Originally Tom and I had made no plans for Memorial Day weekend. It was a long weekend for me but we were under the assumption that he'd be recovering from a second surgery that weekend so we had made no plans. When we discovered the day before the long weekend that we'd gotten his surgery date wrong, we quickly looked at some options to get out of town and enjoy the weekend.
We looked at airline tickets and train prices but ultimately settled on driving less than two hours from the house and visiting Rothenberg in Bavaria. It is a medieval walled city and has been on my list of places to visit.
During the Middle Ages, Rothenburg ob der Tauber was a Free Imperial City, while other more well known cities - Frankfurt and Munich - were just 'wide spots on the road.' Its name means "Red Fortress above the Tauber" as the city is on a plateau that overlooks the Tauber River. The city's hayday was between 1150 to 1400 -- serving as a strategic stop on the trade routes linking northern and southern Europe. Its population at the time was 6,000 -- making it one of the areas largest cities.
This last minute weekend getaway turned out to be one of our most enjoyable trips since moving to Germany. One of the first things we did after getting checked into our room was 'Walk the Wall.' Just longer than a mile and a half around, you can walk the ramparts and stroll and take pictures till your heart's content. Here are some photos.
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| View of the wall from the Rodertor tower -- the only one you can climb up. |
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| Another view from the tower - a main entry point to the city |
Up in the tower there are also some displays showing pictures of the bombing of Rothenburg during the last weeks of World War II. Thankfully only the east side of the city was destroyed.
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| World War II Bombing |
The walkways are covered so walking the wall is a great option if the weather is bad. We had a bit of rain over the weekend but nothing really heavy.
Rothenburg has great shops and lots of personality. It's enjoyable just walking around and exploring. We seemed to be there for a perfect weekend too because it wasn't overly busy.
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| Tom near where we first started walking the wall |
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| The white Gothic 13-century building is Town Hall - the tower is 200 feet |
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| St. Jakob's Church - built in 14th century |
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| We loved this building - windows looked like eyes |
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| We were in a room up the road but the proprietors ran this cafe and guest house. |
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| Town Square |
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| Love the sunlight on these buildings. |
The Spitalbastei is the city's expansive southern gate.
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| Exterior of Spitalbastei - we'd be in the moat |
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| Exploring inside |
The guest house we were staying in had a package deal that included lodging, breakfast, entrance to two museums and vouchers for the Night Watchman's Tour. There were A LOT of people on the tour with us but it was definitely worthwhile. Here is the Night Watchman, aka Hans-Georg Baumgartner.
The two museums we had entry to were the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum and the Imperial Museum. We ended up saving our vouchers for the crime museum for our next visit, but we did visit the Imperial Museum. The museum has incredible collection of weapons and armor and what is a visit to a medieval walled town without seeing some medieval weaponry. We paid an extra 2 euros so Tom could take pictures inside.
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| The Imperial Museum is inside the former Dominican convent. |
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| I think the sword in the center belonged to Conan the Destoryer |
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| One of the main exhibit halls |
Trips like this remind us of how blessed we are to have this experience of living oversees. On a Thursday evening we decided to run away to Rothenburg and the next day we were there. Others save for months, years maybe, to come visit Europe for a week or too. We really loved Rothenburg and are already talking about going back for its Christmas Market.
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| Rothenburg -- We'll be back! |
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