Tuesday, July 30

After breakfast we hike up to a part of the castle overlooking the town. Then we packed the car and drove up to the main part of the castle. Great place to take pictures of the surrounding countryside and the bending Rhine River. Back in the car we head for Heidelberg. We expect it to take 30 minutes, but our GPS equipment - our Tom-Tom, Kees' Garmin, my iPhone and Dan's M/S smart phone all tell us its a 1 1/2 hour journey. We are back on the autobahn with no speed limits and get there pretty quickly. After a little difficulty navigating the city streets, we find the visitor center which tells us how to get to  the old town. We park where they tell us to and we come out almost in the center of things.

We walk around the shops and eat lunch: a pork knuckle for Dan and Linda. Sue and I have normal food: she had  a very tasty spatzel, and cheese (best macaroni and cheese Linda had ever tasted) and  I had hot dogs they called Viennese sausages. Some window shopping and we decide to get back in the car to get to Rothenburg. We have trouble with our GPS equipment finding this town. Finally, Linda puts in the zip code and Louise finds it. Another hour and a half and we drive through a very narrow gate into the walled city. Cute, cute, cute. We are welcomed by Norbert. Dan discovers he has instruments in a side room and our host brings out his "Norbert Machine" which we thought he was saying "Naughty Machine". Its big like a bass sax, has three keys like a trumpet, and a slide and mouthpiece like a trombone. Now that was different. He played Misty for us. Then he went back into the room and brought out a trumpet and played that. There were other instruments in the room including a guitar. Very interesting fellow with a large handlebar mustache - very German.

We bring in our bags, park the car, and walk around to make sure we know where the Nightwatchman's tour begins. This is a Rick Steves suggestion and once he appears with his multi-functional weapon on a long pole, his wide brimmed hat and black cloak and opens his mouth, we realize we have seen him on one of Rick Steves' TV episodes. He's an actor who has developed a special accent for this role and has a great projecting voice - easy to hear no matter where he is. He takes us through town and tells us what a nightwatchman's duties were and some history of the town. He's very funny with his little tidbits of history and  custom. His job was considered "low", but a grave digger and the hangman were considered lower. Each of those guys related well to each other because they had the same clients, just at differing times.

A small meal afterwards with a little window shopping thrown in for good measure. And, then off to bed.