All righty... so we said good bye to our little Audi rental car that morning, and turned it in at the Auto Europe location in Garmisch, directly across from the train station. We made sure to fill the tank the night before, and for all the ground we covered, (approx. 1000 KM) it only cost us 60 Euro to fill up. You can't beat that... Everything was handled very efficiently at the Auto Europe desk, and we were on our way in no time. If I could say one thing about renting a car, it would be to ABSOLUTELY get the GPS. If we wouldn't have had it, we would still be going around in circles today, looking for our first stop. It never once steered us in the wrong direction. Upon pick up the week prior in Rosenheim, we had them show us how to use it, and we also had them switch it to English. Best decision EVER.
We got something to eat at the train station and then we were off to Rothenburg. We were connecting through Munich and after a couple of stops, about a half dozen guys in lederhosen got on, and crammed themselves, and their wooden benches, into our car. They were headed to Oktoberfest. Of course I had to strike up a conversation with them, they just fascinated me. We were packed in there so tightly, one of them was practically on my lap. I was loving life. I kept on telling my husband, we need to get you some of those lederhosen! Lol.
A few changes later, and we were in Rothenburg. I see what people mean when they say it's out of the way and inconvenient to get to, but we weren't going to let that stop us. We both wanted to see it for ourselves. And I gotta say... it did not disappoint. It was maybe a 20 minute walk from the train to our pension. We were staying inside the walls, at Pension Elke. I didn't realize it was an RS pick, till after I booked it. I guess it's a father-son operation, but we only ever saw the son. He checked us in and out, showed us to our room, etc. Cute room... our view was a bunch of red tiled rooftops. Drop the bags, and we were out of there. We checked out a few shops, wandered around, then had a quick outdoor meal at Kapadokya Doner, right down the street from our pension.
Then... it was time for the Nightwatchman's Tour. There had to be a minimum of 100 people, no exaggeration. We weren't that close to him and had a hard time hearing. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more in a smaller group. After the tour, we wandered and checked out what we could, until our feet told us it was time for bed. Back to the pension... I found it strange that there was no hand soap in the bathroom, especially since they had a store directly underneath.
The next day-- you guessed it, Crime and Punishment museum, and of course that gorgeous wooden carved altarpiece in St. Jacob's church. I couldn't leave without seeing that. And it was even more impressive in person. I am not religious in the least, but I just couldn't get enough of the churches everywhere. St. Jacob's sure was something else. We also totally enjoyed the Crime and Punishment museum. There were people in there that were just horrified and some that were just fascinated. Guess which camp we were in.
I practically had to drag my husband out of there, if we were going to see any more in town. We briefly looked in the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop, but it really wasn't for us. We much more enjoyed a shop called Die Waffenkammer. Swords, daggers, shields, bows, armor, etc. Sure-- touristy replicated trinkets, but fun nonetheless. We bought and shipped our final 2 steins from there.
Before too long, it was time to get moving again. We only had an overnight and part of one day in Rothenburg, before we had to catch the train to Boppard on the Rhine River. Five nights of fun awaited us there, so we picked up our bags at the pension, (they were kind enough to hold them for us) and made our way to the train station to catch our train to lovely Boppard.