the last stop on the vacation train: Rothenburg ob der Tauber

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...

no elevator here

the street Hotel Spitzweg is located

beds and beams

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.

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.

twilight lighting is fantastic

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 :)

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.

view from the wall

another tower

davis and the wall

town

davis liked all the water features
this one had St. George and the dragon

famous little section of town

around the corner from our hotel

from the wall

old stuff..

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.

what we assumed to be old toilets

me at the famous spot

wandering through vineyards

old church out side of town

old double bridge

aint that quaint?

post card perfect rothenburg

old defensive tower from 1300s. doesn't seem too
defensive but it is cute

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.

this guy is from the 1200s

Franziskanerkirche
former monastic church turned evangelical-Lutheran by
the reformation

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.

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

After leaving Munich, we took a train straight for the foothills of the Alps. This side trip was all my doing as Davis did not really care about seeing THE famous castle. I figured we may never make it back to this part of the world so we should definitely see THE famous castle while we were close.

of course I am talking about THIS castle: Neuschwanstein

The trust about THE castle is that it is not really a castle, more of a palace inspired by castles. It's younger than the American Civil War. It's not even finished. It happens to be the second castle in this immediate area. The first is where young prince Ludwig II of Bavaria grew up, well one of the places he lived in as a kid. It's the lesser known and not as epic.

the other castle: Hohenschwangau

The yellow one isn't that old either, still built in the 1800s. But there once was a knight castle on this spot until dumb Napoleon came along and wrecked it. Then Ludwig II's parents fixed up this nice place. We toured them both in a quick and crowded thirty minute session each. But let's back up a little first.

I may have lied a teensy bit about the weather being perfect the rest of the trip after Vienna. This day did start out cloudy and spitted a few drops of rain very sporadically but by the afternoon it was perfectly fine. We arrived at the train station at the closest town, Fussen, where we would be staying the night. Quickly we ditched our bags in a locker and set out for some castles. We thought the castles were just right outside of town. But we needed to get on an hourly bus that we had just missed. So, being quite skilled at walking, we decided to walk. All in all, we walked over 5km just to get to THE castle. But it was fine, we liked walking and it was beautiful country side.

Fussen's castle

path along the "romantic road" in bavaria

First glimpse

first glimpse here too

We bought our tickets and had plenty of time to dink around. They allotted enough time for the slowest walkers to make it to the little castle to start and THE castle afterwards. We were much too fast for the times given, so we grabbed coffees and sandwiches and took pictures.

 At Alpsee loving my sweet husband

yummy coffee in the rain with THE castle creepin' the back

swans everywhere

the gardens

looking into the tiny town at the base of the castles

Of course you can't take pictures on these tours. We made it up to the little castle in no time and waited for our tour. I really liked this castle. It's definitely worth seeing too. The art work inside was incredible  while still being believable that it was a home and lived in. The views all around were fantastic, just not fantastic enough for Ludwig II.

leaving or coming

Then we walked up a bigger mountain to THE castle. Again, we walked too fast so we took pictures and ate more food. The prices of snacks weren't too bad either here.

waiting

there was a little ski lift over there

view of the valley

this side's view (minus our heads)

Ludwig II wanted his own new fancy castle. He picked an even more epic spot as the location, also the site of old castle ruins, while still keeping the little one in view. THE castle seemed to be more of a gigantic liveable monument to fantastical  Richard Wagner operas. Wagner happened to be close to the family, especially Ludwig II, and wrote some of his pieces in their castles. Ludwig II was so obsessed with him, he only allowed Wagner to stay in the fancy guest room. What was finished of THE castle, it was decorated with some of the most beautiful artwork. I can't imagine what the whole thing would look like if finished. Of course, no pictures could be taken inside. But it was stunning. Ludwig's carved wooden bedroom took away my breath and blew my mind. So much handcrafted detail. Well, Ludwig II didn't even live there for a year before he died mysteriously. The day after he was declared unfit to rule, he was found dead floating in a lake. Seems fishy to me but they claim no one knows what really happened. He was a bit weird, reclusive, and terrible with money. He basically bankrupted his country building THE castle. Right after he died, they opened his supposed to be reclusive hide out to the public. The paying visitors had the debt of the construction paid off before the year 1900. Today it is one of the most popular places to visit in the whole wide world.

tower and davis

courtyard

waiting for our tour to start

view from the balcony

Alpsee, the other castle, and tiny village in a stunning location

that's the balcony we were on

There is a side path that takes you to this tiny bridge where you have one of the best views of THE castle. We made it on the bridge in between the crowds. Thank goodness for good timing, we left the bridge questioning what the weight limit could be.

classic shot

down below, bridge don't fail us now

We walked back down the mountain. Davis' knee was hurting so we opted to take the bus back to Fussen. All in all, so glad we saw it. The art work and the views were stunning.

heading back to Fussen

And in the end, we found Fussen was pretty awesome too. But I'll save that for later.