Trek Back to Rothenburg

Today we travelled by train out of Rothenburg and then walked back to Rothenburg. I know to all you non-ramblers that doesn't make sense but to us ramblers it's what we do.

Having left the train this is us walking back to Rothenburg. To those of you have never experienced rambling this might be your idea of it; walking down lonely never-ending roads, eating Kendal Mint Cake and sore feet. Rambling is all of these and much, much more. So please read on.

This can be one of the benefits of rambling; walking round a corner and discovering a beautiful, still lake. If you look closely, in the centre of the photo, you can see two swans preening themselves.

And then, around another corner, is a beautiful path through the woods and a peaceful quiet, marred only by your gasping breath as you try to keep up with your companions.

This can be one of the downsides of rambling as three experienced ramblers discuss in a civil manner how they could be so lost.

Here the experienced ramblers consult and disagree over whose satnav device is correct. But as in every fairy story a prince charming rides to the rescue...

and here our charming prince consults two GPS devices to divine the correct route.

And here, having arrived correctly at our halfway point the group pauses for a memorable photo.

Here our group gets into its stride, walking next to a burbling stream.

Ramblers always conform to the country code of whichever country they are walking in. In Germany the code stipulates that ramblers always give way to tractors.

Ramblers, just like tractors, need frequent refueling. So we stopped off in this beautiful hamlet to consume our looted supplies from Lidl.

Just as we settled down to our lunch this lovely cat decided to join us.

Here, this not so lovely cat decided to steal one of our group's ham sandwich.

So here the rambler offered the cat a five finger sandwich if it ever attempted to steal her lunch again.

After lunch we climbed a rather steep hill and discovered this beautiful path at the top.

At the top this hill we discovered these two contraptions. We decided that the metal platform was there to allow hunters to shoot deer and the spiked tree was left by the deer to snare hunters.

Here the three walk leaders race ahead to scout for any dangers or hazards ahead.

Such as this incredibly steep hill.

Here is another hazard that ramblers have to contend with; not the steep descent but the sign that reads Wildtollwut which warns that the local wildlife may have rabies. At this point the photographer kept his distance from his fellow walkers as he had noticed a slight foaming at the mouth from his companions as they descended the hill.

As we descended the hill we saw a wondrous sight. When we asked a local what this meant he explained that they were called shadows and were produced by a bright body in the sky called, in his words "die Sonne am Himmel". We took this to be ravings of a madman, never having seen before the bright object he spoke of.

One of our group sat down on a bench to look for this mysterious bright object in the sky.

We finally observed this bright, shining object and some of the group had to turn away from this light which they had never encountered before.

Non-ramblers refer to walkers as being round the bend. Sadly this is all too true for some ramblers.

Home stretch, or "Rothenburg is just around this corner" as our resident GPS expert put it.

But, as usual, he was right and there was Rothenburg with its impressive walls.

As we passed through the walls we spied this raven/crow/black seagull (there was some discussion on this) nailed to a windowsill.

At last we arrived in the centre of Rothenburg to be greeted by blue skies; a sight not seen by some of the ramblers for many years.

At nighttime a visit to the chocolate novelty stall in the crypt took place.

A brass band entertained us as we stood drinking our hot gluhwein.

Other Christmas shoppers gathered around the Christmas tree drinking their gluhwein.

Rothenburg's streets and markets are a Christmas shopper's paradise.

This colourful vehicle sits outside one of Rothenburg's biggest Christmas shops.

Rows of Christmas trees line this street.

A night-time view of Rothernburg's main pharmacy.

This oversized teddy guards the entrance to Rothenburg's teddy bear shop.