But the towns _now_ are wonderful. Beautiful architecture and fantastic for walking, or sitting and enjoying a meal, coffee, wine, or beer while taking it in.
Growing up I wished we had real towns like the ones in kids movies set in medieval Europe. I couldn't fathom that they do indeed exist - after all, why would you stop building them?? I still don't really understand why we stopped, to be honest. It's easy to say "cars" but I think there's more to it than that.
The first time I visited the Alsace I was blown away that places like this are real.
Replicating that beautiful masonry and hand-milling the timber would be outrageously expensive today. Plus, I doubt the raw materials are nearly as abundant, especially the old growth trees. Then there's modern building codes.
I agree that these are stunning cities, but more modern European buildings can also have similar charm, I think.
Fair enough - I used to work under a board that was about 20" by 20" by 30 feet. It was crazy to me that it's now rare to ever see a tree that tall and straight on this entire island any more, but once it was just a normal piece of building material in an old grain mill.
There were also markings on the wall about max weights in hundredweight (cwt) - I think the building was from the mid-19th century.
minus the poop I'm assuming