Lititz, PA

We found ourselves this past Saturday driving out to Lititz, PA in Pennsylvania Dutch Country to visit a few places. On the way though, we stopped at a Smorgasbord in East Earl, PA called Shady Maple.  The breakfast buffet here was phenomenal!  Basically, every type of breakfast food, with every variation you can imagine, was offered here, including a bar that would customize your pancakes and omelettes.  This is a must-stop location for anyone visiting this general vicinity.

After this, we continued on to the town of Lititz.  Our first stop here on Main Street was at the Lititz Historical Museum.  In the first building you see here, you can learn about the history of the town from it's inception in the early 1700's.  Various artifacts remain from the early days, and it should be noted many of today's residents can trace their heritage all the way back to the first century of the town's founding.

After this, you can go on a guided tour for $5 at the Johannes Mueller house next door.  This house, build in 1792, is a typical representation of what Lititz, and early PA Dutch Country, was like during this time period. Your tour guide will give you a detailed account of each room, along with all of the objects in it and give you a very thorough understanding of the historical significance of each discussion point.  I must say that this tour was a pleasant surprise on our trip.

After this, one block down is the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery.  Here is where the first hard pretzel was invented.  For a small fee of $3, you can get a tour showing you how both soft and hard pretzels are made, see the ovens, and also their new automatic pretzel making machine.  You even get shown how to properly fold pretzel dough into the standard pretzel shape.  Definitely a fun experience for people of all ages!

To complete our trip to Lititz, we then made the short drive down to Broad Street to view the Wilbur Chocolate Factory.  As soon as you get near the front door, the chocolate aroma just hits you and draws you inside.  They have an extremely large assortment of chocolate related items for purchase.  However, the actual factory view is pretty much non-existent.  They have a "sample showcase" of what it would look like inside the factory, but not much else.  However, if you love chocolate, this is definitely a great place to pick up some for yourself or for presents for others.