Our First Night in Rothenburg

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a beautifully preserved midieval city. It is a complete tourist trap, but breathtaking at every term. It is a walled city with 6 gates. It's streets are made of cobblestones and are quite hilly. Our hotel is at the bottom of a steep hill just down from the city center. The rooms are connected to and on top of a lovely pastry shop, which will be hard to resist. Our room, of course, is once again on the third floor. It is in the shape of a loft or an attic with the roof slanted in. We have a window that opens up for a breathtaking view of the countryside that overlooks the tiled rooftops of houses and some of the taller towers of the walled city. The view is amazing! There will be a price to pay, however. Tomorrow it is expected to reach 88 degrees, so I imagine it will get very warm in this lovely little room. We don't even have a fan up here and I am wondering what might fly inthe window at night if we leave it open. Time will tell. Once we settled in our room, we decided tonwalk back to a street near the train station where there is a coin-operated laundry. Pam packed only enough clothes for half the tip in an effort to lighten her suitcase, so she was hoping to take advantage of this service. Unfortunately, when we walked up the hill to the laundromat, we discovered that it was closed. Maybe tomorrow we can try again. After returning to the hotel with our dirty laundry, we tookmogg for a place to eat. We ended up at the top of that hill again and found a local Biergarten that was famous for its potato dishes. Beer houses typically have long tables out in the open air. This one was no different, except the tables were underneath huge trees and the were crawling with some kind of little black bugs like mites. They were everywhere! It really was annoying, but the beer and food tasted so good. Pam ordered a dish with potato dumplings mixed with sauerkraut and bacon sauce. I simply ordered boiled potatoes with skins on which were served with a huge pat of herbed butter. Both dishes were wonderful! We then went back to the center of the city for a tour with the Night Watchman. This gentleman dresses like a midieval night watchman and gives a tour of the city for 7 Euros per person. He relates the history of the city and is very humorous in the process. This was money well spent! What a day!