Well Marked My Ass!
So the guide book was right about the admission being worth it so we assumed that it would also be right when it said that the Romantic Road would be well marked along the way. So we figured we could get along with out the GPS map device that we have because "it is well marked, with signs in German, English, Japanese and Chinese all along the way" .... Well it is not. When we did find the signs, they were only in German and Japanese and only about 1 foot by 2 feet and always after the turn had to be decided and made.
Lets just say that we are now happy that we got to see the miniature towns of Lillstadt and Wachbach and the one lane road between the two, which the locals drive in both directions really quickly. I think we actually only saw about one third of the actual towns on the official road, but they were all quaint and cute.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg is a time warp village. It is a medieval walled city and most of it survived the war intact and what didn't was re-built. The streets are all cobbled and the houses are half timbered. We stayed in a pension (small family run hotel like a B&B) that was built 400-600 years ago. We had to stay in the place we did. After asking at several fine establishments and politely decline 150 a night rooms we decided that it was getting dark and the town was shutting down. At about 7:00pm we were getting a little bit desperate. After trying our fourth place (which was too expensive) the lovely front desk girl pointed us to The Gästehaus Raidel and rousted a little old lady out of bed. She hobbled to the door when we asked the price we couldn't say no.
In the morning we went for a walk around the old wall. The wall runs all round the town we walked around half of it, the old authentic part that was not blown up by planes was high and uneven and Andrew didn't seem to mind but I kept on thinking that I was going to fall off or hit my head on the beams above (the whole thing is roofed as well). We also went to the Krimianl Museum which had all sorts of old trial customs and torture devices and the St. Jacob's Church which had an altar carved out of wood in 1504 CE that is said to have a drop of Jesus's blood on the cross in the middle. (However it was not visible the day we went so we cannot verify this claim)
Schneeballen
Schneeballs are the specialty of Rothenburg, there are about 12 stores that sell little more. They are kind of like doughnuts ... kind of. We had been warned that they were not great and as Rick Steves calls them "penitance food" but Andrew and I tried a chocolate schneeball and a powder sugar schneeball and liked them. We bought mini ones (a little bit bigger than a golf ball) but the actual offical schneeballs are the size of softballs!
Nightwatchman
At 8 o'clock at night you can meet the night watchman, Georg, in the town square for his night tour of Rothenburg. He takes a group around the city giving interesting facts and funny stories about Rothenburg and the middle ages in general. Did you know that the word "Salary" comes from the word for salt, from when salt was almost as valuable as gold and was often traded straight up for goods. That the night watchman was the third lowest profession in the middle ages just above grave digger and executioner (who were friends because they had the same clients with a small time difference) and "Man Holes" are tiny doors in the big city gates so that men out after curfew could after paying a fine couldstill get into the village after the gates were closed for the night one hour after sundown. The doors allowed only one man at atime to prevent the enemy from getting in too easy. http://www.nightwatchman.de/ he has a dvd too!
Lets just say that we are now happy that we got to see the miniature towns of Lillstadt and Wachbach and the one lane road between the two, which the locals drive in both directions really quickly. I think we actually only saw about one third of the actual towns on the official road, but they were all quaint and cute.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg is a time warp village. It is a medieval walled city and most of it survived the war intact and what didn't was re-built. The streets are all cobbled and the houses are half timbered. We stayed in a pension (small family run hotel like a B&B) that was built 400-600 years ago. We had to stay in the place we did. After asking at several fine establishments and politely decline 150 a night rooms we decided that it was getting dark and the town was shutting down. At about 7:00pm we were getting a little bit desperate. After trying our fourth place (which was too expensive) the lovely front desk girl pointed us to The Gästehaus Raidel and rousted a little old lady out of bed. She hobbled to the door when we asked the price we couldn't say no.
In the morning we went for a walk around the old wall. The wall runs all round the town we walked around half of it, the old authentic part that was not blown up by planes was high and uneven and Andrew didn't seem to mind but I kept on thinking that I was going to fall off or hit my head on the beams above (the whole thing is roofed as well). We also went to the Krimianl Museum which had all sorts of old trial customs and torture devices and the St. Jacob's Church which had an altar carved out of wood in 1504 CE that is said to have a drop of Jesus's blood on the cross in the middle. (However it was not visible the day we went so we cannot verify this claim)
Schneeballen
Schneeballs are the specialty of Rothenburg, there are about 12 stores that sell little more. They are kind of like doughnuts ... kind of. We had been warned that they were not great and as Rick Steves calls them "penitance food" but Andrew and I tried a chocolate schneeball and a powder sugar schneeball and liked them. We bought mini ones (a little bit bigger than a golf ball) but the actual offical schneeballs are the size of softballs!
Nightwatchman
At 8 o'clock at night you can meet the night watchman, Georg, in the town square for his night tour of Rothenburg. He takes a group around the city giving interesting facts and funny stories about Rothenburg and the middle ages in general. Did you know that the word "Salary" comes from the word for salt, from when salt was almost as valuable as gold and was often traded straight up for goods. That the night watchman was the third lowest profession in the middle ages just above grave digger and executioner (who were friends because they had the same clients with a small time difference) and "Man Holes" are tiny doors in the big city gates so that men out after curfew could after paying a fine couldstill get into the village after the gates were closed for the night one hour after sundown. The doors allowed only one man at atime to prevent the enemy from getting in too easy. http://www.nightwatchman.de/ he has a dvd too!
www.rothenburg.de Check out the webcam, it is of the main square with the large Glockenspiel clock and the Rathaus (City Hall)
posted by Glen Scotia at 12:40 PM
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