Sometimes you get to a place and it just feels right. Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany really was one of those places. It was a good job too as we had four nights here over the Christmas period to experience what has been described as the most German of German towns.

Our journey to Rothenburg started with a flight to Frankfurt from Birmingham with Lufthansa on LH957 on Friday 21st December. The flight was around 45 minutes late which, whilst annoying for us, was very challenging for other people who had connecting flights to catch - at least we didn't have to run to the baggage reclaim belt.

Our hotel in Frankfurt was close to the station which was very handy for us as we had a fairly early train to catch on Saturday morning. After breakfast at Starbucks we were soon on board ICE1127 the 08.54 departure from Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof to Wurzburg taking just over an hour. From there it was two more local trains required and a change at Steinach in order to get to Rothenburg ob der Tauber at 11.50.

Our friends from Australia,Warren and Monica, were at Rothenburg to meet us having flown into Germany a few days earlier from the USA. They had added this part of the trip to a four month holiday that had seen them in both Canada and the United States of America for over four months. We had met Warren and Monica ten years ago in Argentina and they had stayed with us in Derby for one night (maybe 7 or 8 years previous) plus I had had lunch with them at Perth Airport four years ago. Hopefully we would all get on well for the next ten or so days . . . . . and thankfully we did - phew!

In Rothenburg we had rented a one bedroom studio type apartment that came with a small kitchen/dining area. It was spot on for what we would need as it gave us the opportunity to prepare a Christmas Eve buffet tea for Warren and Monica (with a few drinks of course) as this would be when the locals would be having their main family celebration of the festive period.

Rothenburg was a real delight to wander around, the traditional Christmas Market was in full swing, glühwein was flowing, food stalls seemed to cooking sausage after sausage and this was all set against the backdrop of the historic town itself that was decorated for the festive period. It really did feel pretty perfect and very Germanic as well as not being too busy either.

Rothenburg clearly is a tourist destination, and a coach load of Japanese/Chinese visitors seemed to be just about everywhere during the day. Most seemed to be 'doing Rothenburg in an hour' and it was much nicer to able to experience the place later in the evening when the transient tourists had disappeared.

On our first evening in town we did the Night Watchman tour where we were led around the town by an informative chap who shared historical tales about Rothenburg through the ages. The city walls and gates were constructed in the late 1300s and interestingly only a part of the town was destroyed in WW2 - and subsequently rebuilt thanks mainly to generous donors whose names are now attached to the walls. It was a great way to spend an hour as the Night Watchman tour was also quite humorous as well as informative.

Rothenburg also featured, we subsequently found out, in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We will have to watch this again to see whether we can spot parts of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The Night Watchmen failed to mention this snippet!

We also had a trip by train to Nuremberg (about 1h20m by train) to visit Dokument-Zentrum, which is housed in one of the buildings Adolf Hitler had constructed in the city as part of the Nazi Party rallies. The whole site is well worth a visit although sadly the weather was very poor so we couldn't really do too much exploring on foot. Even the Christmas Market - one of Germany's most famous - wasn't that pleasant to visit when dodging umbrellas in the crowded city centre. It was a relief to get back to Rothenburg.

Our Christmas Day was spent visiting the Christmas Museum located in the Kathe Wohlfahrt festive decorations shop - it has to be seen to be believed it is a huge shop open year round selling Christmas decorations. We popped over to Schwabisch Hall for lunch which was a 45 minute drive from Rothenburg and whilst it seemed a pleasant place it was pretty much closed for Christmas Day, although we did sneak into a restaurant for our Christmas Day lunch . . . . well a bowl of soup!

With us leaving Rothenburg on Boxing Day it meant one last meal before leaving this absolutely gorgeous town which was had at Warren and Monica's hotel where they served up hearty Italian food. It was a nice way to round off the stay in Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Next stop is Mannheim (for one night) before catching the train to Paris and Rennes in France to show our Aussie friends a little piece of Brittany.

** More photos from Rothenburg ob der Tauber are available in the 'photos' section of this blog **