The Romantic Road, Rothenburg to Fussen, Day 7

Day 7 is when we found out why being so flexible in your vacation planning is essential -- we had only seen half of what we wanted to see in Rothenburg. So instead of getting up in the morning and driving the 160 miles to Fussen, where we were going to stay the night, we went back into town and spent all morning there.

This morning included the Crime and Punishment Museum, a peek in St. George's Church, a walk to the edge of the city to look out over the surrounding countryside, and a walk around the outside of the wall. The view from the city's edge was breathtaking. And if you have a spare moat that you don't know what to do with, by the way, you should consider turning it into a park:


I loved being in Rothenburg, but boy am I glad I didn't live in medieval times! For most people, life was spent wondering where your next meal was coming from and making sure that you had one, storing food in case something did happen, and simply trying to provide basic shelter, protection, and clothing. From a social standpoint, life was strict, to say the least. I've definitely decided that being accused of some "crime" just because someone didn't like you, having a couple of people substantiate the trumped-up charges, and then being executed two days after that just doesn't sound like a fun way of life to me, regardless of my romantic ideas of knights and ladies. And living in one of those cities must have been horrible, especially in the summer when, er, "everything" in the streets baked and started stinking. No wonder rich people went to their summer cottages to avoid it! I'll take our modern cities, thank you.

After we left Rothenburg, we made the drive to Fussen. The first half of the drive was much like the day before--pretty, pretty, pretty, hee hee we're in Germany, pretty, pretty--until about an hour after leaving Rothenburg when the alps were suddenly on the horizon. What an amazing sight!!! I've lived in and around mountains for most of my life, but there's just something exciting about seeing the alps for the first time. I'm pretty sure I surprised Kyle when I thumped his leg and excitedly burst out with "I can see the alps," but I couldn't help myself. I am Tigger, after all...


The rest of the day we spent getting to our hotel, finding somewhere to eat, and getting situated. I was pretty excited to see Castle Neuschwanstein lit up from our hotel room's balcony. Because it was so dark and the castle was about three miles away, though, it was impossible to take a picture of. This is the best I could do. Just picture a white fairytale castle hanging in mid-air and glowing in the dark and you pretty much get the picture. It was a great last sight before drifting off to sleep.