Our Europe Adventure: Part 19 - Rothenburg

On Tuesday our plan was to go to Rothenburg for the afternoon.  We made some lunches to bring with us and headed out  mid-morning.  It was difficult to get the kids out the door because they just wanted to play with the toys at Barbara and Friedbert's!  We finally shuttled them out by promising we'd be back before dinner and they would have lots of time to play.

The drive to Rothenburg was a bit of an arduous one, because I typed the wrong Rothenburg into the GPS!!  Who would have known that there were two "Rothenburg ob der ____" within an hour drive of Aura.  Unfortunately, the one I picked to drive towards was an hour in the wrong direction.  So we spent extra hours in the car taking a side tour of German autobahns.  Not very fun!

We finally got to Rothenburg a bit after lunch time.  We had eaten our lunches in the car so we were all set to check out the medieval city.  Cam liked the armor that was outside some of the stores.

Clocktower (and Cameron looking up at something)

We stopped at a cafe along the walk to the main square.  We had to partake in Rothenburg's famous treat - schneeballen!  This particular cafe had mini schneeballen that were prefect for Cam and Leah.  We let them each pick out what flavor they wanted, which was pretty tricky because there were so many choices!

Yummy chocolate covered!

Schneeballen and juice makes a perfect snack after being in the car for too many hours!

Walking through the city

Pretty view from the wall

Mama and Leah at the top of a tiny alley

Mama and Leah on the picturesque streets of Rothenburg

Cam with another suit of armor

Rothenburg Marktplatz

Mama, Cam and Leah in front of the Rathaus

Looking down the street (Kathe Wohlfahrt is the orange building!)

Mama and Leah in the middle of the spiral stairs that you climb to get to the top of the Rathaus tower

Climbing up the "easy" part of the tower climb.  Notice that I am carrying Leah - a trend that will continue when we get to the steeper part of the tower steps.

When there were easy stairs, I asked Leah to climb herself for a bit.  The stairs were steep so it was hard for her little legs to get up high enough!

The view out of a midpoint window.

At the top!  It was a clear day and we could see so far.  I love all of the orange rooftops.

The perimeter of town, surrounded by woods

Mama and kiddos on top of the tower.  Not much room to walk around - the domed roof of the Rathaus tower took up most of the space.

Family picture on top of the tower

Cool wide angle shot of Marktplatz and the surrounding town

Similar shot with kiddos included

Another view

I really like this shot

Climbing down from the tower.  It was SO STEEP!  And yes, I am carrying Leah.

Peek-a-boo, there we are!  Leah was clinging to me like a little koala, it was sweet.  There is no way she could have climbed down on her own though, it was just so steep.  Even Cameron had trouble.

More steep steps - really more ladder than steps!

And more!  Cameron did a great job climbing down, even though he definitely was nervous in some parts.

Mama and Leah coming down the stairs.  The wide angle lens is distorting things a bit, but the rise of the steps was so high!

Tim's turn to carry Leah for a little while.

I know my finger is in this picture but I thought it was cute, especially Leah looking up at the crazy steep stairs above her.

Artsy fartsy shot with a cute Cameron in the middle of it.

Mama's turn

Rathaus with Mama, Cam and Leah sitting on the steps enjoying a snack

Colorful Rothenburg buildings

Family picture on the steps!

Leah the ridiculously cute

Nice wide angle shot makes it look like Cam climbed a mountain, not 10 steps.

Leah excited to climb up those same 10 steps

Our next stop was in Kathe Wohlfahrt, the Christmas shop.  It was amazing, as always.  The kids walked around the shop with their mouths hanging open.

You aren't supposed to take pictures inside, but Tim took a few camera-at-his-side shots.  Most of them didn't come out, but here is one overlooking one of the main rooms of the store.

Cam and Leah with one big nutcracker

In order to get back to Barbara's in time for dinner, we left the store after spending a lot of time (and money!).  We wandered through the town a bit more and then drove back to Aura.  The kids really liked Rothenburg though, so we'll definitely be back!