Rothenburg ob Der Tauber Christmas Market

Rothenburg ob Der Tauber Christmas Market

Today’s stop was a place I’ve wanted to go for years, the medieval town of Rothenburg Ob der Tauber. It is an ancient city that has fought very hard to keep the old town inside the city walls as preserved as possible. Beautiful cobble stone streets are lined with half timbered houses and the quiet, rustic town is just breathtaking. Rothenburg is well known for its Christmas market too and many people will tell you it’s their favorite market of all the ones they’ve been to. I have to agree, it is quite charming. Driving in to our hotel was interested since it was inside the city wall. You enter the wall through a large gate that is just big enough for a single car to pass at a time and the tiny roads make driving my big SUV interesting. It was much colder in Rothenburg than it was the night before in Köln and we had to layer up a little more. There are several Christmas shops in the town with decorations and ornaments for your home. I could have browsed those all night, but Colin had other ideas. After touring the town and the Christmas market we grabbed some brats and a couple different kinds of crêpes and walked a few blocks to our hotel. Tonight we got pflaumenmus (plum sauce) in one crêpe and I got honey and almonds in the other one. Both were delicious. I also got a jug of homemade plum wine from a booth at the Christmas market. When we got back to the hotel we starting peeling off the layers and Shelby commented to Colin that his feet were freezing. Colin dropped everything and ran to the bathroom for some toilet paper, which he brought out and tore off a couple strips. The whole time he was chattering on about warming up Daddy to himself. He placed strips of toilet paper over Shelby’s feet to keep them warm and told Daddy it would make them better. We tried our best not to fall out laughing at him but we failed miserable. Then I said my feet were cold too and he came to my rescue with more strips of toilet paper. By this time I was down to my sweater and underwear attempting to put on my PJ pants when, without thinking, I commented to Shelby that my butt was frozen numb. Colin didn’t miss that comment and began tearing off strips of paper to tuck into my underwear and soon I was wearing a full on toilet paper hula skirt. Shelby and I were dying laughing and Colin was so proud of himself. The next morning we woke up and did a little wandering around in the falling snow before leaving. I had to hit a shop or two to find a magnet from Rothenburg and I also wanted a Christmas ornament. I fell in love with this little romantic town and would love to come back and explore some more. Once the shopping was taken care of we got back on the road to head to the Alps and Garmisch. The forecast is calling for 4-5” of snow there Tuesday and another 4-5” Wednesday, I can’t wait!!