Reuniting in Rothenburg ob der Tauber!

It finally was the time to meet up with the Torres' and meet little man Emerson!! We hadn't seen our friends in 2 years, so it was definitely overdue!  We decided to meet halfway in the quaint little town of Rothenburg! This is one of the best preserved walled cities from the medieval times!! It is really charming and very popular for tourists! We saw many a tour bus and large tour groups while making our way through the city!!

When we first arrived we parked in parking area P-4 right outside one of the city gates! It was only 5.00 Euro for the day, which is very affordable! We arrived earlier than our friends so we could get all our touristy stuff out of the way! They were bringing a baby and had already been here, so we didn't want to make them suffer through all of that again!

 Inside the walled city 

We walked through the market square and straight to our first stop at the Castle Garden.  It was really pretty and peaceful in the Gardens! There was a man playing a violin, people walking around, and even a wedding party getting pictures taken!  We strolled through here and took our time.  I wanted to go take a little hike down to the Toppler Castle, which is 600 years old and still standing in a farmer's yard! We saw it from afar and decided it wasn't a big deal to make the hike!!

The castle we decided wasn't worth the trek 

From there we ventured on to see St. Jakob's Church.  It was really pretty, but the coolest part were the 2 super old alters and the crazy detail in the wood carvings! We paid 2.00 Euro to enter the church, which I would say is worth it!!! The first alter was a small on the left hand side of the front of the church! What I loved about this one was the symbol of the Holy Trinity. 

 Father and Son are bridged by a Dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is standing on a skull showing that he overcame death! Love this! 

The other cool part of the church was the Alter of the Holy Blood.  It was said to be created by Tilman Riemenschneider, a Michaelangelo of Germany.  The intricacy is really astounding!! The pictures just do not show how elaborate it is! 

Next on the little tour was to walk the preserved town wall!! It's pretty cool to walk along a medieval wall that circles the town! 

Then it was time to meet up with our friends and stroll around the town, have lunch, have tea (or in the men's case beer), and then have dinner! It was so great to catch up with great friends and finally meet baby E!! I am so happy we live close to them and get to start traveling together!! 

I would definitely put Rothenburg on your list of to-do's when you visit Germany! Its so cute and fun to walk around!! It is the Christmas village and has an amazing Christmas market during the holidays! I plan to take my family here for some gluhwein and ornament shopping when they visit!! If you are in the mood for Christmas decor a famous designer based out of Rothenburg has several shops you can peruse and purchase tons of different and eclectic items!! In my opinion its pricey, but I am sure I will leave Germany with a few pieces to add to our tree!! 

Rick Steves recommends to do the Night Watch tour.  I have heard its pretty darn cool, but we didn't stay late into the evening in order to do it.  It starts at about 8 pm and we needed to get home to the Molly pup! Rothenburg is a romantic cute village that could easily be a fun little getaway or just a place to spend time with friends or family!! Make sure you get there!