Weekend in Germany

Now that the holidays are over, it's back to blogging.  Our European adventure is almost over, but we are still managing to get in a few more trips.  For example, back in the beginning of December, we did a quick tour of some southern Germany sites I had been interested in seeing.  We left Friday morning and drove up to the cute town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber that I had visited before.  I had really wanted to take Darren and I wanted to go back to that amazing Christmas store.  

We arrived in Rothenburg in the afternoon to chilly temperatures and a bit of rain, however, Rothenburg was even more magical than before.  It was decorated from head to toe for Christmas and it really boosted my Christmas spirit.  We walked around to see the decorations and visited the small Christmas market in the town square.  After that, we stopped in a restaurant, called Baumeisterhaus, on the square and had a delicious and (for me) hearty lunch.  I had pork roast with potato dumplings and the best red cabbage I've ever eaten.  

In front of the Rothenburg tiny Christmas market on the main square

Happy to be eating in Germany

An example of all the Christmas decorations in town

After lunch, we spent a good hour in the two Käthe Wohlfart stores working around the crowds and deciding what to buy.  Darren did snap some pictures of the inside this time with his phone so that we could show it looked like.  We picked up some traditional German Christmas items like straw ornaments and a real nutcracker.  I am excited to display them next year.

The entrance to the Christmas store

Inside the Christmas store

Some traditional German Christmas decorations

On our way out of Rothenburg

We only spent a bit of time in Rothenburg because I wanted to see the Nürnberg (Nuremberg) Christmas market that night.  We drove another hour east and arrived in town around dinnertime.  It was very chilly outside, so we bundled up to walk over to the Hauptmarkt where the Christmas market was.  This main square is also home to the Frauenkirche, a beautiful church, and the Schöner Brunnen, a beautiful 62-foot fountain that was built in the 14th century.   

Hauptmarkt with the huge fountain in the middle and the church in the background

The market had a dozen or so rows of stalls, each selling food, Christmas treats, and Christmas decorations, among other things.  We walked through all the rows and purchased some Christmas presents for family.  We also enjoyed sampling some market food like apple strudel, Nürnberg sausages, and waffels topped with cream.

Eating my Christmas market treat

An example of the Christmas decoration for sale

This picture is for my dad, I know he would have loved to eat this

We had Nürnberg-style sausages, which are tiny sausages put inside a roll and eaten like a sandwich

Darren enjoying his waffel

I just loved visiting this Christmas market and feeling a lot of Christmas cheer.  Darren said he thought the Strasbourg Christmas market was better, which is great for Zurich friends since it is much closer.  I'm really glad we were able to spend one more Christmas season here before we move back.  After seeing all of the Christmas market, we walked around just a bit of the old part of town.  We ran into this castle and walked up to the top where the Christmas tree was to get a view of the city.

Part of an old castle in Nürnberg

It started to rain again as we walked up there

The great view from the top captured by Darren's steady hands

A self-portait next to the Christmas tree

Stopped by another church on the way back to the car

Unfortunately, we didn't have more time to visit other sites in Nürnberg, though it seemed like a nice town with a lot of history to take in.  We left Nuremberg and drove to our hotel for the night, which was just outside of the city.  The next day we visited the Porsche and Mercedes museums in Stuttgart, which I will cover in the next post.