Rothenburg

Rothenburg is a well-preserved medieval town with an intact town wall and many buildings dating from the 1200-1300s. Although it is touristy, it's also incredibly charming and you can't help but feel that the overpriced souvenirs and crowds of tourists are a small price to pay for its picture-perfect medieval feel. We visited Kathe Wolfhart's Christmas store, a multileveled extravaganza of moving Christmas displays, trees, and millions of ornaments. From an overlook in the store, you can look down on a sea of Christmas trees and other holiday fare that is sure to rival the North Pole itself. After shopping, we walked along the town wall and stopped into one of the bakeries to sample the Schneeball (snowball), a local specialty that looks like a dry ball of pastry crust. It is available in a variety of flavors including chocolate dipped and sprinkles. We opted for the more traditional powdered sugar variety. It tasted better than it looked, with a buttery flavor and smoother texture than I expected.

For dinner that night we picked up some fantastic pizzas with a variety of ingredients including tuna fish and ham. Since we were only a few hours from the Italian border, nearly every village had an authentic pizzeria.