Day 3 Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber, Germany 10/16/11

Rothenburg, Germany

We caught a three hour train ride to Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber around 7:30 a.m.  Since we were traveling on a weekend, we were able to use a Bavarian ticket before 9 a.m. Rothenburg is one of the most scenic walled cities on the Romantic Road.  The town was a 3-D picture post-card.  We walked the wall for a while and then came down into the town and walked through the main streets and browsed in the wonderful little shops along the way.  We stopped for lunch and enjoyed traditional wienerschnitzel and brautwurst.  There was a Christmas store that had so many beautiful ornaments that Connie was absolutely mesmerized. There was even a Christmas museum in its sister store on another street, but Connie resisted the urge. 

Rothenburg, Germany

This was a place untouched by time.  In the main square there was another glockenspiel.  This one had two windows that opened.  Each had a man with a beer stein and they were having a drinking contest.  The story goes that a conquering leader once agreed to spare the town if the mayor could outdrink him, which he did.  

The Wall - Rothenburg, Germany

On our train back to Munich, a young woman was showing her parents or in-laws her new collection of little stuffed penguins.  There must have been 10 of them and one even had a fish in his mouth.  They were really cute and even though she was not speaking English, it was clear that she was tickled to have them.  We ended up missing our connecting train at a transfer point just trying to figure out which platform we needed to be on.  As a result, we had to wait another hour to catch the next one.  This was the only train we missed and it was no big deal.  To kill the time, we bought some bread to tide us over.  Sheila was having difficulty tearing the bread apart so Connie told her to let her try.  Sheila obliged and Connie shoved it back into the paper bag and proceeded to sit on it.  She then easily tore off a piece, commenting, “Just thinking outside the box.” There were no witnesses to this ugly American moment since the platform was empty.  (Don’t tell Connie, but there was someone on the platform across from where we were sitting.  I don’t think he observed our American moment, but you never know.  Keep checking You-tube).

Rothenburg, Germany

We were tired by the time we rolled back into Munich so we just grabbed pizza at the Munich train station for dinner.  As we walked back to our hotel, we passed a dance studio with a glass front.  The students were learning to two-step and swing dance.  What a hoot!