The trains were pretty crowded -- especially the one from Steinach to
Rothenburg where there were people standing in the aisles. Fortunately
it was only a 15-20 minute ride. Our hotel was about 20 minutes away
from the train station, so we were quite happy to have the new
suitcase.
Rothenburg is very picturesque. When you imagine a cute little
European village, you're probably imagining Rothenburg. It looks very
nice even in winter, and it is apparently even nicer during the summer.
Rothenburg is a walled city of about 3000 people, and these days is
totally a tourist town. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating
with us very well, as it was raining during much of our visit.
Then we set off on a self-guided walking tour, but we didn't get too
far because of the rain. We stopped into the Museum of the Imperial
City (Reichsstadt Museum), which is in an old convent. It had a variety
of things including old sculptures and a bunch of medieval weapons and
things. After the museum we stopped into some of the shops in town
before dinner.
We splurged a bit on dinner at a slightly nicer restaurant. Sara had
pork tenderloin and I had a sirloin steak. Both dishes included potato
noodles which are pretty common -- several of my meals in both Germany
and Austria included the potato noodles. For desert Sara had apple
strudel with vanilla sauce, while I had an apple fritter (not quite the
same as the fritters I'm used to, but good nonetheless) with ice cream,
fruit, and cookies. Very good.
