was still shocked when we arrived and right at the entry gate to the city there are stairs going up to the wall and that the wall still has a roof over the walk way, with railings and at certain intervals, towers and staircases! I was also not expecting to get such cool views of the town.

 

 

We walked along the wall for about half an hour before coming to a giant gate and giant round tower that led down to what used to be a mote. From there we walked along the ground toward the city center and decided to stop for lunch at a little restaurant.

 

 

It was still very hot outside (something like 90 degrees F or more) and so we didn't walk to very many shops. We did however pass the Kathe Wolfhart Christmas store, and stopped to get a "schneeball" dessert. Rick Steeves described these as a ball of leftover donut dough. ...That's sort of what it tastes like. Except I would say more like pie crust rolled into a ball and baked. The entire thing is coated in powdered sugar to give it a sweeter taste, and in size is something like 4 inches in diameter. It was decently tasty, though not at all what I was expecting from looking at them.

 

 The Christmas wagon

 

 

Due to the heat, walking around was not very pleasant and we were both very tired, so we happened to walk down a little alley and run into this spectacular view, which butted up against a shady lawn. It was a good place to nap for an hour.

 

 

     Once nap time was over, we realized that we only had about an hour until our parking meter expired, so we took a last little walk through town, and luckily we stumbled upon a souvenir shop that was recommended by Rick Steeves (yay!) AND because I told the lady that's how I heard about it, she gave us a free map of the city (originally hand drawn picture) as well as 10% off anything we bought.

    Tyler got a Beer stein (the kid that is like a giant mug, it's pretty awesome) and I bought one of those wooden Christmas time carousel thingys that has fan blades on the top and spins when you light candles underneath it. Aka a Christmas Pyramid. [backstory: I've been wanting to buy one for the last few years, but can't find them anywhere except for at the Chicago Christmas market, where they charge $40 for the smallest ones. At Rotenburg, a smallish-medium (2 tier) one that I bought only cost 15 Euro or about $20! AND I got 10% off]

We both left very happy.

    Before leaving the town, I wanted to stop at a bakery because Tyler hadn't been to one yet, and I love German baked goods. We were going to just get a pretzel, but I saw Schwarzwaldkirschtorte, and so I just had to have a slice.
I think we agree that it was a good decision. It was really exceptionally delicious, and a nice little treat to enjoy before the 2.5 hour ride home.

The drive to Rotenburg was only about an hour and a half, but on the way back, I heard that if we went a little bit longer of a route, we could drive on the Romantic Road, and so we did for about 45 minutes before I realized that the reason there is a highway these days is because it takes half an hour to go 15 miles on the Romantic Road. It goes through beautiful tiny old towns, but the roads are very winding. 

My favorite part was driving through a town called Dinkelsbuehl. (I laugh immaturely everytime I say the name). It was such a picturesque little German countryside town, with a cobblestone road and buildings painted light green, pink and yellow. ...I don't have any pictures, so you just have to visit yourself one day!