Summarizing

Once we got home, we spent the next week doing mostly day trips to places that we've been before and that Jenn and Bronwyn wanted to see. We had a day in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (without kids because Chopper was home for the 4th of July!!), Regensburg, they took the train one day down to Nuremberg, and then we did a day at Flossenburg.  

I love the view of Rothenburg from the tower on the Rathaus.

We followed Rick Steves walking tour which I hadn't done before because, well, kids, and it was pretty good!

But probably the best part was the night watchman's tour!  It's every night at 8 pm and he takes whoever shows up.  There was a musical group from Colorado (I think) visiting and performing and so we had a huge group of people.  Probably close to 300!  But he projects his voice well and the crowd is quiet when he speaks and he's got a great dry humor that makes his tour really entertaining. It has made me want to be a costumed tour guide now!

Our day in Regensburg started with a boat ride on the Danube in Kelheim. We thought we would get off at a monastery and have lunch or snacks but it didn't dock, just turned around and went back!  Oh well, it was a pretty trip regardless!

In addition to Flossenburg concentration camp, we hiked up the Flossenburg castle ruins.  They're pretty steep in places but fairly intact.

From the ruins you could see over to where the camp was and the places where they quarried the rock - that was the main purpose of the camp, to quarry granite for Nazi's building projects. 

And what would a visit be without a night of tea drinking and card playing?  I had to introduce them to Marrying Mr. Darcy!  It was a more relaxed week for me mainly because I realized that they wanted more informational tours than I could do, especially with the kids. But I think they enjoyed the places that they saw and the days off for the kids were good to refuel them for our last trip to Prague!