Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany July 30, 2012

We slept in today which felt good. Sleeping in consists of waking up at 6:30 or so and rolling over to try and catch some more shut eye. There is so much more daylight here than we were expecting. It gets dark after 10 and gets light around 5 or so in the morning. The light creeps into your brain and wakes you. We check out at 9:20 and walk to the station to catch a 9:41 train to Rothenburg ob der Tauber with Change in Steinach. The scenery is rolling farmland and occasional woodland. Reminds us of the Midwest.

Hugh Shower

We arrive in Rothenburg odt and walk the half mile to the Pension to see if we can leave our packs there while we sightsee and check in later. It is about 11 and we ring the bell at the Pension. Tito Hoffman answers and says our room is ready and he will be right down. He comes down and says the room is in another building just up the street and that the toilet is in the hall but a sink and shower is in the room. This is OK? Since it is what we booked, it is alright with us. He gives us the keys and directions, literally a few houses away on another street. We both heard room 9, which is 3 flights up but the key does not work. We go down one flight and I try the bathroom key in the hall toilet and it works, so I try the key in room 6, no good, room 7, no good, room 8, Bingo. It is a nice clean room with two beds, a small shower, and backs to a wooded garden area so it should be quiet. Simple, nice, and we do not have to carry our full packs around town translates into two happy travelers.

Clock Tower

Today, we are going to do a Rick Steve’s self-guided walk of Rothenburg and we head out of our room toward the Market Square where it begins. The town hall and spire is here and LO and behold we are just in time for the Meistertrunk show at noon. Wos is dast, you ask. I will tell you a story of the city councilors tavern and clock tower from 1466. They used to drink here and in 1631, the Catholic army took the Protestant town and were going to plunder it. The mayor gave the conquering general a welcoming drink, a hugh tankard of the local wine. Feeling good, the General told the mayor, that if he could drink the entire 3 liter tankard of wine in one gulp, he would spare the town. The mayor did it and saved the town. Now the clock is flanked by two doors that open on the hour and the mayor statue drinks the big tankard of wine. Not very exciting to watch and the funny part is the story was made up in the late 1800’s for a play to promote the town. The town was most likely spared by paying bribes.

Alter of the Holy Blood

We walk some more and soon arrive at St Jacob’s Church. We pay 2 Euros to go inside and walk upstairs to see the Alter of the Holy Blood. This is an amazing piece that truly astounds us. It is a 500 year old, 35 foot high wood carving. Tillman Riemenschneider carved this from 1499-1504 (5 years to complete) to hold the reliquary of the holy blood which is set in a crystal capsule in a reliquary cross from Round 1270. This carving contains the last supper, Jesus entering Jerusalem, and Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. We probably spent a half hour admiring the work in the various panels, right down to the nails in the horses shoes. Just Incredible. We toured the rest of the beautiful church and then went to get a small bite to eat. We are in Germany so we get two mini pizzas for lunch.

Rothenburg Passion

After lunch, we continue our walk and enter the Imperial Museum. This museum was a lot larger than we thought it would be. It is located in a former convent and had a bit of everything from beer steins to weapons to works of art. Highlights for us included a medieval blooper where the sculptor put two horns on Moses because he read the Latin coronata (meaning crowned) as cornuta (meaning horned). We also saw one of the largest weapon collections we have seen and there was a hunting rifle Marie Antoinette used, a gun that was Napoleans. The self guided tour finished with the Rothenburg Passion, a series of 12 panels on which the passion of Christ is depicted. This was a great museum with a lot of English descriptions.

Door in Door

From here we walked through the convent garden and through one of the old gates into town to the castle park. The town is surrounded by the old wall and has several of these old gates and towers. This one had a large door with a little door in it. If you missed curfew or wanted into town, you could bribe the guard who would open the small door, which was too small for a fully armed attacker to get through. There was also a pitch nose mask above the gate where they could pour boiling pitch onto you if you did not know the password. We spent quite a bit of time relaxing and meandering in the castle park where there was amazing views everywhere of the town and it’s walls as well as the surrounding valleys and one small neighboring village. We walked back into town looking at possible places to eat. We stopped in a bakery to try a sneeballen which we have seen a lot of. It is dough that is shaped like a ball but in intertwined strips, some with fillings or covered in chocolate or other toppings. I was not a big fan. The strudel and other pastry seem a whole lot better but we at least tried it so we can stop wondering.

Waiting at the Restaurant

On to dinner, we wait at a small restaurant, for it to open at 1730. 1740 rolls around and the door is still locked but there are other people waiting (4 Asian girls and another couple). The owner opens the door a short while later and the Asians swarm in the entrance which evokes a stern “I need to set up first, you must wait” Then a few minutes later, the owner comes back up and says, “we are open”, in a way that seemed like why are you waiting here. When they and us got into the restaurant there were only a few tables without reserved signs on them and the Asians started to sit at one, which evoked another scolding from the owner returning from above on “wait for me, I will seat show you where to sit.” Very odd beginning to our meal. Amazingly, we watched, as the owner took one tables order, went to the bar, poured their drinks, and disappeared up the back steps, returned with a salad for that table, and then came to us for our order. He repeated this with our drinks before going to the asian table to take their order. When he brought us our meal, he was very friendly and explained that at his restaurant, everything is made fresh and the pace is slow. Then he said the Asians do not understand this and they also want to order 1 or 2 dinners for 4 or 5 people and he will not compromise the integrity of his restaurant this way. There is McDonalds for that if they want. We said that we are enjoying the slower pace of things here so this is all no problem for us.

Inside the Burger Kellar

Once this was said, he came back several times to chat with us and Harry turned out to be a very nice and funny guy. The food was excellent with very large portions. We enjoyed it so much that we made reservations for tomorrow night. While walking back to our room, we decided to check out the grocery store by the train station. It was the largest store we have seen so far and we found a bottle of Mosel wine for 3 Euro that we figure we will have one day here. We strolled back to our room and I am staying up way too late to write this so it is time to turn in. CNC

Expenses                                                                                                                                               1.30E-2 hot pretzels for breakfast                                                                                                              5E- 2 mini pizzas for lunch 8E- Imperial Museum                                                                           1.30E-Sneeballen                                                                                                                                           25.20E- 2 dinners, 2 beers                                                                                                                    2.99E- Bottle of Wine                                                                                                                               52E- Room at Pension Hoffman Scmolzer                                                                                          Miles Walked- 5.5 Miles