Today was always going to be an interesting day. We were attempting to navigate half of the romantic road in one day on public transportation in the winter! Not a small feat. I had been forwarned that public transportation was tricky along the romantic road and we knew we were being a bit adventurous in our plans. We wanted to get from Augsburg to Rothenburg ob der Tauber with at least a stop in Dinkelsbühl (which someone had recommended to us on the trip).
We left Augsburg early and took the train to Nördlingen (we changed at Danausworth but only saw the station there). We had an hour walk around Nördlingen which was a nice little walled town before boarding the bus for Dinkelsbühl. There were only 2 buses that day so it was important we caught it. The local buses are very slow and stop in every single little town on the way but it's actually quite a good way to see the real Germany.
Dinkelsbühl was awesome, a tiny little town surrounded by an ancient wall (and a frozen river!) with the cutest German houses and churches and townhall (Rathaus). It was like walking straight into a medieval city. I'm really pleased we made the effort to see it, there are far fewer tourists than the more popular Rothenburg and everyone was so nice, I even had a guy stop and ask if I needed help because he knew the information centre was closed. So friendly! At Dinkelsbühl we also visited the 3D museum which is a collection of crazy 3D illusions and holigrams and even a hommage to the good old viewmaster! A very wacky place and definitely something a bit different.
In the afternoon we left Dinkelsbühl to attempt our most complicated route of the day; multiple buses to get to Rothenburg for the night. We started out ok, waiting at the Dinkelsbühl bus station talking to some old German guy who didn't speak any English but who was determined to have a conversation with me. I managed to convey where we were from, where we were going and agreed with him that it was indeed cold. Beyond that I'm not sure of anything he said.
On the first bus the driver spoke some English and we told him the stop we wanted and another women on the bus was going there too and was going to let us know and then the old guy piped up and started to chatting to the driver in German about us and I'm pretty sure it went something like "these crazy kiwis are trying to get to Rothenburg and I don't think they know what they're doing".. or something along those lines because once we got to our stop (in Mooseweise, Feuchtwangen - yes really that is what is was called and you pronounce it moose-vise fuct-wang-in, well kinda with a german accent), anyway so once we got there the driver jumps out and says he is sure there is no direct bus to Rothenburg from there and he goes and talks to this van driver. Anyway long story short he tells us (remember this is all in very broken english) that the van will take us to another town where we can get a bus to Rothenburg. We were a little apprehensive especially since the driver looked like that stoner boss off That 70s Show, but there was another girl in what essentially looked like a taxi van and everyone in Germany had been so nice so far we figured it'd be alright.
We jumped in and ended up in some dinky little place in the middle of nowhere. He points us to a bus stop and leaves us there! I was just about to start freaking out about being in a tiny town in the middle of rural Germany with no idea where we were and no-one around to help when a bus pulls up with Rothenburg on the front. Yay! hehe It really turned out to be an adventurous day.
We arrived at Rothenburg ob der Tauber (full name I'll just call it Rothenburg) early evening and we walked into the old town to find our accommodation, a cosy four storey Pension with comfy beds and an old granny who didn't seem happy about us ringing the bell so late.
Rothenburg is gorgeous, especially at night. Christmas lights galore, gorgeous buildings, old stone walls, cobblestone higgeldy streets and lit up shop windows with the most incredible array of Christmas things. It really was a Christmas paradise. We found a small restaurant serving traditional Bavarian food, I had noodles stuffed with meatloaf and served with egg and potato salad. It was delicious. We spent the rest of the night wondering through the town. There weren't too many others out because it was freezing which really enhanced our night walk.
We got to see the Rathaus clock show which depicts a drinking contest between a Catholic Colonel and the Protestant Mayor over the fate of the town. The Mayor drinking 1 1/2 litres of beer in one go is said to have saved the town from destruction. A cool story though the clock show was a little boring.. the window opens, the mayor drinks, the colonel watches and the window closes... all to the chime of a clock.
What can I say... a day of drinking, walking, catching up with friends, and well more drinking! The pub crawl started at 10:30am and went through to about 5. Nick and I armed ourselves with a bottle of whiskey in our backpack and we were set!
London experienced one of it's largest snowfalls in years! It started Sunday night and Nick, my flatmates and I made the most of the fresh snowfall by having a large snowfight out the front of our house and even got our landlord's son Daniel in on the act.
In the morning we were completely snowed in, the entire London bus network was down along with most of the trains and tubes too so no-one was going to work. Nick and I headed out for a long walk early while the snow was still fresh (it was a lot of slush by the end of the day). We ended up down at the river which was beautiful in the snow.
Arriving in Köln we were greeted by the magnificent Dom Cathedral, a large beautiful structure right next to the train station. However after arriving at our hotel we found ourselves so happy to have top notch accommodation we spent the rest of the afternoon there! After a few bottles of wine scored from the next door gas station we headed out to watch the fireworks.
The Pension at Rothenburg was so warm and cosy I really struggled to get out of bed. Germans are sort of weird in that they sleep with separate duvet covers on double beds, but they all have nice big soft feather pillows and duvets so it's not all bad! With a hearty breaky it was one of the best places we'd stayed on our trip. I really wanted to stay another night but we had to be in Köln for new years eve and it was simply impossible for us to get from Rothenburg to Köln in one day so we had to keep moving north.
We did get to spend the day exploring the town but it was far more packed with tourists during the day. All the shops had signs in German, English and Japanese and there were American and Japanese tourists everywhere! It seems the Neuschwanstein Castle and Rothenburg are THE things to do in Germany. But it's still a beautiful town and that medieval feel is still there.
We climbed the tower in the Rathaus for a cool view of the city (but I think the climb up the rickety steps was the most fun) and did a little shopping in the Christmas stores. Nick found an awesome sword and knife shop which he spent most of his time in. 
I said a sad goodbye to Rothenburg in the afternoon, I would have loved to have stayed but we needed to be closer to Köln so we boarded a train to Würzburg at the very top of the Romantic Road. 
Würzburg is actually a very cool city with a gorgeous (and huge) palace with beautiful gardens that contained frozen fountains! The town also had lots of beautiful churches and many other cool architecture buildings. I really enjoyed wondering through the city so I was pretty happy we had stopped there.
Today was always going to be an interesting day. We were attempting to navigate half of the romantic road in one day on public transportation in the winter! Not a small feat. I had been forwarned that public transportation was tricky along the romantic road and we knew we were being a bit adventurous in our plans. We wanted to get from Augsburg to Rothenburg ob der Tauber with at least a stop in Dinkelsbühl (which someone had recommended to us on the trip). 
We left Augsburg early and took the train to Nördlingen (we changed at Danausworth but only saw the station there). We had an hour walk around Nördlingen which was a nice little walled town before boarding the bus for Dinkelsbühl. There were only 2 buses that day so it was important we caught it. The local buses are very slow and stop in every single little town on the way but it's actually quite a good way to see the real Germany. 
Dinkelsbühl was awesome, a tiny little town surrounded by an ancient wall (and a frozen river!) with the cutest German houses and churches and townhall (Rathaus). It was like walking straight into a medieval city. I'm really pleased we made the effort to see it, there are far fewer tourists than the more popular Rothenburg and everyone was so nice, I even had a guy stop and ask if I needed help because he knew the information centre was closed. So friendly! At Dinkelsbühl we also visited the 3D museum which is a collection of crazy 3D illusions and holigrams and even a hommage to the good old viewmaster! A very wacky place and definitely something a bit different.
In the afternoon we left Dinkelsbühl to attempt our most complicated route of the day; multiple buses to get to Rothenburg for the night. We started out ok, waiting at the Dinkelsbühl bus station talking to some old German guy who didn't speak any English but who was determined to have a conversation with me. I managed to convey where we were from, where we were going and agreed with him that it was indeed cold. Beyond that I'm not sure of anything he said.
On the first bus the driver spoke some English and we told him the stop we wanted and another women on the bus was going there too and was going to let us know and then the old guy piped up and started to chatting to the driver in German about us and I'm pretty sure it went something like "these crazy kiwis are trying to get to Rothenburg and I don't think they know what they're doing".. or something along those lines because once we got to our stop (in Mooseweise, Feuchtwangen - yes really that is what is was called and you pronounce it moose-vise fuct-wang-in, well kinda with a german accent), anyway so once we got there the driver jumps out and says he is sure there is no direct bus to Rothenburg from there and he goes and talks to this van driver. Anyway long story short he tells us (remember this is all in very broken english) that the van will take us to another town where we can get a bus to Rothenburg. We were a little apprehensive especially since the driver looked like that stoner boss off That 70s Show, but there was another girl in what essentially looked like a taxi van and everyone in Germany had been so nice so far we figured it'd be alright.
We jumped in and ended up in some dinky little place in the middle of nowhere. He points us to a bus stop and leaves us there! I was just about to start freaking out about being in a tiny town in the middle of rural Germany with no idea where we were and no-one around to help when a bus pulls up with Rothenburg on the front. Yay! hehe It really turned out to be an adventurous day.
We arrived at Rothenburg ob der Tauber (full name I'll just call it Rothenburg) early evening and we walked into the old town to find our accommodation, a cosy four storey Pension with comfy beds and an old granny who didn't seem happy about us ringing the bell so late.
We got to see the Rathaus clock show which depicts a drinking contest between a Catholic Colonel and the Protestant Mayor over the fate of the town. The Mayor drinking 1 1/2 litres of beer in one go is said to have saved the town from destruction. A cool story though the clock show was a little boring.. the window opens, the mayor drinks, the colonel watches and the window closes... all to the chime of a clock. 