Rothenburg ob der Tauber

So, one of the best perks we receive is being able to partake in the Wounded Warrior travel opportunities for providers at the hospital. It is an opportunity to see various things in Germany free of charge, for the whole family. We decided to visit Rothenburg, because it is supposed to have a wonderful Christmas market and just the fact that it is supposed to be a wonderfully preserved walled city. Rothenburg is situated near Nuremberg, in the eastern part of Germany. We left very early in the morning. We drove to the hospital, parked our car and loaded onto one of two buses. Like I have alluded to before, the buses that we get to use are very nice, complete with a bathroom, reclining seats, seats that move away from your seat mate, so you have a little extra room. They always give you a goody bag, this time it included a drawstring backpack, water bottles, and other small items. The bus was moderately full, McKay and Hailey sat next to each other, Maddi and Sharma were paired up and I sat by myself. We left at 6am, on a very cold and dark Saturday morning. I plugged in my iPhone and listened to music and podcasts that I downloaded. Half way to Rothenburg we stopped at McDonalds to have brunch, just as the snow started to fall like a blanket out of the sky. Oh yes...it was cold this day..a bad omen. We pulled into Rothenburg in the late morning, somewhat groggy and very cold. On all Wounded Warrior excursions there are tour guides provided, very knowledgeable and approachable. Here is the rub, if you know the Shumates, we are an independent breed. We don't like to be cooped up in a pack of people, unless we are leading the pack. The balancing act here, is how long do we stick with the pack leader before we break off and form our own makeshift group? We stayed with our tour guide for 20 minutes...not too bad for us. Our first item of business was to find an ATM and get some Euro so we could do what we do best. Before we could do this, we were lured into the Rothenburg cathedral, which much like all of the churches here in Europe, was wonderful...wonderfully 'been there done that'. We conquered the ATM and set out for our adventure. We actually wandered a bit outside of the walled city and purchased something called a Schneeball. It is a shortcrust pastry special to this area, it is deep-fried in a special device that helps it to retain is characteristic ball shape. It is then dusted with chocolate or confectioner's sugar. We bought two and since we were hungry they didn't last longer than 5 minutes. It wasn't fantastic, but we were hungry. From there we wandered back into the city, feeling sorry for ourselves because we were cold. We made it to the town square where the Christmas market was being held. We purchased something called Kinderpunsch, this is our version of a hot drink, non-alcoholic. It is usually made with apple or grape juice, cinnamon and ground cloves. You buy the drink in a souvenir mug, each city has their own souvenir mug. You buy the drink which includes a fee for the cup, if you want to keep the cup, away you go. If you want a Euro back, turn the mug back in and they will dispense a Euro to you. After consuming our Kinderpunsch we wandered down the main street of town. Now, I am going to apologize right now, I am not sure what appeal the Christmas markets have. Please don't get me wrong, they are nice, they put you in a Christmas mood, of this there is no doubt, I just am not a subscriber of needing to see all 2,500 Christmas markets in Germany or the rest of Europe for that matter. We meandered down the street, briefly stopping into stores to look at the local wares, but mainly to get warm. We found our way to a portion of the walled city that you could walk around. So we climbed the stairs and walked along a narrow path and low hanging ceiling, that they built around the wall. There were great views of the city...and into people's homes. I am sure they have gotten used to seeing random people peering into their homes while they are trying to live their life, I don't know, if you ask me that would be just a little strange. We had 1.5 hours to go before the bus was to leave. We found this restaurant that was serving hot chocolate that looked very good. We purchased 5 hot chocolates...I figured that we paid $20 for all of them. The exchange rate can really kill you sometimes. While there we played a game that we like to play...somebody starts of a story by saying one word, the next person says one word, the next person says one word and so on. We laughed, they looked at us, we laughed some more. And since we use our iPhones and iTouches a lot our respective batteries were running low. So we plugged each one in...since we never go anywhere without having a cord to charge them. I know...sad that we can't detach. We met our group and blended in, like we were there the whole time. We did have a good time, we are glad that we went...mainly because I didn't have to drive, it was free and we could mark this one off of our ever growing list.