Rothenburg - Old Town

The town was picture perfect! Impossible not to take gazillions of photos of beautiful houses.

The beautiful signs hanging from the shops were a drawcard for me too!

But the highlight (Craig, my little humbug, will groan at this) was a walk through the Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas Store (kaethe-wohlfahrt.com). It was gigantic!!! There was every sort of Christmas 'thing' you could ever think to buy, and then some. In fact, we came across things we had never seen again, including schwibbogen (a sort of balsawood vertical Christmas scene), and Christmas Pyramids, which are a German folk tradition. They are wooden tiered items with wooden figurines which have a space for candle around the outside. The warmth created by the candle then cause a rotor fan at the top to spin around, which in turn spins the main carousels housing the figurines.

And of course, there needs to be a movie reference! This village was used for filming scenes from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts I and II!Read more