The Meier's German Adventure

Today we set out with some friends of ours to explore the Great Walled City in Germany - Rothenberg. It's a beautiful city about 1 and 1/2 hours away. The old part of the city, the aldstadt, is still completely encircled by its medieval wall. The wall is about 900 years old and the town itself - about 1,000 years old. Wow! We walked along the top of part of the wall. The wall is approximately 50 kilometers long and you are able to walk on 3 kilometers of the wall. It is a beautiful city. It is also where the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed. After walking the wall and visiting St. Jacobs Church, we had a delicious lunch outside at one of the restaurants. After lunch, we walked to City Hall and climbed the bell tower. It was a beautiful view. 218 steps up to the top! The tower overlooked the town square, marketplatz. We explored the criminal museum which is also known as the torture museum. Things were very scary back in medieval days! Once we finished the museum tour, it was on to some happy Christmas shopping! There is an amazing store in Rothenberg called Kathe Wolfhart. It is hard to describe! It's a must see for anyone that comes to visit! Giant nutcrackers, beautiful ornaments - it is just beautiful. It was a great day!

We really went on adventure this day - Paris! The kids summer vacation was nearing its end so Scott and I wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower with them. We got up very early and hit the autobahn. Unfortunately, a little rain slowed us down a bit. After parking the truck and catching the right train to the tower, we arrived at its base at about 2 in the afternoon. After waiting in line to get our tickets to the top and another wait for the elevators, we arrived at the top of the tower. It was definitely worth it! Such a beautiful view! We could see the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, river boats and more. We didn't have time for much else that day, except for a delicious dinner at a little sidewalk cafe. The kids thought the tower was very cool! We managed to find our way back to the area where we parked the truck (after a slight detour) to find the French ticket police waiting for us when we got off the train. No, we apparently did not have the right ticket so yes, they gladly fined us some euros! Ouch! That would be the "welcome to France, we don't care that you saved our nation" tax. We arrived safely back home late that night. Paris is a must do again, next time though, we will be getting a hotel room!