Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Hello!

This weekend we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (the Tauber is a river that runs through the area).  It is a very quaint little town, unfortunately significantly "touristy," but I felt worth the experience.  This was actually the town I most looked forward to seeing, so I was very happy to find out after talking with everyone that it worked best this weekend rather than three weeks from now.

First of all, I have to say the train ride was extremely long.  We needed to take four trains to get there, and almost missed one because one of our trains was running (unusually) 20 min late.  Luckily, they called ahead and the train we had to catch waited there for us so we didn't have to wait another hour for the next train to come around.  We took slow trains (pretty much all except ICE and IC trains) because I was traveling with Kathleen and Bernadett who were traveling without ICE tickets.  I can't remember if I mentioned it before on here, but Bernadett is from Hungary and can only speak German with us because she only knows a couple English phrases.  This is helpful for furthering our German skills because we have to try to say what we mean in German, even if we don't know the word.  Anyway, the train ride with layover times was just under 6 hours each way.  If I could have taken ICE (which I do have a pass for, I just don't want to travel alone), I could have been there in 2 hours with fewer, possibly no train changes, not to mention air conditioning (this weekend was in the 90's, so for most of my time in Germany has been unusually cool even for them in the 60's-70's).  Either way, we had plenty of time and got to see all that we wanted to.

We stayed at a hostel for about 24 Euros with breakfast and it was a pretty place.  The building, like much of Rothenburg, was a few hundred years old and has been used as a hostel for the last 30 or so.  It used to be an old mill.  From the bathroom window on our floor we had a very nice view of the wall that protected the southern end of Rothenburg during the Middle Ages.  All other sides of it are naturally protected.

After checking in, we headed over to a restaurant/bar called Trinkstube zur Hölle.  Because of the title, it is hell-themed and was actually pretty fun.  I opted for a fancy potato and shrimp for supper.

We went with the Night Watchman on his nightly tour and history of Rothenburg and even braved his German tour.  We actually saw him while we were still in Hell and walked alone back with him so we got to talk to him a little before he was overwhelmed by a huge group.  We told him that we were all studying German at the Goethe Institute and I was really excited when he told us he had no problem understanding us at all and said we were speaking very well. (Gotta have that little pat on the back sometimes by a stranger! It means more).

He gave the group the tour that night and we were excited to understand much of what he said.  He explained that Rothenburg was a fairly rich town early in it's history due to much fabric production, mainly wool.  Later it had been held under siege for a while and then encountered the Black Plague.  This wiped out much of the town, and because of the siege and lack of people in the town, much of Rothenburg was never updated/renovated/rebuilt.  While this seemed to hinder the city, it preserved it in its medieval style and now brings the city a lot of tourism and he joked about how the town had to wait a few hundred years for such horrors to become profitable.

Rothenburg was spared for the majority from destruction in WWII, it suffered just some damage on one side of the town, I believe. There is a rumor that one of the officers who was to bomb Rothenburg during the war had grown up with a beautiful picture of Rothenburg in his home.  He said there was no way he could destroy the town in the picture he loved because it was so beautiful.  I also have heard that the mayor at the time went against Hitler's command and surrendered the town to preserve more of it.  (Hitler felt Rothenburg to be the most German of all German towns and wanted to make it am important point of his Reich).

We also went to the crime and punishment museum.  Here are the highlights:

Witch's Chair

The Rack

Comfy Chastity Belt

Iron Maiden (it is disputed if spikes were originally in Iron Maidens, or if that was a later addition, so the museum removed the spikes from this model).

Executioner's Robe

Shame Masks

 Me - experiencing a little medieval punishmen

The other note-worthy place we went was St. Jacob's church, which is a medieval Gothic church, and the biggest and oldest in Rothenburg (construction began in 1311).  A large carved wooden altar in the back of the church on the 2nd story was made in 1501 and the glass oval in the cross is said to hold a drop of Christ's blood.  What I love about Gothic architecture, and this church really shows it is that it brings your eyes up to God.

We did a little souvenir shopping for our family since there were so many touristy shops.  All I can say is that I really suggest buying a Rick Steve's book before leaving for Germany or any other trip.  There are great discounts at lots of the restaurants and shops if you hold up the book and mention you heard about their place in there.

Here are some parting pictures of Rothenburg.  I have 146 pictures of Rothenburg uploaded on my facebook, so as usual check it out if you want to see more! Next weekend: Berlin!