We spent the weekend in Rothenburg (pronounced Rote-en-burg, for "red castle"), a beautifully preserved walled Medieval town just 1 1/2 hours from Stuttgart (but three hours by meandering train). The castle was destroyed in the 1300's, but at least one of the buildings dates to as early as the 900's. Constant sieges from neighboring countries (Germany was comprised of over 300 separate countries in that time) kept the town from succeeding and modernizing for centuries. Now a constant flow of tourists siezes the town each summer.
We slept in a cozy bed and breakfast, home of a gracious multi-generational family. The murmur of happy conversation in the streets below was punctuated by the clip-clop of horse and wagon. And while some of the items in Rothenburg's renowned Medieval Crime and Punishment museum could be difficult to ponder, the experience made it graphically clear that the Middle Ages weren't exactly the good old days.
We haven't yet taken photos of the rustic zip-line playground in the forest (it is a 45-minute walk, and our last visit was in the rain), but we found another spot less than 20 minutes away, near Patch Barracks. On Friday, we met some new friends there from Stuttgart Area Homeschoolers. The family, which includes five children, has also lived in the Ukraine. While homeschooling is pretty much illegal in Germany, military families have no problem getting an exception. (Note: we just realized our camera is one day behind on marking the date.) 
