Romantic Road

The Romantic Road -   Germans like to go for a ride in the countryside and to them, that's pretty LOVELY; thus, the Romantic Road trip through medieval towns was on our agenda.  We rented a
cool car and the first stop was Dinkelsbuhl, one of the medieval towns linked by the Romantic Road. After a short walk through the walled city and visit to the cathedral we stopped for dessert at a fund raiser for the local kindergartens, face painting, etc, just like home. 

Four baby storks born at top the town hall steeple delight locals and tourists alike. For a bird's eye view via live webcam, click Baby Storks.  Please remember that these are German storks; they will be sleeping if you tune in at 5 PM on the US East Coast - 11 PM stork time!  

Next, was Rothenburg where we had booked a cute room in the Penzione Gerlinger.  During the Middle Ages, it was an important city on the trade routes going in all directions.  This is a wonderful picturesque medieval city that had friendly people and great prices! 

We walked rounds with the Night Watchman who talked Rothenburg's history with a comic Slant. Click  Night Watchman's Tour  to see him on UTube.  Today the  Crime and Punishment Museum  gave us a glimpse of medieval criminal law and exhibits of how they punished the wrongdoers. Stick your nose in somone's bussiness and wear a metal mask with long nose. Act like a pig, wear a metal mask with a snoot. Beat your wife and get harnessed to a plow. If justice needs a confession, numerous means of torture will do the trick. Yikes, I'll take the good ole American justice system anyday! 

Christmas is big in Germany and a big store displays zillons of tree ornaments and everything Christmas.  St. Jakob's Church holds the Altar of the Holy Blood carved out of wood by the Michangleo of Germany.   We also walked the old wall that rings the ciy inside the fortification.  

Tomorrow, we turn in our car in Frankfurt, get back on the train and head for Bacharach in the Rhine Valley!

By the way, Richard carefully printed out detailed driving instructions using Google Maps before we left home. What happens if your autobann exit is closed? Follow the detour signs, right?  Well, no detour signs appeared and we had no paper road map. Luckily, we had been upgraded to a car with a navigation system so we plotted our own detour.  No problem.  Then again we encountered another road closure. This time our detour took us down a single lane road which we shared with a large oncoming farm tractor!

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