Rothenburg ob der Tauber
I’ve been on the road for most of the past month, first traveling to Germany for work and then, after a short 48 hour turnaround time back in California, on to Michigan to visit the family and hang out on the beach. I’ll be returning to my backpacking ways this coming weekend, but in the meantime, at least I have some pretty pictures of southern Germany and Lake Michigan to share.
Although I was crazy busy and spent too many hours in the office in Germany, I was still able to check out some of the local towns during the dinner hours and even spent a full weekend playing tourist. I stayed in Reilingen (near Heidelberg, which is just south of Frankfurt), and visited the other local towns of Walldorf, Wiesloch, Speyer, and Schwetzingen on different nights. During the weekend, a coworker and I hit the road to explore some touristy destinations within a few hours drive – on Saturday it was Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a medieval walled city, and on Sunday we headed south to the Bodensee on the border with Switzerland.
Picturesque
Rothenburg is an old city with an interesting history, and it looks like it was built by Disney. Well, when you look closely it doesn’t really look Disney because it is all old and authentic, but when you picture how Disney would build a perfect picturesque German town, you’d get Rothenburg. It was a lot of fun to wander along the old city wall, browse the shops and streets, peek into the churches, and read all of the plaques. Those Germans are sure fond of their plaques – everything had a label commemorating some event (i.e. Pope Larry the Awesome’s dogsitter stayed at this Inn in 1523).
On Sunday we drove south to Lake Constance (English name)/Bodensee (German name). This is a beautiful large lake on the border of Germany and Switzerland. We spent the morning on the non-touristy island of Reichenau, enjoying the gardens and small farms, then moved on to the bigger city of Konstanz. The afternoon was spent wandering the lake shore (with a brief crossing into Switzerland), dipping toes into the water, and eating ice cream.
Bodensee
When I flew back to California I quickly reassembled my luggage, changing it from work mode to beach mode, then hopped back on a plane to Michigan. The next entry will have some details and photos from the week of PERFECT weather in Michigan (there’s a phrase you don’t hear often).
