Wednesday April 11, 2012

We left Austria behind this morning but only for a few days more. We'll be going back when we head to Salzburg and Vienna next week.

Today we drove back into Germany to Rothenburg. There are two Rothenburg's on the map but this one is the smaller one still in Bavaria called Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Its a medieval little town with a rich history.  History and sausages...

Window of a shop in Rothenburg. Nate wanted to eat them all.

Rothenburg was saved during WWII because it had been a tourist destination for centuries and one of the American generals learned abut it from his mother who had visited here before the war. She took home a painting from Rothenburg and he had heard about the town ever since he was a child.

Sunset over Rothenburg

At least that's the story the nightwatchman told us on the nightwatchman tour. If you ever come here, be sure and save the energy to do the one hour nightwatchman tour. He's hilarious and tells many good stories about the town.

Everyone else just stood next to him. I had to do something different... :) 

Having a copy of Rick Steves' Germany book in your hand when you walk into Annaliese Friese's German gift shop is a good idea as well. She recognized it and reminded us that we get 10% off all purchases with the book in hand.  She's a little old lady who speaks pretty good English. She's had the shop for decades and has a big photo of her with Rick Steves behind the counter. She's quite chatty too and pulled out her old copy of one of his first Europe travel guides with Rick and her photographed from 20 years ago at least. She made sure we knew that she took good care of him when he came to Germany and treated him like a mother. :) So cute.

We bought a couple things in her store, had one shipped home for a gift for mom & dad, and Nate walked out with the other one his head.  We're going to need a bigger hat tree.

I wish we had another day in this town but we are off to Munich tomorrow for 3 nights. On the way we'll be stopping at Dachau which was one of the concentration camps. I'm sure it will be depressing but still looking forward to seeing it.