Honeymoon- Day 20- Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Colimar

We woke up early, avoiding most tourists and maximizing our last few hours in Rothenburg, walking along the ramparts to the southern part of the walled city.

Most of the souvenirs we have seen so far have been expensive and/or not impressive and/or not made in Germany, that is until we found Ishii Sumiko Kunstgewerbe.  (The German owner married a Japanese woman, hence the name.)  He buys directly from smaller scale craftsman, and all of his sale items are made in Germany.  (It is 100x better than the famous Käthe Wohlfahrt's shops... which there are three of in this little town.)  We probably spent an hour in here.  It is difficult to choose what to buy when there are so many neat items to admire, and when you don't have any privacy.  It felt like the owner was part of our group.  Every time we looked at something, or discussed, his head was right there, in the middle of ours, to weigh in, tell us stories, and show us something.  It was actually a fun experience.  I am sure he gets nervous about tourists picking up the fragile pieces of art.

This was Eric's favorite, but we were too nervous to purchase it.  There are so many parts and we still have numerous travel days left.

Today was our longest travel day.  

From Rothenburg we took a train to Steinach and then another to Ansbach.  Then we took a taxi to the car rental, and then drove to Kehl (which is in Germany, near the border of France).  From the car rental location we walked to the train station and then took a train to Strasbourg and then another train to Colmar.  

This was the most efficient way to get to Colmar, considering the price.  Had we rented a car, and went across the border, the border crossing would have taken forever (there was a lot traffic) and it would have cost more to drop off the car in France.  Had we taken the train, we would have had to take five different ones (changing four times) before getting to France.  

It was a long day, but it could have been longer.

By the time we got to Colmar seven hours later, France had won yet another World Cup playoff and so it took twenty minutes for a taxi, and then twice as long to drive about ten minutes away because so many streets were closed due to the revelry.  

It was fun to watch but our taxi driver made it clear that he was done working as soon as he dropped us off.

So looking forward to a day of riding bikes tomorrow.