We began the day finishing up the Nuremberg walking tour we had shortened due to rain yesterday then packed up and headed to the train station to head to Wurzburg.

In Wurzburg we picked up a rental car for the next few days and headed into town to tour and see the Christmas market of course!

We found a parking garage that was convenient and headed to the Residenz. Despite it’s name similarity to the one in Munich this one was far more interesting and we’ll laid out for the tour.

There were no pictures allowed but it was approaching Versailles for beauty. They had the last rooms laid out as an art gallery which was also a good change of pace. On the way out there is chapel which was ridiculously ornate and beautiful. After the Residenz we headed into the city center continuing our tour at the Dom cathedral and another cathedral.

W

e stepped into both of these and they were beautiful. We then headed into the market square for the Christmas market and lunch.

We proceeded after lunch to the bridge over the Main River and it’s views of the fortress above the town and the vineyards surrounding Wurzburg.

We then headed back through the market and on to the car for our stop for the night in Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

This medieval walled city is know for it’s Christmas shops year round and definitely lights up this time of year. We found our hotel and checked in then headed out to the market before dinner. We headed out a bit too early for while they definitely go all out for Christmas this is a much smaller market than we were used to and it didn’t take long to make a circuit.

We decided to eat dinner early and to try and be European and enjoy a nice long meal. We we’re the first in the restaurant and settled in but eventually as happens in many German restaurants another couple was seated with us as we were wrapping up our meals. They were very nice and he was stationed in Germany with the Army and they were from Louisiana. We talked for a while and realized we we’re planning on doing the same thing after dinner. We excused ourselves and paid before heading back to the market square for the night watchman’s tour. This is a long standing tour by a guy named George who take tours nightly around Rothenburg and gives a fun and funny historical look into what the town was like in the 14-1700s in particular for a lonely night watchman.

He is really good and must make a killing doing this each night but it was well worth it and a good first overview of the town. After finishing and saying goodbye to our new friends from Louisiana we headed to the hotel to call it a night.