The start of the EM soccer championship fell on our 10th wedding anniversary and we see cars everywhere with (mostly) German flags attached to their windows and soccer fans all over-including this lady peeking out of a window in Rothenburg. I love the soccer ball hats.
For our anniversary trip, we started out in Heidelberg, where we stayed at the Ritter Hotel in the old part of the city. It was close to everything we wanted to see - the castle, the old bridge and the walk up to the Philosopher's Way. For more information and pictures on Heidelberg, also see Heidelbergerin's blog.
Our hotel is a building from 1592 and it was funny to watch the tourists take pictures of the facade - every time we looked out of our window, we got an impression of what the pope must feel like when he steps out on the balcony in Rome.
The next day, we drove through Bad Wimpfen (again, thanks to Heidelbergerin) and on to Rothenburg. We had seen Rothenburg 11 years ago and were surprised by the changes. All the building facades have been renovated and there seemed to be a lot more street traffic than we remembered. Also, the number of souvenir shops has increased ten-fold. It is still a very picturesque town. On our list of favorites is walking the city wall surrounding Rothenburg, climbing the city hall tower and walking the woodsy path down to the Toppler House, which sits on the base of a tower.
Since that day was our anniversary, we treated ourselves to a stay at the Burg Hotel with a beautiful view of the Tauber valley. It was a very quiet place to stay and the staff were very friendly. Since the hotel does not have a restaurant (just a breakfast buffet), we decided to have dinner on the outside terrace of another hotel nearby.
This four-day trip was very touristy but the nice thing about touristy towns is that they keep up appearances - the cobblestone streets lined with outdoor cafes and umbrellas, the flowers everywhere... Maybe it's fair to say that if it weren't for tourists, a lot of historic places would fall into decay and places like Rothenburg would not have the money to keep it up.
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4 comments:
Haha, I love photos of people in windows! I've always wondered what the Ritter is like inside. It's such a cool and significant building! Great pictures!!
CN,
I would have said hello but we were only there a short while. Boy, the climb up the hill to see the castle really knocked the wind out of me...
http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=87021&hl=
Hi there,
I am think I am something of a mirror to you :-) I was born in Germany, lived in the USA until I was eleven and then moved back to Germany until two years ago, when my husband and I decided to give America a try. So even though I have always had an American Passport, I still feel likel a German in Pennsylvania, which is actually not very rare come to think of it, only that these Germans here don't speak German. ;-) Oh, by the way, I used to live in Frankfurt, in Ginnheim to be precise, and yes, I'm homesick.
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