Tour of Augsburg: a bit too exotic, a bit too long to cover the sights…read more In the hope that we'd receive a good overview of the important sights in Augsburg we booked a two-hour walk (offered daily by the Tourist-Information Office) entitled Auf den Spuren der Fugger durchs goldene Augsburg (Following the Footsteps of the Fuggers). The very large group of interested tourists was split into three and we took the exotic tour guide, who introduced herself as originally from China but having lived in Augsburg for a few years. And in the next two hours we managed to see the sights: the clever building Stadtmetzg where 17th century butchers were able to keep meat cool, dispose of garbage, and offer meat for sale to a growing population - probably the most elegant looking butchers hall we'd ever seen; the outside of the simple house where Berthold Brecht was born; a tour of the famous Fuggerei with houses created for the poor by Augsburg's very rich Fugger family; assorted facades and streets and fountains and statues in between; and then at last the Golden Hall at the top of Augsburg's Town Hall as finishing touch. We sometimes had a hard time understanding our guide, who spoke heavily accented German. And some of the interesting cultural differences between China and German she mentioned were unfortunately lost in too many names and dates and details. The group shrunk as it got colder and the tour got longer, but we stuck it out until the very end and then earned our beer and very late lunch in the basement of Augsburg's Town Hall, exhausted and ready then to check Augsburg off for good of our German-cities-to-see list.