Nördlingen

Wanting to see an even smaller German town, I took the train from Augsburg to Nördlingen, up north across the Danube. I had to change trains, or "umsteigen" ("climb around") as the Germans say, to reach it.

Back in the middle ages, Nördlingen was a frisky up-and-coming commercial town with a bright future. But then the durned Thirty Years War came along and dashed its hopes. Now it is famous for three things:
1) Its circular town wall is completely intact, and you can walk on it all the way around the town (Photos here: )
2) It is located in the Ries Crater, the best preserved meteor impact crater in Europe.
3) It was the home of the famous 15th-century prostitute Els von Eystett.

Fifteen million years ago, a half-mile wide meteor hit Europe at 42,000 mph right where Nördlingen is now, with the force of 1.8 million Hiroshima bombs. (OMG!) It didn't strike fear into people's hearts though, because people's hearts hadn't evolved yet. But it must have killed millions of elephant- hippo- deer- and squirrel-like animals and other little critters that were living then. The town has an excellent museum that shows you everything you ever wanted to know about meteor impacts all over the world and the solar system.

As to the famous 15th-century prostitute -- you know how some old randomly-preserved record can give you an insight into everyday life that you don't see in the history books? Well, here's a good example. They should make it into an HBO miniseries: