We spent a large part of the day in transit from Vienna to Rothenburg. The longest part spent in first class onboard the Intercity express (ICE). With 2 connections, the Germans excelled in punctuality. Their new DB Discovery app on the iPhone was impressive showing real-time travel data that included ETA’s for all of the stops. With the two connections, this proved valuable and you could watch on the app to see if you were going to make the connection or not. On our last connection, the train got held up and our 4 min connection time was in deficit at which point we received an email telling us that we weren’t going to make our connection and the next alternative solution was to wait an hour for the next train. Just as we were arriving for our connection, the app updated with news that the connecting train was going to wait! Talk about making train travel so easy now!

Rothenburg is a medieval walled city and is one of the most well preserved, or remodelled? we have ever seen. It is almost like being in Disneyland! Very cute and very popular! We got to sample a Schneeballen (snowball), the sweet delicacy of the town and we walked the 2.5km city wall.

The day ended with a very entertaining walking tour with the Nachtwächter (Night Watchman) dressed in traditional costume providing us with some very entertaining stories about the history of the town.