Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Another week of work, school and soccer passed without anything notable happening.  It's definitely getting colder.  Friday the 8th Carissa went out with a group of women from work to a restaurant in Pottenstein that most people refer to as Steak on a Stone (not sure what the real name is).  Perfect place for a vegetarian.  They serve exotic wild game - kangaroo, ostrich, alligator, etc - raw, on hot stones with seasoning in little cups on the side.  Once you've been served, you season and cook the meat to your liking.  Reminds me of Kramer's make your own pizza in Seinfeld.  While she was out I took the kids to Burger King on post (kid's choice) and then bowling.  This bowling alley is not my favorite - 2nd time (of 3) that I bowled less than 100.  I beat Elise by only 1 pin!

We had a 3 day weekend and felt like we should travel somewhere but were content to enjoy the beautiful weather in Grafenwoehr.  Saturday we went to a birthday party for a daughter of one of Carissa's coworkers.  She is Filipino and they had prepared what she described as a traditional spread for the party.  Their whole dining room was filled with food - 4 different kinds of grilled meat, multiple salads, sushi, chips, dips, 4 pizzas, and a separate table covered with cakes, muffins and candy.  The grilled meat was incredible, but I tried to limit myself due to the fact that we were supposed to celebrate my birthday that night and I had purchased a giant porterhouse for the occassion.  The party also included one of those jumpy castles for the kids and face painting.   Needless to say the kids had a great time.

That night we celebrated my 38th birthday with the aforementioned steak dinner, sweet potatoes fries, salad and a homemade Grandma Jensen sour cream chocolate cake - my favorite.  I got a new Brewer's cap to replace the one I lost on the train home from Paris, and a cool adjustable tripod for the camera.

Birthday dinner

Monday we finally got motivated enough to do a little sightseeing so we drove two hours south to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Rothenburg is a really cool walled medieval town with narrow streets and interesting shops, restaurants and churches.  We arrived around 10 am and slowly worked our way down one of the main boulevards to the center of town.  Along the way we bought and ate some schneeballen, fried egg dough sprinkled with sugar or covered in chocolate, an authentic Rothenburg treat.  Once in the center of town we entered the Rathaus and climbed to the top of the tower for a view from above.

One of the city gates

Rodergasse

Rothenburg Rathaus

From the Rathaus tower

After the Rathaus we shopped a little bit at the Kathe Wolfhart Christmas store (huge) and then walked over to visit the Cathedral.  I think we're becoming a little bit immune to the spectacle of cathedrals at this point, because we went in, snapped a few pictures and left.  Not to say it wasn't cool though, we've just seen so many in the last 3 months.

Side of the altar in the cathedral

After the cathedral we walked to the edge of town, where we were able to climb some stairs to walk along the inside of the city wall.  The wall itself is a pretty impressive structure.  It was built in the 13th century of stone.  Is probably about 15 - 20 feet thick with slits open about every 10 feet all along it, presumably to shoot from.  The ledge we were walking on had a wooden roof and railing and was held together with wooden dowels.  We walked along the wall until we reached our starting point when we arrived in the morning and then went for some lunch at a restaurant we had seen earlier in the day.  At this point it was around 3pm and we decided to head home after agreeing that we would definitely be back.  Next up, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Bavarian Alps.

Another gate to the city

The wall from the inside