Starry Knit: Are you sick of cute medieval towns yet?

Because I've got one more for you before I go back to the States. As I mentioned in the previous post (writted somewhat in advance- go me!), we went to visit Rothenburg ob der Tauber this weekend. It's a completely adorable town that thrives on its tourist trade. The old town is enclosed in a wall that you can walk along.

The city wall from the outside:

A wall-walk entrance:

And the wall from the inside:

This was certainly the most tourist-geared location we've visited this summer, even more so than Carcassonne. However, I think we picked the right time of week to minimize the crowds. We left by train Sunday morning and stayed until Monday afternoon. We were able to see most of the town, and weren't surrounded by a mob at any time. It seemed that most of the tourists were only daytrippers, so we were able to relax a little more at night and experiment with the digital camera.

I can't take credit for the night photos; the significant other figured out how to extend the shutter time on the camera. (Actually, his camera batteries died about half an hour after we got off the train, and he got a little grabby with my camera. I forgave him his experiments eventually.)

He's good, huh? Well, I might be biased. We also saw a couple of great old churches, St. Jakobskirche and St. Wolfgangskirche. The latter had a small exhibit called The Shepderd's Dance, which had a bit of information about the traditional dress and way of life in the Franconian region surrounding Rothenburg. I liked it, and found some great color inspiration.

They also had a spinning wheel in their display. I've never seen a treadle quite like this on a spinning wheel. I was itching to test it out and see how stable it feels!

The only thing I would have changed about the visit was the weather. I am totally ready to get away from the thick muggy heat! We were really sweaty all weekend and I felt a bit gross, except in the huge, cool stone sanctuary (ha ha) of the larger of the two churches: St. Jakob's.

This church has been Lutheran for a really long time, and it was interesting to see a place that looks distinctly Catholic (to my protestant-childhood eyes) where the worshipers probably know the same hymns that I know. Now, get ready for the understatement of the year. They have a pretty big pipe organ here.

See what I mean? I have other shots of this that are close-ups, but I wanted to show you this one because you get a sense of the utter HUGENESS of this thing. It's amazing. It must be quite a production when it's played.

I didn't get a lot of knitting time in, as it was too hot on the train to do anything except sip listlessly at our vending machine sodas, which were rapidly approaching room temperature. I'm roughly 3/4 finished with the Honeybee stole, and as it can't come with me on the plane and I'm at the beginning of a pattern repeat, I decided to put the stole aside and wind yarn today for my airplane knitting. No photos, as the camera is already packed, but it's going to be Cookie A.'s Pomatomus socks, using my oldest skein of Wollmeise, the Vergißmeinnicht (forget-me-not) colorway. I like to have at least a little bit of knitting hanging off the needles when I go to check in, so it's clear that I intent to knit with my knitting needles when I go through security. I've also decided to take along the needles, yarn, and pattern for my Bronte Mitts in case I get really bored with the socks. I'll be packing up the laptop and camera soon, and I probably won't be posting until next week. I already have plans to meet up with friends, family, and fiber as soon as I can, and I bet there will be some catching-up to do before I post again. Now, I need to refill my iced tea and go get my laundry out of the dryer, so I'll leave you with some local Rothenburg o.d.T. flora and fauna.