Chris and I enjoyed a fabulous overnight getaway to Rothenburg, (pronounced ‘wrote-enburg’) Germany last weekend.   

Rothenburg is just an hour and a half northeast from us and one of the biggest little cities along the romantic road… a route strewn with picturesque villages from Frankfurt to Munich.   Rothenburg’s charm comes from the fact that it is the country’s best-preserved medieval walled town.  That description alone had Chris and I wondering when we could go explore it… without the kiddos.  A perfectly adorable 18 year old in the ward to stay with the kids overnight, one booked hotel room, and a ‘worth it’s weight in gold’ Rick Steves travel guidebook and we were set to go.

I picked Chris up at work at 4:00 and we were on the road.   You’d think that without kids we would make the hour and half drive without a WC stop (water closet) but too much water that afternoon made me have to stop.  Luckily we found a fabulous WC and I gladly paid my 50 cents for use of the clean facilities.  That and the ‘to die for’ MAGNUM ice cream bars we bought made it a successful stop. 

We parked outside Rothenburg’s wall and walked through town to our hotel with small suitcase in hand.  The city is absolutely charming… I couldn’t help mumbling “I love this town” at every turn.

Our hotel was lovely.  The open inside courtyard was right out our room (and where we ate our complimentary breakfast of croissants, fruit, cold deli meats, scrambled eggs and hot chocolate).  Don’t you love how they arrange the pillows and blankets? Every on-line hotel picture we looked at had them like that.

 

After dropping off our luggage we headed down to the market square for a quick dinner before the Night Watchman’s Tour (in English) at 8:00pm.  We stopped for pizza and gelato at an Italian place and then wandered to the middle of the square where a group was already forming around our black cloaked tour guide.  The Night Watchman lives in Rothenburg and has been doing tours every night for 20 years.  With a Jerry Seinfeldesque sense of humor and a slow, deep, drawn out voice he walked us through the streets of Rothenburg and told stories of life back in the day.  It was fantastic.

After our complimentary breakfast in the morning, we again headed to Market Square which, because it was Saturday morning, was filled with vendors and people. The large central building is the the town hall with the white town hall tower behind.  On the right is the Councilor’s Tavern and clock tower from 1466.  Each hour the bells ring out while mannequin men peek out two windows (reenacting a bit of the towns fiction). To the left is the Marien-Apotheke, an old time pharmacy.  I just love that little round corner room on the second level.  Beneath it is the St. George’s fountain.  …mmmm, I love this town.

  Rothenburg’s tallest spire is the Town Hall Tower.  It stands 200 feet atop the white gothic 13th century building.  The 214 step climb was fun winding through empty rooms and then into narrow stairways with a steep ladder at the end.  We paid at the top and climbed out on the skinny balcony.  The views were gorgeous.  Behind us 10 Japanese tourists decided they wanted to get down as soon as they got up.  Once around the circular lookout and they were all nodding their heads at us and saying ‘down, down, down’ about how well Matthew can say it. There was a couple in front of us so there was nothing we could do but silently chuckle.  We opted for another time around before heading down.  It was one of the highlights of the day… one of many. 

Our hotel was right behind the church on the left hand side (below).

  

I just love the view of red tiled roofs scattered every which way.

Once back down our next stop was the Historical Town Hall Vaults.  We walked through the waxy  but interesting museum but what we were really anxious to see was what was below us. We climbed down the stairs and walked through the narrow hallway leading to the dungeon.  Don’t let my handy dandy speed flash fool you… it was indeed DARK, damp, and dungeon-y. Here I am with Hanz and Franz and the stocks which really isn’t supposed to be down here in the dungeon but up in the middle of market square to embarrass the wrongdoers.

Attached to the main torture room was three dank cells.  While I was standing in this one Chris read that one of the famous town leaders was captured by his enemies and held here and died in this very cell.  It gave me the creeps and I had to quickly exit.  What a horrible medieval life.

 

Our next stop was St. Jakobskirche  which means St. Jakob’s Church… (but actually Jakob is James in English).  St. Jakob’s Church, build in the 14th century, sits near the center of Rothenburg.  Outside the church , built right into it’s walls is this statue of Christ in Gethsemane with Peter, James and John sleeping.

 

At the back of the church, upstairs, was an amazing 500 year old 35 foot high wood carving called ‘Altar of the Holy Blood’. (picture above left).  It really was remarkable. A wood carver spent 5 years carving this to hold a rock-crystal capsule, set in a cross that contains a scrap of tablecloth miraculously stained in the shape of a cross by a drop of communion wine.  The whole thing carved just to showcase the scrap of tablecloth.   Reading about the history and symbolism in all of the pieces of art around the cathedral was so interesting.

After the church we wandered through some German Christmas stores and then down into the convent garden.   We sat and ate some treats, including the Rothenburg famous Schneeballen before continuing on.  We got original and powdered sugar (the two bottom ones). 

We had a big German lunch in a restaurant just off Market Square and then set off to see the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum. We paid our entrance fee and walked downstairs to the first exhibit.  Oh great, a chair with spikes all over it.  Lovely.  Ya, I think I’m done.  As much as I love just being with Chris, I opted for the ‘walk around the town by yourself with a camera hour’ (heaven) instead of the hour of torture.  Chris said the museum was mild after that but I’m not sure I believe him.   He had fun telling me about punishments for ‘quarrelsome women’ and other funny things.

 

Below is a picture of one of the gates into Rothenburg.  The small ‘man-hole’ cut out of the huge gate was so you could bribe the guard to let you into the town after curfew.  This door was small enough to keep out any fully armed attackers.  Above the gate was the “pitch nose” mask designed to pour boiling liquid on anyone attacking.

We spent some time outside of the city wall in the Castle Garden.  From the gardens we had gorgeous views of the Tauber River Valley and the walled city behind us.  We even spotted the blue Toppler Castle… 600 years old… the castle/summer home of the medieval Mayor Toppler.  

Another highlight was the wall and moat walk.  From the Castle Garden  we climbed up to the ramparts and walked along the city’s wall and occasionally on the pathways outside of the wall (formerly the city’s moat).   Rick Steves says that “the mile and a half walk can be done by those under six feet tall and without a camera in less than an hour.”  Chris and I looked at each other and laughed.  We thoroughly enjoyed the walk and the views and made pretty good time… considering Chris’ height and my busy Nikon.   We had such a good day and a half.  Can’t wait for our next overnighter… (we already know where we’re going we’re just trying to find an empty weekend.)

 

View from the windows of part of the wall to the other portion of the L-shaped city.