Guess Who Gets to Brag that They've Played on a Medieval Wall? My Kids.

Our first day trip of the season was to Rothenburg (ob der Tauber)... a charming little medieval town about two hours from us in Bavaria. This gem has a the coolest little altstadt (old town) that I've seen in Germany, complete with a medieval wall around it!

The architecture was stunning...

It was a momentous occasion for us because it was our first day trip with the girls that did not include a stroller or Ergo . I'm not as sappy as some, but it was still strange for me... being as it's been four years of strollers and/or baby carriers. So yay for preschoolers that can walk considerable distances! 

(That's not to say they didn't spend copious amounts of time being held throughout the day... all four adults got suckered into it!)

(PS we went with Pedro and Julia)

Please note that Lily is holding a map and "leading the way" in that top pic haha. And that carousel was only 50 cents AND it was conveniently located in the courtyard of the hotel we had dinner at! Guess who rode that sucker? a. lot.

So here's the wall... you can see that you walk along the inside of it.

I liked the views of all the houses and the buildings in the altstadt. If we hadn't been pansies we might have walked the whole thing and seen other views (like of the river valley) from the windows. But for some reason we were tuckered out after the walk. 

I won't name any names, but the smallest and most adorable members of our group almost gave us old farts 25,000 heart attacks as they ran around like the crazy little people they are.

An ice cream stop was definitely in order after that. And some caffeine for Momma. 

We did a lot of walking around and meandering... the city isn't very large so it's pretty easy to find the major landmarks. Rothenburg is known for some pretty cool museums like a toy museum, a Christmas museum, a medieval museum, and even a torture museum! Unfortunately, we stopped trying to find them after the first two we found were closed. 

But we did make sure to check out something else Rothenburg is famous for... 

The pastry is called Schneeball, or snowball. It's basically a semi-sweet cookie dusted with sugar. Or coated with chocolate. Or filled with stuff... but we didn't try any of those ones. Lily and Sam thought they were fantastic, obviously, but I wasn't too impressed. I kind of feel like France ruined me for desserts, but whatever. Gold star to Rothenburg for making these little pastries for a couple hundred years! 

And gold star to us for (accidentally) finding a playground just outside the city wall that we had all to ourselves for part of the afternoon!

It was a lovely day spent wandering, talking, laughing, and eating. I adored our picnic lunch... even more than our delicious dinner out! Thanks so much Pedro and Julia (and Jesse and Lily and Sam) for the fun memories!

TheJesses vs. Rothenburg = CHECK. Here's the facebook album if you want to see all the pics.