On the road at 8:30am this morning as we move along to Rothenburg. Last night and today I watched the small video clip downloaded from Rick Steves via iTunes and showed
it to John today. That long with our guide book was a good refresher from what we read in the past. We arrived before our 12:30 appointed time but our rooms were ready. The Hotel Gerberhaus is lovely. There is a bakery, bar, restaurant area and everything is very clean and decorated in a somewhat Bavarian style. Everything looks quite comfortable and some of the group even did some laundry in the facility here. It is very nice they have down pillows and comforters, but I am allergic to down. They said they put a different pillow in my room, but it is not there so it must be in a different room. Thankfully there are a couple of small, simple, decorative pillows and it is not cold and I can use my coat or a bath towel for covers.
Anyway, on to our day. We dropped our luggage and met in 10 minutes to walk to the town square for a brief orientation from Roelinka. From there we walked through a Christmas store. Since I really can't buy many things there is little point in looking but we also looked in a little shop at a couple of wine glasses. The shipping cost as much as the glasses so I didn't get them. Next we were deciding on a spot for lunch, our first meal that we were not impressed with. However, we had a large supper planned as a group event and we will not starve, that's for sure.
Next we headed for the city wall and tower that we were able to climb, "Ate Schmiede an der 
Roderschutt forge and wall." The tower provided splendid views in every direction. Going up was not bad but coming down was very steep. We then ventured around the wall to the north and northwest for a different view of the city along they way. Along the wall there are plaques of cement with names of people from around the world who donated money to restore the city after it was 45% destroyed in WWII. This is the most well preserved Medieval town in Europe. This was a pleasant walk, again with gorgeous views, which ended somewhat near St. Jakob's Church where we wanted to see the wood carving we read about. Actually, the church itself was more impressive to us than the wood carving. It was time to head back to the hotel as we are meeting at 6pm and walking to the group dinner at Kloster-Stuble. Here we had our authentic Schnitzel and some sort of potato dish I can only compare to potato salad. Prior to the dinner we had a delicious salad with grated white radish and carrots, and cucumbers, tomato, and a wedge of orange over the lettuce. Dessert was a version of banana split.
Following our meal we walked to the town square just in time to hear the
clock chime 8 and see the Meistertrunk ("Master Draught") show. A window opens on each side of the clock and on one side a wooden figure of the mayor moves ever so slowly to drink the supposed 3 liters of wine to save the town from destruction. This is a fairy tale but certainly draws a crowd. Then the Night Watchman begins a spiel about ancient times that is pretty informative and done in a jovial way and somewhat entertaining. If we were not tried I am sure we would have enjoyed that more but after the walk was finished with him we headed back to the hotel. We must be on the bus at 7:45am in the morning ready to roll for Dachau Concentration Camp and a visit to Munich. No Internet here or better put no free Wi-Fi . We were going to pay E$1.00 to have it for an hour but there is no one up to pay now. Oh well, I will post this tomorrow or as soon as I can.
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