While the the Netherlands, we saw this sign out of the window of the train. It's clearly a joke in English, which is sensible given that the Dutch are generally multilingual – perhaps not quadrilingual as some Belgians are, but at least enough to know English, which did fine for our purposes.
Now, our overall trip was between two smallish cities, so we had to “zoom out” to bigger cities before we narrowed in to the smaller ones, which is very sensible. Unfortunately, bad things start happening when the major trains get late. Thankfully, our planning saved us: we were to change between a delayed train to a mostly-on-time train, but they shared the same platform! We didn't have to rush, only to wait as one train replaced the other. We jumped aboard, and the train departed.
Now, as much fun as traveling is, it's not enough fun to suspend one's hunger like the British Museum can. The trains tend to have a small bistro bar available, which was good for Dad. I, however, was disappointed; there were no vegetarian options! The man operating the bar gave his apologies, and I thanked him, but my hunger went on unshaken.
Rothenburg is an exceedingly quaint town when you take the train; I have heard that parking a car there is very difficult. As one of my professors pointed out, a town become much less “quaint” or “picturesque” when telephone or electric lines are added. The Germans seem to have caught onto this, as there are very few of either above ground. This is all good and well for tourists, but German trains are as electric as possible. As such, one needs to take a small diesel train around something of a loop of small towns that are without the luxury of electric lines.
Upon reaching Rothenburg, we set out for our guest house, but not before we politely declined an offer for rooming from a man at the train station. I suppose one could attempt to “hitch-bunk” across the towns of Bavaria, but I still recommend reservations. The train station was outside the walled city, but our guest house was inside, so it took us a bit of walking to reach one from the other.
Upon reaching the guest house, we were greeted by a most magnificently-picturesque man. His image, especially his frame and his mustache, could sell a great many postcards. I deeply regret that I have no picture to display.
As I had not had all that much to eat, we set out in search of food. We happened across the restaurant "Zum Goldenen Lamm", which had a vegetarian selection on its display menu! I was naturally inclined to pick it as our spot for dinner, and we were most satisfied.
The meal was excellent, and we settled upon a dessert, a relative rarety for us: "Apfelstruedel... mit zwei Gabeln" ("apple studel... with two forks"). It was absolutely amazing! It holds the record for the best apple strudel I had on that trip.
Yet another fascination in the restaurant was its lighting: the lamps hung on a cord with weights attached, which we assume allows them to be raised or lowered with ease and freedom.
After dinner, we set out to explore what part of Rothenburg we could, and we happened upon this scene, only a block or two from our guest house:
I recognized it instantly as a scene I had seen in one of the high-school German texts. (It's rather interesting to find these places on accident.) I was, overall, very intrigued by this discovery, but I must say they picked a good spot in Rothenburg.
Unlike in Belgium, the nights were not a time of great activity. There were, nonetheless, serveral groups of people in the main square (the town hall is on the left), including "night watchman's tour", which we missed, but found later on.
Of all the interesting lore about Rothenburg, perhaps one of the most well-known is that of the Meistertrunk, the masterful drink that spared the city from invasion in 1631. This house was the residence of Mayor Nusch, the man who accomplished the drink.
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