Day 43- Romantic Road- Rothenburg

Day 43- 27 September 2008 Today we drove down the romantic road and went to Harburg and went on a tour of the Harburg castle which was interesting. We then went to Nordingen and there was a market on. We then checked out the St George church and went up the tower called daniel which is a long way up. At the top of the tower is a guy (who lives up there) and provides information and collects the 2 euros (the fee for climbing up to the top). You can walk around the top of the tower which has great views of the town (which is a walled city. We were also thrown into the middle of some strange tradition where there were 8 people at the top yelling out things from a sheet in turn. Then the woman gave me the sheet and said for me to yell out a line she was pointing to (well she was speaking german and i think thats whats she was saying) so i did, and in dodgy german voice i yelled out the german line (not knówing what i was yelling) out to the town from the top of this very tall tower. It was quite interesting. From there we drove to Dinkelsbuhl and we checked out the church and went on a horse and cart tour of the town (with a german speaking guide who gave some english information). We also had some Schnaaballen (dough balls) which are famous from this and the rothenburg area). We then drove to Rothenburg and found our hotel which was just out of rothenburg and then went into town. The city is a walled city and is very pretty with its coblestoned streets and 6 storey buildings. We had dinner and then waited outside for a night watchman tour. While waiting we could hear a band coming down the street and it was the rothenburg historical society with a big band of drummers, trumpters and pilcolo players marching through to the main square (which is where we were). There was some sort of music performance on in the hall and lots of people dressed up in traditional outfits. At 8pm our guide arrived and we went on our nightwatchman tour of rothenburg. Our guide was very entertaining as we went down the darkened streets. It was a popular tour and there was about 150 people in the tour with more people joining in as we went along. Despite so many people we were always near the front and could hear the telling of the storys and history of the town perfectly. Rothernburg is a lovely town.