Timothy's first picnic

Yesterday we all went to Rothenburg, about a 2 hour drive on the autobahn. Only a moderate amount of stress for Glen who had the dual jobs of driving, and herding all these women into the car in the first place. Luckily Claudia is very helpful with suggestions from the back seat.

We made it without any wrong turnings, Timothy the perfect baby having slept all the way. When we arrived he had a feed in the car (his first picnic!), before we went wandering through the old town walls and into the centre of this lovely little cobbled town with its 13 and 14th century half timbered buildings.

The town is in a part of Bavaria called Franken, and is a wine producing rather than beer area. They bottle their wine in distinctive round green bottles, like these ones hanging on the wall outside this wine cellar.

We joined a tour of the town that was just starting, a useful way to see most of the sights. Claudia zipped away and came back with some schneeballen (snowballs), the local specialty food, which we ate as we toured, spilling icing sugar all down our fronts and dropping bits of pastry as we went (the local pigeons loved us!)

The age of the places was amazing. It had been a prosperous town, owned by a few local lords or equivalent, and the houses were very large - 4 stories mostly. They still had the beam sticking out above the topmost window with the pulley in it to haul up the winter's food supply for storage at the top of the house, and most had their own well in a courtyard. The top floor windows in some places still do not have glass, only shutters.

We visited the ancient 11th century nunnery with its revolving barrel in a window to allow the cloistered nuns to hand out food to pilgrims without seeing them (an early form of drive-through!) The nunnery gardens were very peaceful.

The town is completely surrounded by its wall, some of which you can walk around. Claudia and I climbed up and had a quick look - it was very narrow and uneven, with sturdy but rather ancient railings, and a bit too high for my liking.

From just outside the wall their is a gorgeous view down over the valley below, with its old stone double-decker bridge.

We had a very late lunch in a lovely little restauarant. Lyn had pork schnitzel, Claudia had local sausages, and Glen and I had 3 varieties of sausage with sauerkraut and dark bread. Timothy chose milk again!

It was a great day out, and Claudia and Timothy did very well with such a long outing - not a sqeak out of him all day!

Glen has been working at the hotel all night, and Timothy is tucked up in bed with Grandma again while Claudia has her shower.