Day 2: Rothenburg

After Dinkelsbuhl, it was on to Rothensburg (pronounced rote-inns-burg), the most famous town along the Romantic Road, and best preserved medieval town in Germany. The Lucas clan hung out with us for awhile, then headed home (stormy is 34 weeks pregnant and it was warm with lots of hill-walking).

We had a great dinner in the biergarten at Gasthof Goldener Greifen. Met a nice group of German folks, so I tried my go-to phrase: "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" A little, the man said. We get to talking, tell him we're from Texas. He says - "We're from an area called Braunfels." - Immediately I'm thinking - but of course you are! - "And we have a sister town in Texas called New Braunfels." I'm like - I know - my dad's entire side of the family lives in NB and they all emigrated from Braunfels! Small... Small world. They all play in a bowling league together, so we probably are related. 9-pin of course (except they said it's a smaller ball than our 9-pin and doesn't have holes. There's a challenge Voges boys!)

Then enjoyed some beer out in the main plaza where they had a nice little festival with live music and exhibitors. Afterwards, we did the highly recommended Night Watchman's Tour. Really great -funny and historical. Being a history nerd, I really loved this. Found out some really interesting stuff - won't bore you with it all, but one little [long] fact. Rothenburg basically exists as it is for 2 - no make it 4 -reasons: (1) devastation from 30 Years War - poverty caused the city not to be able to move forward/expand/update, thus time stood still, so it kept it's medieval charm. (2) In WW II, a major German general had fled there so the US troops flew over to bomb, but it was foggy and they missed most the city. (3) A few days later, we went in to finish the job but the commander's mom had visited Rot. years before and begged him not to destroy it in a letter, so he offered the city an opportunity to surrender instead. (4) As we all know, German troops were forbidden to surrender, even though they were losing dismally and the war was about to end. But fortunately the German commander had left for a few days and the officer in charge was a smart guy, so he rode out with the white flag. And that's why we have Rothensburg today - with it's Christmas markets and all its kitschy charm. Pretty cool huh?