Romantic Road

Ok. I admit it.  I'm a bit of a romantic.  Or maybe I'm an idealist, always thinking things will work out for the best (optomist, I suppose too then?).  So when Micah originally said, "Where would you like to go when we rent a car for the long weekend?"  I immediately responded, "The Romantic Road!"

And oh, boy...wasn't it romantic with these 3 munchkins in the back seat.

 Micah had Friday off, as it was a Bank Holiday here, so we took off that morning with the end destination of Rothenburg ob der Tauber (about a 3 hour drive on the scenic back roads).  We stopped half way for a stretch-your-legs-get-some-coffee stop at Donauworth.

 Beautiful quiet little town...but we made enough noise for everyone.  Love this kid...

 Then we kept going on to Rothenburg...which as you can see below, was NOT so quiet, so we just added to the chaos!  What an amazing little town.  Architecture so original and well kept...reminds me of what be the "original" Leavenworth, for those of you who know where that is! :)

(My camera tends to be drawn to kids...picking their noses.  Like this one, parked in doorway on a side street in the middle of the old town!)

 There is Val's "upside down smile"  (the real one is hiding behind it...she wasn't actually all that grumpy!).

 Oops...looks like my camera found ANOTHER kid pickeing her nose.  GROSS, VAL!

 Beautiful Autumn colors, surprisingly solid 1,000 year old city walls, and some amazing views in the castle garden where a real castle once stood...

 And the hugest, most amazing Christmas shop that we practically got lost in!

 Saturday was a day to see more towns on the Romantic Road...and this is when my "romanticism" got a little out of town.  I had no less than 4 different stops I wanted to make.  And we made them all...to the exhaustion of our children (not to mention ourselves).  Hindsight is 20/20, but I definitely would structure that day a little differently if we did it again!
First we stopped just outside of Creglingen to visit an old church and a Fingerhut (Thimble) Museum (ha! I know.  Silly, but Val loved it!).  Then onto Weikersheim to run around in a beautiful rose garden, gaze at a beautiful palace and get a little sun.  Next stop was Bad Mergentheim, where several hundred years ago displaced knights settled and built an amazing residence, and we picked ourselves some yummy free apples in the orchard out back. :)  Finally, we visited Wurzburg to walk see the Residenz chapel (gorgeously Baroque style), beautiful gardens where the girls piled up leaves and jumped in them, and we walked across the second oldest bridge in Germany!  Phew.  Very fun, very full day!

 (pretending to be statues...)

 (pretending to be statues again!)

 I learned my lesson from our long day Saturday and we started Sunday off a bit slower.  We enjoyed Rothenburg for one last morning before hoping back in the car and heading to Nordlingen.

 Nordlingen doesn't have anything especially noteworthy about itself as a town, except that it has charm, quaintness, and a calm peacefulness that is enjoyable!  We had coffee from the "kaffehaus" below, then visited St. George, the town's church, had a nice walk around, got some crepes and pretzels and were on our way back home again a couple of hours later!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend.  Micah, thank you for enduring my "romanticism" and evening enjoying parts of it too. :)  But even more so, thanks for helping bring some balance to our weekend and reminding me to slow down along the way!