Today, is dedicated to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, with a stunning medieval old town, fort walls, and lots to take photos of, beginning with the outside of our pension. Pierre's expedition turned up this old mill paddle...
While the kids found a small farmyard stocked with chickens, and soon were crowing in chorus with them
Packing in front of the pension
Once there was a conversation that went something like this...
She: Nose turned up... "this is your house?!"
Him: Proud, "Yup, built it myself!"
She: "Well, its too small for me!... I'm only going to marry a man who has a... (thinking of an improbably high number)... 5 storey house..."
He: Despondent "...will you marry me when I have a 5 storey house?"
She: with an air of superiority.... "if you ever own a 5 storey house, not only will I marry you but I'll do anything you want me to!" spins on her heels and walks off - nose in the air.
He smiles wryly...
A crafty, very happy man lives in this house.
Actually, it is a castle... (Toppler castle) no, I'm not kidding, it was built for Mayor Heinrich Toppler in 1388, was his summer home and conference centre...
This river runs just outside the pension
Children screaming on three...
A good ENT could diagnose Michael over the web from this photo
Meandering toward the town, we stopped to look at a church and came by this odd bridge on the way. (You need to click for the large version)
It's almost like they built the first one, stood back, indulged in a collective "hmmm..." chins clasped in hands and tentative looks on faces...
"Hans..."
"Ja, Claus..."
"The bridge is not high enough, and slopes off at a weird angle...",
"I know..."
"Think the boss will notice?"
"He's sure to when his chariot falls off the end of the road where there should be a bridge..."
"Think we should start over...?"
"Naaa, too much work, lets just build another one on top that slopes the other way..."
"Think the boss will notice...?"
RODT from the bridge
This was the church we wanted to see...
"Show us your tits!" Ja, Ja, I know it's in front of a church, but we got the licence in one of these right? (No frail hearts were attacked during the showing of these tits)
Now, parked outside the walls and approaching the town
A tower gate entrance into the town - there are a few of these
RODT is where we discovered that touring with 8 people becomes a trick - the boys want to go faster and to different places than the girls, and so, what begins as a 10 second delay, or minor detour by one party, can result in a 30 minute separation. Good thing for the radios, else there'd have been more strife than there was.
There is an old amphitheater just below the wall
Imagine watching Shakespeare here... maybe in the summer so that one's bottom isn't frozen during the performance by the loose snow on the seats...
The walls have long sections with ramparts - this bit is overlooking the aforementioned amphitheater
This is the gate to be seen on the right of the picture above
Inside the town, everything is like a time warp, it seems it was like this hundreds of years ago
Pierre and I explored the inner side of the wall, before we had to make haste to meet the girls
Everything was still very Christmasy, all the decorations were still up, lots to look at, esp for the kids.
Rothenburg has a fascinating German Christmas museum. If you can imagine a thing like this. A Christmas specialty store with a zillion decorations of all kinds, displays, huge revolving trees, nutcrackers and everything Christmasy... no photos allowed though :(
Michael and Mandy sitting on the museums' old bus - a ride in this must be second only to the sleigh!
The other thing worth doing in the town, apart from the fortifications etc is climbing the tower in the town hall for a stunning view of the town below.
The town hall and councilors' tavern
The climb up the tower is really worth the effort, just not for the claustrophobic, there are a few very small spaces to get through, the top aint that roomy either if there are more than 10 people outside.
Us at the top grinning into the sun
One of the dozens of attempts to capture a view from up here... there are more on the web album if you feel the need
The stone spiral staircase that gets you most of the way to the top - "I tawt I taw a pickle paw..."
Little red looking up the spiral
Pierre and I always travel with talent...
Obligatory pose on the steps of the town hall between the two huge Christmas trees
By the time we were done with the tower, there was a unanamous call for luncheon which we duly answered, choosing one of the establishments on the square...
A festive place, where we were able to relax for a bit before trudging onward ;)
"... So you see, the Cosmological Constant may turn out not to be Einstein's "Greatest error"..."
After lunch, the mighty mice on their first daring deed - pushing up an about-to-fall wall / door thingy...
The little people
One of those wonderful medieval, "somebody done somebody wrong..." devices
From the gardens looking back at the fortified town (Make this one bigger too)
A view of the town from the gardens
RODT is where we joined the Romantic Road in Germany - a few hundred kilometers of Medieval towns and trade route, picturesque scenery, lots to see and do. I think this is one of those things we will have to do again in some more leisure and detail in the summer months.
It's new-years eve tonight and we're in Augsberg. In the Czech Republic fireworks are taken very seriously by almost everyone, and there are stores that stock some really mean-looking firework kits, with everything from little crackers to things that look like they could put a satellite into orbit. Certainly, items like this would have you arrested in ZA, but seem to be commonplace here. I had seen them, and seriously thought about getting a few packs to set off on New-Years, you know, some fun for the kids and the big kids. But I thought, naa, we'll be in Germany for New-Years eve, and the conservative krauts will probably be more like the South Africans and celebrate the eve without public fireworks at all.
How wrong can you be! Turns out we were the misfits because we were the only ones not shooting things into the air, or down the road, or at cars... I don't think any of us had seen anything like it. The whole city atmosphere was white with smoke so that it looked like a heavy fog, with literally thousands of fireworks going off. This all began quite a bit before midnight, till way, way after. Driving out of town the next day, we saw entire areas, like sidewalks, car-parks and open areas, literally covered in debris and burned out firework shells.
Somehow, the kids didn't even stir through the melee...
Happy new year! From the 3 of us in front of the camera, and Pierre behind it!
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