The Weekend: Saturday! :)

Well we had an amazing road trip this weekend and I have so much to share! I'm going to just split it up into two days so it's easier to follow.

After leaving Saturday morning around 11:00 in the morning we ran a few last errands. We stopped at the bank and I got some Euros and then we dashed over to the bakery quick to get some bread for the trip. We then hopped on to the autobahn and drove to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. We passed an airplane museum on the way and we will be going to that sometime in the next week. It was cool to see the outside though; there were a couple of huge airplanes on display. We also passed a big nuclear power plant with huge smoke stacks. Along the highway we passed a lot of farms. There were also large vineyards that looked really cool! We passed a ton of those and I did manage to get some good shots from the car window. We stopped at one rest stop and I got some nice pictures of the country side. When we first got there I noticed these cement headstone type things and wondered if some one was buried there, but then I realized they were picnic tables with out the bench or table parts :P - That was kind of funny. We ate bread and cheese for lunch (which even though it sounds simple, was really really good!) and then snacked on a lot of sweets. The highways in Germany are narrow sometimes and fast! There are also a lot of distance markers along the road and they make me nervous because if you had to swerve for something you would hit these poles that are every 10 meters or so and pretty much ruin your car. The cool thing about there poles though is that they have arrows on them pointing the direction to the nearest emergency phone on the highway. Every couple of kilometers there is an emergency phone; I thought that was kind of cool!

When we finally pulled in to Rothenberg it was 1:30pm. We pulled into a parking lot right outside the wall that surrounded the city and parked. We unloaded, packed up and made sure we were all warm and then set off. Before I continue I will share a funny story...

As we were packing up we noticed this man standing across the row between to vehicles. He was wearing sunglasses and at first we didn't notice him, but as we moved away from the van he moved closer. We thought he looked kind of suspicious. I forgot my sunglasses so we went back to get them. He just stood there and kind of smiled. We then shut the door and locked it and then took our time looking at the map and deciding where to go. The man was still standing there. As we started walking over to the side walk he followed us a little bit. We couldn't tell if he was just some random person or up to some mischief. Just in case, I very nonchalantly took a picture of him and my aunt took down his license plate number. As we walked away we started joking and making up a story about our stuff being gone. And later when we came back everything was fine and he was just some random guy.

We entered Rothenberg through a big arch and took some narrow stairs up to the castle wall. The first thing I noticed is that I was almost too tall for the timbers that were being used as rafters to support the ceiling. I couldn't walk up right comfortably because I kept thinking I was going to hit my head. There were a lot of different shaped holes in the wall for windows and they all varied in size too. Along a portion of the wall there were also name plates of people who had donated money to the reconstruction of the wall. There were names from all over the place. Even the US! Every transition (or turn) in the wall had a short tower and some steps up into the tower and then steps down again. The stone steps were very warn and you could see that there had been a lot of use. From the wall you got a very good view of a lot of houses and then long street shots. I took some pictures of that stuff. You could also see a tower with a bunch of scaffolding around it that was being fixed or something. I also saw some of the first actual photographers on my trip from the wall, but they all had Nikons... I felt a little out numbered :P

When we reached the far end of the wall we took the stares down to the street and then found this side doorway that took us into this really big indoor road with some canons at every window. The wooden beams and stairs were really cool! There was also a small garden behind the wall with a neat bridge over it. The bridge went over a sidewalk that went into the garden. I got some pictures of this too. After walking over the bridge and around the garden I went back to the street and as I was walking back into Rothenberg through this tunnel this small little care came zooming by and it was really loud, but very tiny... kind of like the car clowns squish into.

Like I said in my last post, Rothenberg had a medieval theme and almost every story had a unique sign with a special symbol on it. Back in the medieval days when some people couldn't read or write the stores had to have signs with symbols that told what they did or sold. It was very cool to see the descriptions through the signs. We walked through Rothenberg to the Market Square and right before we got there we stopped at a small shop and got some "Snow balls or Zimt Schneeballb as they call them. It's kind of like a funnel cake except in a ball shape and a lot more dense. I got one covered in cinnamon. We got to the square that I mentioned and it was really big. There was a huge church tower to the left as you walked in and then a large building with a clock on the front straight ahead. The market place was just a big square of bricks and there were a lot of people walking through it. We then turned left and walked straight down the street to the Garden that I talked about. It was really big and amazing! It opened up through and archway and there was a path to the left and the right. There were long sidewalks parallel to each other that went all the way down through trees to the large vantage point over the valley. There were also some side path ways that went to various locations in the garden to other look out points. The look out place was really cool and I enjoyed seeing the valley and the river. There was a sculpture that people were taking pictures by and I snapped a shot of a cute little 1 or 2 year old running through it (with permission).

Oh and a funny story... we were waiting by the bathrooms for people that need to go and my cousins and I were standing there talking and saw these to German ladies walk past and go down the pathway to the men’s side. We started laughing and then a couple seconds later they walked past us again talking really fast and since I didn't know what they were saying it just made me laugh.

We left the gardens and started walking back to the car because our parking time was almost out. I wanted to climb up the church tower and take some pictures so I ran ahead with some money and looked for the right door, but it had already closed which was a big bummer. We walked through the streets some more and saw a lot of different shops. My cousin Emily and I walked into a store that had some really big horns in it. Like the kind you would blow in. When we walked in there was this machine that said, "hello, welcome, come on in" and it said it like a dozen times. The man there also had a large variety of knives that were very impressive. I really wanted to get one, but they cost a little much and I figured I would see more knives and try and make up my mind when I saw some more. We also went into a Christmas shop that had all these ornaments. If you ask me, it was way too much Christmas for me this time of year. We then walked the rest of the way to the van. We took a break and had some tea/cider/hot chocolate and then snacked on a bunch of different things that we had brought. We then packed up and went on our way to find ourselves a place to spend the night. We drove to a place called Dinkelsbuhl. As we entered the town I saw a music shop that was displaying two drum sets... I immediately had my aunt drop me off asap and ran back to the shop to buy some drum sticks, but they were closed!! I was disappointed, but I'll just have to keep looking! I then ran and met up with everyone and we went searching for a place to eat. There was a giant church/cathedral looking building where we parked and we heard a lot of horns coming from it. We stopped and asked someone about it and were told that they were having a special hunter’s ceremony. We stopped and ate at a small Pizzeria. It was really nice and was completely empty... I guess all the people were eating some where else. The food was good. I had a pizza and some salad that tasted really good. The pizza in Germany is a little different. all the crust is thin, which I like, but I also like fluffy pizza crust too! After we ate we walked back to the car. It was dark and a little cold so we were all rushing. Once we got to the car we drove around a little bit touring the city by night and then we went on our way to find a place to stay.

My uncle, who stayed home because of a class he's taking, called us right as we were thinking about calling him and asked us if we had found a place to stay. We hadn't, so he found a place for us. The hotel was in a town called Nordlingen and it was almost an hour away from Dinkelsbuhl so we hastily went on our way. The lady that owned the place was very polite, but also interesting. She had her own private elevator too, which we all thought was funny (Of course we were all tired too). The rooms were amazing and the beds were really comfortable. The room my grandparents and I stayed in was a very good size. It had three wooden beds a couch, a table, two chairs, a wooden closet and a T.V.. The bathroom had two sinks, a toilet, a bathtub AND a shower. It was very cozy! I took a shower and got in bed and would have slept pretty good except my grandpa snored all night! He said I was snoring, but when ever I woke up it was him who I heard (And yes, I made sure it wasn't me).

So that was my Saturday and part on of my exciting weekend! It was a very long, but enjoyable day and I took about 200 pictures. I'm looking forward to posting a ton of them when I get back! I will type the adventure that today (Sunday) brought, tomorrow morning! Hope you are enjoying the trip so far!

My adventure continues with... The weekend: Sunday!! :)