Rothenburg
Friday, November 13, 2015, we left our house in Framersheim and we spent 45 mins on the road to get to a Bonsai 'museum'. But when we got there it was closed. The lady told us it did not open until 2pm. :( So we went on our way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is said to be the most beautiful city in Germany! The GPS got us to Rothenburg but it stopped telling us where to go right outside of the city. But that was ok. We found a parking spot outside the city walls and walked in. Outside of the city walls it is not very pretty. I thought, "Are we at the right place?" But then when we got inside the old city walls it was BEAUTIFUL!!
Our plan for that day was to spend a couple hours walking the streets of Rothenburg. We spent 4-5 hours walking and roaming the streets. Around the city is still the old city wall. So when we first entered the city we walked up the tower and looked down on top of the cars that were going under us through the gate into the city. Then we walked along the the wall a little. When we came down from the wall we were in the back streets of Rothenburg. We then walked into the main part of town. Rothenburg is getting ready for Christmas, almost every shop had a little part for Christmas. Some shops that is all they have, Christmas stuff. German's are good at Christmas! Rothenburg around Christmas time is a very big tourist place! From what I have seen in pictures of Rothenburg around the end of December when the snow is on the town with the lights, it looks so nice!
At one shop there was one whole wall of Cuckcoo clocks! They were beautiful! The biggest ones were the most pretty ones. The clocks were all set for different times so that you didn't have to wait long to see one play. All the Cuckcoo clocks are hand made and hand painted! They have so many different sizes of Cuckcoo clocks! Big ones, Medium ones, small one, and really small ones too! Cuckcoo clocks are expensive. A really nice clock will cost around 1,000 to 2,000 euros, in US dollars it is around $1,100-2,150. I would really like to get a Cuckcoo clock! Mom did have one at one time but it did not work correctly so she sold it. :( I wish now that she did not! But that is the way it goes sometimes.
There are Cuckcoo clocks in almost every store that you can walk into. I am very fascinated by them. Someone with a steady hand carved the wood then painted the wood to look really attractive. Some of the clocks were 8 day clocks meaning you only had to wind it every 8 days. Other clocks were one day clocks meaning you had to wind it every morning! Most of the clocks would chime every hour around the clock. Some you could put on a timer to limit the chime from 6am to 8pm. When the lady told us that feature, Mom right away said that is the clock we would want. :) Not all the Cuckcoo clocks are painted. There are just wood ones too very nicely carved and polished. The pic with the deer on the top of the clock was one of my favorites out of all the clocks. If I had to answer though which clock was my favorite, I could not tell you. They are all very nice.
We filled up our day with looking in shops and walking around. One store was owned by a very old lady, her name was, Anneliese Friese. She is 88 years old! Anneliese loved to ride her Harley Motorcycle! She would ride her cycle all around the midwest and west of the US! Annaliese knows the west and midwest of the US very well. Her son took it away from her 2 years ago after an accident. But they still have it in a barn. What happened at the accident, one day she was riding her motorcycle and a car came by and the mirror on the car caught her arm. It cut through the muscle. She had 29 stitches put in! Two days after the accident she was back in her little store! She will not be able to move her arm fully anymore but she is still running her little shop today! Anneliese does not run the entire shop all by herself. She has a couple helpers. But she did love her Harley!! Annaliese is a talker. We just barely got out of the store, she just kept going on and on. One thing we found interesting was that she knows Rick Steves'. She and Rick Steves have known each other for a long time. The reason we know that is everywhere over her little shop there are pictures of her and Rick Steves. The earliest one was from 1991 I think. The newest is from 2015! :) In her shop Mom bought two small tree ornaments and Landon bought a Soldier figurine. She had a a whole wall of Cuckcoo clocks too which I just stood there and looked at.
Walking through Rothenburg filled up our afternoon. After Rothenburg we got into the car and started the rest of our journey to the next house. The house that we are staying in has 3 floors. We are staying on the second floor with the owner (?) on the third floor and his parents on the first floor Mom and Dad are telling us all the time that we need to keep our voices quieter. :) But the house is very nice.