Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Sat., Nov. 7 (Day 6) - Today we took a bus ride for about an hour and 15 minutes to a small German village. Along the way we saw some of the German countryside. We saw lots of wind turbines and fields of sugar beets. We were told that something like 85 or 90% of the sugar beets is used by Coca-Cola. When we arrived at Rothenburg ob der Tauber, we were led on a walking tour of the town. Rothenburg ob der Tauber means red fortress on the Tauber (which is a stream). The town is a walled city and as such has a very high stone wall completely surrounding the city. There are openings high up on the walls for the sentry lookouts and there are gates for entering the city. Our walking tour began at city hall, which in German is called Rathaus. In the thick German accent, this is pronounced racht haus, but we were told that if you don't like the politicians in office, then you pronounce it rat house. There are lots of souvenir shops in Rothenburg as well as year round Christmas stores. You can also buy a local treat here called a schnobolleen (not sure of the spelling), in English, pronounced snow ball. Now this is not anything like a snowball you might get in Louisiana, nor the snowcones of Pennsylvania. A Rothenburg snowball is a large round (softball size) pastry that has different types of fillings and is coated with chocolate or other flavors. They look delicious, but according to our tour guide, they are very dry and are the most discarded souvenir in Germany. Along the way on our walking tour, we stopped for a pre-arranged lunch at a local restaurant. The menu consisted of local foods: potato soup, bratwurst, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and apple strudel with vanilla sauce. These are not exactly my favorite foods, and I was hoping not to leave there still starving. I'm not crazy about bratwurst and I have always hated sauerkraut. But after their description of the sauerkraut, I decided to at least try it. Here is my assessment of the food: the potato soup was delicious, the bratwurst was okay, the mashed potatoes were good, and the sauerkraut was - I can't believe I'm about to say this - the sauerkraut was delicious! The apple strudel was also good. Apples are served a lot in Germany. We were told that this past summer was the hottest and driest in 135 years, for as long as they've been keeping records. Most of the crops were destroyed, but the apples have done extremely well. As a result, we are being served lots of dishes made with apples. After lunch, we had some free time to walk around town on our own before returning to the bus. When we arrived back in Wurzburg (where the ship was docked) we stopped for a tour of Wurzburg Residenz, which was the home of the local bishop, who was not only the head of the diocese, but was also the duke in charge of the city politically. Back then, it was normal for church leaders to have these dual roles. The Wurzburg Residenz was a  huge, baroque palace with many beautiful, ornate rooms. The sheer size of this palace was unbelievable, and the presence of the palace on the hillside dominated the city. After the tour of the palace, we took a walk into the town center of Wurzburg, stopped to take pictures at the beautiful Cathedral, and then walked back along the river promenade to the ship.