Day 6 to Rothenburg

Day 6 to Rothenburg ob de Tauber

We had decided to get up extra early this morning in order to extend our trip south to buy cuckoo clocks in Triberg which is the Cuckoo Clock Capital of the World.  So we met for breakfast at 8 and that was early.  We all made it on time though.  I want to say here how much I appreciated everyone’s graceful assistance in getting this extra early start for me and my cuckoos.  We had a very good breakfast, loaded the car and off we went.  As we were leaving, we mentioned heading to Freiburg and the woman at the hotel stopped us, saying it was Triberg, not Freiburg that we should be going to.  Thank goodness for that.  We would have gone to the wrong place!!!!  We’d have managed somehow, but it was good not to waste time.

We went through beautiful valleys, by wonderful mountain streams, by nice foggy forests and found our way to Triberg.  Just before we got there, I pulled over to discuss which cuckoo shop we should visit and saw a Volkswagen Bug with large red pom poms on its roof.  These represent the traditional headdress of the women in the area.  (You will understand the significance in a few minutes.)  We decided to go all the way to the end of the town, then come back to the one that looked the best.  So we did.  However, we decided to stop at the one at the end of the town and return to the others only if we needed to do so.  As we got out of the car, Sue spotted a piece of paper under the windshield wiper.  Since it was in German, I asked the lady at the shop what it said.  She said it was not a ticket for parking on the sidewalk, but a warning not to do it again.  (The hotel owners said we could park there, but I guess they forgot to tell the law enforcement about it.)

We had a grand and glorious time looking at cuckoo clocks and believe me, there is a lot of variety.  They are made at the factory right there at the shop which I got to tour for a few minutes.  It was during that tour that I dropped the ‘warning’ ticket into the just flushed toilet so I won’t have it as a souvenir.  Oh, well.  Back to the cuckoo clocks.  Rachel and Mema, I got each of you a cuckoo clock and I’ll try to put a photo of them on picasa.  I hope you’ll like them and I think you will.   I also bought some other items, but just two clocks.  The others also did some shopping but no one else bought more cuckoo clocks.  The clocks are being delivered to GA but she didn’t know when they will arrive.  I hope it won’t be too long and I hope they’ll be as nice looking as they were in the shop.  Sarah did find something she should have bought, but didn’t.  When you see the photos, you may notice Sarah in her hat and pigtails.  Look for that photo.  I just wish she’d been standing beside the Volkswagen Bug.

We got back into the car and began the long drive.  It took quite a while to get to the autobahn but we made it without any detours, even.  Kinda boring, knowing where you are going!!!!  Once on the autobahn, we were once again zipping along at a nice fast pace.  I’d say I averaged about 130 – 140 kph which is about 80 – 85 mph.  We slowed at some road construction but it wasn’t really bad at all.  There was one road construction site where for some reason, I just didn’t realize that I was supposed to be going only 60 kph and wondered why everyone else was going so slowly.  Luckily, I noticed the sign and slowed down from the 110 kph I had been doing.  Just after that a police car pulled behind me. It was a good thing I had slowed down when I did.  Whew!! 

We stopped for gas, water, snacks – Sorry Sue about that apple cake that I made you drop when I hit the brakes that time.  I’ll make it up to you.  We drove around Stuttgart and headed toward Nurmberg.  It was really a fairly nice drive, nice and calm even.  So calm that at one point I was the only one with my eyes open.  (Y’know they must sorta trust my driving at 130 kph if they can snooze while I’m doing that!!!) 

We got to Rothenburg and Sue was able to guide us very successfully to our hotel.  There were some gasps and groans and grunts (and cussing from me) a couple of time because of wrong turns and narrow cobblestone streets and hard to find road signs, but we parked about 30 feet from the front of the hotel door and in this town, that’s saying something.  We went into the hotel and Gunter, at the Rezeption Desk, acted like we were old friends and he’d been waiting there just for us.  We went up the elevator (thank goodness for elevators) to our rooms and just love the rooms, halls and everything.  This hotel is part of the old city wall and it shows.  It has been here for hundreds of years and even though it has been remodeled, there are many parts to it that have been left for the look of old times.  It is absolutely beautiful.

Sue and Sarah are rooming together, Paula and Linda are together and I am alone.  I needed a night alone and Paula was very nice to allow me to trade with her after our draw.  We have decided that since we have several nights of someone having to have a private room, that person will pay a little more for the hotel than the others – it’s only fair and I’m all for that.  Not only that, but I got the Queen room (that’s the best room) tonight because someone handed me that key.  My room has a little sitting room AND a balcony with table and chairs.  When you stand on the balcony, you can only see rooftops.  It’s fantastic.

After oohing and aahing about out rooms, we headed out for the serious business of shopping.  We are just steps from the Marketplatz and the best shopping there is.  We went into wonderful shops that have a fantastic selection of Christmas items and toys and dishes and beer steins and stuffed animals and . . .   We wandered and shopped and carried things back to the hotel and started all over again.  We were hungry since we had skipped lunch (to go shopping of course) so we started looking for lunch.  Surprise, surprise.  The kitchens in the restaurants are not open during afternoon hours until about 5:30 or 6 when they start serving dinner and it was not yet that late.  So we did the sensible thing and had cake and coffee/tea/water!!!!  It’s a tough life we lead!  All the cakes were wonderful (look at the photos) and we were revived enough to shop some more.  We also went to St. Jacobs Church and it was amazing to see.  If you have read Pillars of the Earth, this town and church could be what was described in that book.  If you haven’t read it, you should.  By this time, with another stop at the car to store more packages, we were footsore and tired and hungry so we got a recommendation from Gunter and had a wonderful dinner of pork and vegetables (the waitress had to get help to tell me they had green peas available).  Then we headed back to the hotel but first we had to stop at the car and get our small luggage to take up to the rooms.  I’m sure we were a sight and you’ll probably see a photo of us as we had our large suitcases spread all over the road, yes that’s right, removing clothes and putting the clothing into our smaller suitcases to go upstairs.  That’s not a sight you see every day, but Rothenburg was treated to it tonight.  Hopefully they’ll recover from it sometime soon.

Sarah has been excited to visit this city since she and her parents were here 40 years ago with Sarah’s high school band.  She enjoyed seeing the same places again but noticed that they now seem to be a little bit smaller than they used to be. 

At the hotel, Paula and Linda decided they had had enough excitement for the day and would settle in for a rest.  The rest of us went on the Night Watchman’s Tour for an hour.  We expected a few people to meet us at the Marketplatz but there were probably 70 people there!!  For such a large crowd, it got very quiet when he started talking.  You can see a photo of us with him at picasa.  He was an excellent storyteller and the inflections in his voice were just right.  He gave us a very entertaining and enlightening tour of several areas in this section of the city.  History is a wonderful thing when it comes alive in such a wonderful fashion.  I certainly have a much better understanding of the medieval times right up to the present time and how this city is related to it all.  (Near the end of the tour, he stopped at a restaurant/bar and showed us the Devil sign over the door and told us the name of the establishment was Hell.  He said that if anyone told us to go to Hell to thank them for the recommendation because the bar is a very good place to spend the evening.)  We also have a DVD of this man and his Night Watchman’s tour if you’d like to see it sometime.  Just let us know. 

After the tour ended, we walked (I dragged myself) back to the hotel and into our rooms.  We had to share with Linda and Paula about the tour, but after that it was time for our rooms.  It’s now almost midnight and I’m officially tired.  Actually, I’m exhausted but I’m gonna sleep until 9 a.m. because we are not meeting for breakfast until 9:15 when we’ll have a meeting to discuss this blog (hopefully it will get approved) and share/post photos and start shopping again!!!!

Addendum:  As you may or may not know, I had computer problems the morning after I wrote this post.  When I got up this morning, after charging the computer all night long, nothing happened when I tried to turn it on.  Nothing at all.  I figured I had killed it.  We were all a little worried about it all day long and kept asking people for help.  Lots of people offered suggestions and assistance and we appreciate them all.  Even a man in Rothenburg tried to help but nothing worked.  Linda's son John gave us the winning idea of removing the battery and just plugging it up.  Looks like I just fried the battery and not the whole laptop.  I came close to buying and ipad 2 today at Ulm and Sue came even closer to buying a wireless keyboard for her ipad until we noticed it was a German keyboard with some letters in the wrong places.  Looks like I got lucky, again.