Our final stop, before the Frankfurt airport, was Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Yes, it is a tourist spot. It has been for over 100 years. In some ways, that is nice. We could just let go of trying to fit in and enjoy. We did fit in a little better than some tour groups anyways :)
So, this little Mid-evil walled town has remained largely unchanged for over 500 years. It's famous because it has not changed. Yes, sure they have plumbing and telephones but everything looks the same without the smells and filth of the olden days. Even other Germans come to see it, much like we go visit Williamsburg.
We stayed at a Rick Steves recommended guest house built in the 1500s run by a very friendly and talkative older German fellow (and there is free breakfast). It was more of accident for us, since we mostly used TripAdvisor. Now, we joked about all the people who walked all over Europe with their heads stuck in Rick Steves books, not to miss a thing but are missing things because well, you know. In Rothenburg, we went into a shop that had a 30 year relationship with Rick Steves. We honestly accidentally picked his favorite shop (we are bad at souvenirs it was next to our dinner spot) and seriously had some good giggles over his stardom in this place. The shop owners were extremely proud of this connection. We also over heard another girl tell everyone in her tour group that she tried the ice cream flavors he recommended and they were fantastic apparently. All in all, he knows lots of great places to see, stay, explore, and also is good at picking out ice cream. He just isn't totally our style. Moving on...
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| no elevator here |
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| the street Hotel Spitzweg is located |
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| beds and beams |
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| little top corner window was our room |
We walked around town a bit before settling down for some dinner. Literally everyone and everything recommended the Nightwatchman's tour here. It started at 8pm and we had a little time to spare so we enjoyed a slow dinner.
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| who knows what everyone was looking at |
For the record, the tour is totally worth it. Even though every other tourist is doing it, you should. It's a nice, funny, and interesting walk and talk showing the history and details of Rothenburg.
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| twilight lighting is fantastic |
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| just two americans on a tour |
So in brief, why Rothenburg is stuck in time... A long time ago, 1300s-1500, this town somehow ended up as a crossroads for trade routes. It was big for towns at the time and wealthy. This can be seen especially in the grandeur of it's old churches. They are as big and as nice as places like Munich and Nuremburg. However, the sided with the wrong side during one of the thousands of wars from way back when (this time the Peasants War) and lost. Thus, starting a decline. Rothenburg went through a spiritual transformation soon after, becoming Lutheran after the Reformation. It then lost the money and power connection to the Holy Roman Empire. Time stops as everyone is too poor to do anything but survive. Fast forward to WWII. The city was ordered to be bombed in 1945 because some German forces were hiding there and Hilter mandated all his men to literally never surrender, even though it was basically a lost cause. Well, we bombed part of the city, not most of the cool part though. Then some higher up American commander remembered his mother had visited this city way back when it was a hipster's vacation location and bought a painting of the town. This guy grew up looking at the painting and was very saddened at the thought of blowing it up. Somehow he worked out a way to get the Germans to surrender and ordered the allies to not bomb the city. After the war, the town basically asks the world to donate funds to rebuild the city that was bombed. Now, basically it is one of the best preserved and most visited places ever. And they like tourist because that is how they make money now and the world basically helped them rebuild.
So that is my version of the story, probably not 100% accurately remembered. It's a cool place regardless. So here are a bunch of pictures :)
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| one of the towers on the wall |
After the tour we walked around more on our own. Started with a section of the wall. We finished our evening with some wine and beer before heading to bed.
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| view from the wall |
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| another tower |
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| davis and the wall |
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| town |
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davis liked all the water features
this one had St. George and the dragon |
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| famous little section of town |
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| around the corner from our hotel |
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| from the wall |
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| old stuff.. |
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| davis at an entrance |
Second day, we walked around city and country side. It was the perfect day to wander around and enjoy our last full day in Europe.
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| what we assumed to be old toilets |
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| me at the famous spot |
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| wandering through vineyards |
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| old church out side of town |
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| old double bridge |
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| aint that quaint? |
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| post card perfect rothenburg |
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old defensive tower from 1300s. doesn't seem too
defensive but it is cute |
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| wanderings and i love greenery |
We of course went into a few churches. It was a Sunday, so we waited until the afternoon. However that morning, we sat outside of one church and listened to the congregation sing. It was rather beautiful and comforting.
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| this guy is from the 1200s |
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Franziskanerkirche
former monastic church turned evangelical-Lutheran by
the reformation |
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After a lovely long day in Rothenburg, we took a train to Frankfurt. There we bought gummy bears and chocolate to soothe our sad hearts as vacation came to a close.
