Day 7

Today we ride for 3+ hours by train to Rothenburg. I am ever grateful that Kar and I made this trip with two you women, Michelle and Tara, who understand trains, buses, trams and all their schedules, transfers and tracks!!

We have been blessed with another beautiful day!

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a town along the Romantic Road that has the strongest preservation orders in Germany. Many cobbled streets weave a web throughout the town that is surrounded by solid stone walls. There are homes, shops, cafés and medieval historic sites. 

The entrance

A view of the streets 

We found a wonderful toy shop

The blacksmith shop

And see the young man at the side of the pic?  He was Karsten and my tour guide. After following in two young women from New York and Chicago around for six days, my legs are wearing out!  And they seem to be just hitting their stride!  With all the up and down the hills of the cobble stone streets we opted

For the rickshaw:). This enabled us to see the entire city with a breeze in our face and info from our guide. 

International youth hostel

The gardens

And this pic is for my gardener's, Rick and Erma!

Our guide encouraged us to taste and smell the fresh herbs. 

A view from atop the wall. 

A view of the city from atop the wall. 

The overlook 

Time to head back 

Everywhere we go we have seen fields of yellow and wondered what they were. Today we learned they are raspeseed or raps.  The flowers bloom only in May, we are lucky to have come at just the right time. In just another month they will go to seed, become brown and ready for harvest. The seeds produce oil. Since the medieval times it has been used to make soap, in oil lamps and to lunricate engines. Then in 1974, through selective breeding at German universities, it can now be used in food. So today it is used to make biodiesel, margarine, animal feed and bioplastics. Edible rapeseed is called canola!  Now I still have my druthers about whether something that is used to make diesel and plastic is really good for our diets...hmm

Now we ride again...back to the hotel and tomorrow is or last day in Germany!  How time flies. We have seen so much, but it seems we have only seen a small part of what this part of the world has to offer!  So travel will remain in my bucket list!