We had to go back to Germany for the holidays. We just had to. We had such a magical Christmas in Bavaria last year with David & Tiffany. We wanted to revisit the whole experience, and this time we shared it with Grandma & Grandpa R, as well as Cody, Jess & Adalee. Germany did not disappoint!
We headed first for the midevil town of Rothenburg, magical stop along the Romantic Road that somehow came through World War 2 unscathed (there is a story there).
This is the beautiful facade of the old city.
This year we visited the gruesome Museum of Torture (don't know how we missed out last year!)
The museum afforded us some silly pics.
To think that most items on display had been functional
at some point in time was a harrowing notion.
Although the child cage ain't such a bad idea!
Thys has additional ideas for his younger brother...
Behold, the pure joy of the littles...finding simple pleasure in bird chasing on the plaza.
Grandpa, Cody & Ry found joy in Kinderpunsch (hot, non-alcoholic wassail)
while most were indulging in Gluwein.
This town is very quaint...picture options all over the place.
We walked the ramparts, like we did last year and enjoyed it just as much.
Mia and Josie are only a wee bit
bigger this year.
Group photo
Ry 'n Ang fam
The old city walls are just so beautiful.
Christmas lanterns
One of Josies favourite activities of the day was returning our kinderpunsch mugs for the 1 euro refund...she ran back after each mug return, laughing and pockets jingling!
Christmas hats
The Christmas markets are usually located at the town square...lots of yummy food (sausages, waffles, gingerbread) to be found. Adalee especially enjoyed the nights festivities.
Here Josie is playing Go Fish! with Uncle Cody. But it's hard to play and sleep at the same time! Josie was being very patient with him...
Our second night in Rothenburg we did the Nightwatchmens Tour, which gave us a fascinating history of this midevil city, told through the eyes of the nightwatchman...who was hilariously entertaining (he is worthy of his own blogpost, which ain't gonna happen). He weaved us in and out of city streets telling us how life would have been like in midevil times, fighting off plagues & invaders, surviving starvation, dysentary and sickness. He also told how the town was miraculously spared from bombing during World War 2...also a story for another time. At the end of the night he memorably told us all to Go to Hell!...the name of the little tavern where we ended our tour. We promptly obeyed and finished off the night in Hell, dining on pumpkin soup, German goulash, etc.
The next morning we visited a veritable Christmas village,
a store gushing with every Christmas decoration & ornament imaginable...
We loved their Christmas-mobile out front.
That morning we climbed the city hall tower for a beautiful view of Rothenburg.
We lost Aunt Jess on the way, but then found her again.
On the way down we joined the throngs of people who had graffitied their names on the tower walls. Angi luvs Ryan 4 ever
Josie
Jake Reynolds...this tower is huge!
Guess who?
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