Rothenburg

All day train ride with 5 transfers to go from Hallstatt to Rothenburg. Arrive about 6 pm, eat at McDonalds (2nd time all trip) and went on "Night Watchman's Tour". Learned about the history of this Walled City and how it lost battles and saved itself from others.We walked the catwalk that surrounds the perimeter wall, to the train station for info on tomorrow, and out of the walls to the small town of Detwang on the river. There must have been a lot of rain here because the Tober river is muddy and full. There are low clouds that swoosh through the trees and around the wall lookout towers. We went to the hotel to warm up, wash clothes and watch TV (Dirty Old Men in German).

Entrance to old town section of Rothenburg

Rothenburg Cemetary - very distant cousins?

Walking the Catwalk of the perimeter wall

Dusseldorf

We arrived Dusseldorf by train from Rothenburg about 4 pm and met Sabine at the train station. We went to the Neanderthal museum on the outskirts of Dusseldorf. It is the location of a limestone quarry where workers found the bones of a Neanderthal man. There was a wonderful museum that gave a history time line and migration of man from central Africa. We spent the night at the Dusseldorf youth hostel and went to Koln the following day.

Castles on the Rhine River

ICE Train from Rothenburg to Dusseldorf

Koln

At Koln we saw the huge gothic church in city center, we walked over 500 steps to the top of the spire. We were there for the 11:00 bell ringing. We also went to the Chocolate Musuem (great displays showing the Mayan area of Latin America history of choclate and the manufacturing) and bought more chocolate. We have been eating a lot of chocolate all trip. Glad we watched the movie "Choclat" before leaving the States. Sabine drove us to the Koln airport for our flight to London - Heathrow.

Berlin - Potsdam | Leipzig - Schwarzbach | Salzburg - Hallstatt | Rothenburg - Koln | Bath - Stonehenge - Oxford