Day 7 - The Romantic Road

We left Nuremberg this morning to relatively quiet city streets as it is Saturday morning and the Germans take the weekends to truly relax.  So much different than us in the states.  We always seem to be rushing around insisting on getting from place to place in the least amount of time possible, never relaxing to simply take in the air and what is around us.  We traveled about 2 hours to Rothenburg and along the way, we took what the Germans call a "romantic road".  It was explained to us by Mishko our tour guide (who is Serbian) that a romantic road is one that includes truck traffic, is not four lanes, and winds through the countryside.  Since today was Saturday, we did not see many trucks so it seems that the road was probably a bit more romantic than during the week.

Once we arrived in Rothenburg, we had the opportunity to walk around the old Bavarian town and take in the scenic valleys, that surrounded this wall-guarded town.  Although it was badly damaged during WWII, Rothenburg (reconstructed) appears much as it would have before the war with the typical Bavarian building structures, colors and designs.  There are streets filled with small shops within old home structures that sell anything from clothing and Birkenstock sandals to 'steins, Christmas ornaments, teddy bears, and nutcrackers.  Then there is the food - German food as we think of German food - including all types of sausages, strudels, cookies, candies, and bread.  Dad and I had a polish sausage for lunch while mom had a curry sausage.  I loved the polish but didn't care for the curry sausage.  I left Rothenburg with a new addition to my animal family - a teddy bear with a Bavarian hat, vest and that plays music.  Now I just have to find a place in the house to put him so that Joey and Jesse (our younger cats) can't knock him down so that Ziggy (stuffed animal loving dog) can play with him.  Not sure where that will be yet, but I will figure it out.

We left Rothenburg and arrive in Munich around 4:00.  Before dinner we went to the famous Hofbrauhaus and had drinks.  Did you know that the Hofbrauhaus is where Hitler and his cronies would secretly meet before he came to power?  I know that I had heard that before but not sure where
exactly.  It was exactly what I expected - hot and loud.  We then went to a restaurant called Ratskeller München for dinner.  I had pork and sausage with german potato salad (it had 

vinegar in it - yuck).  We had strudel for dessert.  I liked yesterday's strudel much better than today's.  

Tomorrow we are off to Oberammergau after spending a few hours in Munich in the morning on a 

sightseeing tour.