Friday, July 25, 2014

A Bite of Rothenburg and Sample of Vienna

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_IGP9238The next stop on our journey was to the romantic walled medieval town of Rothenburg, located in the beautiful Bavaria region of Germany. This quaint little town is best know for its shops filled with beautifully handmade Christmas ornaments and their highly popular, but extremely overrated “snowballs.” You can walk the ramparts, explore the shops, listen to a street minstrel, sip some fresh pressed cider, munch on a handful of roasted chestnuts or stop in to one of the many small restaurants to eat a delicious homemade meal of local fair paired with some wine from the hillside vineyards. The best part was that the cool autumn breeze was rustling the fallen leaves down the cobblestone streets, almost sweeping you back in time with them.







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The snowballs are Rothenburg's pastry specialty.They are everywhere and although they make look good they are almost nearly inedible. It’s basically just a big ball of fried, over-worked pie dough pieces masked in different toppings and fillings. But seeing as we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into at the time we had to try one. I got the traditional cinnamon and sugar while Matt branched out with a chocolate covered one filled with a pistachio filling. I got through about half before it got the best of me. Matt tried his best to help finish mine. The best part of the snowball experience was eating it in the town square with some freshly pressed apple cider to wash it down, while watching the tourists and vendors bustle about.

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We spent most of our time in Rothenburg just wandering about exploring  and taking pictures the small beautiful details of the city.

















The view down one the main streets of town







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The chestnut roaster made to look like a steam engine

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Some artisan truffles and candies

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We walked though the park and just enjoyed the colors, the beautiful day, and the crisp fall air

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We were both a bit nervous when we walked into our cute little room and at first only saw one twin bed…

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We then noticed…well there are two beds… on the the opposite sides of the room from each other. Not what I would call the best couples room but it was cute and comfortable and we both slept well away from each other.

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We then went on a walking tour of the ramparts

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The view from the city walls

_IGP9340Our time spent exploring Rothenburg was great. It is a fun little town with lots of history and charm but after having been to San Malo and Carcassonne it just didn’t have as much of the magic of the walled cities we’d been to previously. Now maybe we were just getting a bit worn out at this point of the trip too. All in all it made for a great way just to relax a bit and build up some more energy for the adventures still to come.

















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VIENNA
 _IGP9470Our visit to Vienna was as brief  as our time in Rothenburg. It really was more of just a sampling of the city and was really just a stop over on our way to Slovenia but we made the most with the time we had and saw as much as we could. We didn’t have much time for the museums or the concert halls which is what Vienna is probably best known for. I’ll have to go back to Austria some day as I don’t think with the short time we were there that I truly got to really experience the best things the country has to offer.














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Inside St. Steven’s Church

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On our walk to the Palace we ran into Gonzaga Street!

























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The Palace gardens

_IGP9466My favorite moment in this city was spent wandering through the rose garden. Even when we are hustling and bustling on trains, crisscrossing from one country to the next, worrying about reservations, time tables, and seat numbers, I will still always take the time to stop… and smell… the beautiful Austrian roses!

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