#BeaumontTravels: Germany, Summer 2018: Day 2

Beaumont's History Department is traveling this summer to Germany. Follow along with their journal as they share their adventures from the road. Twelve students from Beaumont are being led by Mr. Crawford and his wife as chaperones.

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Greetings from Rothenburg, Germany.

We made it through customs with no problem. We all got our passports stamped, which you know is a big deal, and all of our luggage arrived - yeah! We met our EF Tour Director Silvana, a lovely woman who lives just outside of Frankfurt. She is half German and half Italian and she speaks perfect English. She was so excited to meet us and her gentle professional manner put us all at ease. She loves this tour - it is her favorite and she can’t wait to show us this beautiful part of the world.

We arrived earlier than our travel partners, a group oh 36 from Houston, Texas so we got a tour of the Frankfurt airport as we walked from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 to wait for this other group. The girls were happy, they went to McDonalds.

After the Texans arrived we boarded our coach for a 3 hour drive to Rothenburg, our first excursion.

Rothenburg is one of the few Medieval cities in Germany that was left intact after World War I. Actually about 40% of the town was destroyed by Allied bombing but was saved by a U.S. general from total destruction. It has been rebuilt in the old style and I must say, “What a beautiful town. “ We started with a walking tour where we learned the history of the town, which was founded around 970AD, watched the artistic clock in the main square strike 1, took a ton of pictures, and learned the lay of the land. One of the things Rothenburg is known for is its old style iron works. Silvana pointed out all the store signs that are made, out of iron, in the style of a medieval city - they are amazing. Next we had some free time for lunch and a chance to explore. So time for a quick bite to eat, Sheila andI tried a local town special “snowball” made from cookie dough loosely formed into a ball then fried and dipped in chocolate- wow! They are the size of a softball so we split one and couldn’t finish it.

After lunch we decided to “walk the wall” - the city’s fortifications that were built back in the 1100s. From the top of the wall we could see all that went into a medieval city - great time for a history lesson. We probably walked a quarter of the city’s wall, meeting people along the way and learning about this beautiful city that the girls all said reminded them of Harry Potter.
After exploring on our own we headed back to the main square (where this picture was taken) and the girls had another 45 minuets to see things on there own. Which you know means shopping.

We all met in the town square then walked to our coach for a short drive to our hotel. The Hotel Seebauer is a quaint old style European hotel. Very clean. We had a buffet dinner in the hotel, 20 minuets after checking in, that was one of the best meals we have ever had on an EF tour. Cream of asparagus soup, salad bar, and a pasta bar - but the dessert was special. The chef paraded through our seating area with a large serving tray of ice cream with lit sparklers - very cool. He then served it to us with different toppings like warm cherries in a cream sauce or this really good warm chocolate sauce.

After dinner we all had a meeting with our tour director where she explained some guidelines and the plan for tomorrow. The girls, who were very tired by this point went to their rooms while Julie, the head teacher from Texas, and met with Silvana to plan and talk about the next few days.
As the girls headed up to their rooms they commented on the great start we had. One of the things I told them was how nice it was to start in a small town like Rothenburg where they know they are in another country. In the past we started in Berlin, a big city that is much like any big city in the U.S. - in Rothenburg we knew we were in Germany.

Thus ends day 2.
Off to bed - tomorrow’s breakfast is at 6:30.

Talk to you soon,
Bob