If it ain't one dadgum thing...

We're here in Germany and it's so incredible.

Our flights were great, but I'll have to do another blog update on that. The camera I used for the trip (my konica minolta digital) uses a card that I don't currently have a way to get the images off. The reader on this laptop isn't working properly and my little mobile cardreader won't work b/c I don't have the software installed! Argh. So until I figure out what I'm going to do, I'll just update with our adventure from today.

Today we took the train to Rothenburg, the best preserved medieval city in Europe. It's too bad I didn't know this when we started our trip! LOL. One of Josh's co-workers invited us at the last minute and I forgot my Frommer's book on the way out the door! I thought we were going to some small village! geeze. I was pleasantly surprised even though we walked aimlessly around. I eavesdropped on someone's conversation and was able to find the "medieval" part of town!

We started off at the town train station, about a 10-15 minute walk from our place.

We purchased our tickets out of a machine. You look up which town and then enter in the associated number on the key pad. It then tells you how much Euro it is. The tickets were only 2,40 Euro (about $3.32) each.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Rothenburg was stop at this roadside cafe for a quick lunch. On the recommendation of a few people, we tried a Doner. According to wikipedia, Döner Kebab (as döner kebap in Turkish and often simply kebap, donair, döner, doner or donner), which literally means "turning roast" is the name given to a Turkish dish made with lamb (or mutton), beef or chicken. It is the origin of other similar Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes such as shawarma and gyros. A version developed to suit German tastes by Turkish immigrants in Berlin has become one of the world's most popular fast food dishes.

Mmmmm. It was really good. While we were eating, this little redheaded german boy (probably like 4 or 5 years old) sat himself down at our table and talked nonstop to the kids in German. It was hilarious. Anberlin talked to him in english as if there were no language barrier.

After our lunch, we made our way into the city. We stumbled upon this huge wall and there was a walkway with a sign of a mother and child walking, so we followed it.

After walking for an hour and a half, we stopped for drinks. I ordered a coffee because I was a bit chilly and Josh had 2 beers. Guess who had to pay more? That's right. Me. Only in Germany is the beer cheaper than the coffee. LOL.

I took a bunch of photos but there's not many that I care for. I need more practice photographing landscapes/architecture and need to read up on suggestions on how to do so. I plan on going back to Rothenburg soon though b/c we didn't go inside anything. I read that there's a medieval museum that displays things like torture machines, shame masks, a cage for bakers who baked bread that was too small or too dark...sounds crazy!!

This is the town hall square. There is a tower that is cut out of the frame. You can climb to the top to get a bird's eye view of the whole city. We had strollers with us, so we didn't go but this is on my list of thing's to do.

Here is part of a fountain found in the middle of one of the streets. I wish there was water flowing through it...now that I think of it, none of the fountains had water!

On the way out, we stopped at a German Bakery. While we had been walking through the town, I noticed these in a lot of the shop windows and it intrigued me. These are called "schneeball" (or snowball in english) and they were pretty good. The town created this are their own traditional pastry to compliment all of the faux traditional Christmas ornaments they sell.

The day was interesting and I can't wait to go back to see the town more in depth. I think my only complaint is about the exchange rate of the Euro. We pulled out 80 euro for our trip. I didn't even think about what that amounts to. When I checked after our trip, the 80 euro came out to like $110! Geeze. It's a good thing the trip was more sightseeing rather than shopping!!

LOL.

xoxo

ps- A few quick notes on my previous post. Sebastian got the watch for his birthday from my dad, but it was too big. He wanted to wear it so we put it on his ankle! And I don't know how he turned into a Thomas the Train fan. It was like an overnight thing. It started out with him talking about "choo choo train"s nonstop. Before we knew it, he started getting Thomas themed things!!

Oh and we're totally using someone else's wireless right now. Since we're in temp housing, we can't order our own internet.