Hallo und guten Tag eins und alles (hello and good day one and all). Today is my third day in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and I finally got to do some real sightseeing today. I spent most of the last two days wrapping up the last of my school work for the semester, but now that I'm finished I can relax and turn my attention back to my trip (and to posting about it here). I picked Rothenburg as the place where I would spend a few days wrapping up school work and then relaxing for a bit because of the embience here. Nördlingen and Dinkelsbühl are cool, but they just don't have the character and charm that Rothenburg has. Nördlingen and Dinkelsbühl are places that you visit once, say to yourself "yeah that was pretty neat" when you leave, but afterward have no special desire to go back to. Rothenburg is different though - it's a place you can fall in love with. This is my second time here and I feel just as enchanted as the first time. I think there are a few reasons for it. First, there is the setting; Rothenburg sits atop a hill and is surrounded by a valley through which the Tauber River (thus, "ob der Tauber" - "on the Tauber") flows, giving it both unusual surrounding natural beauty and causing the town itself to be more condensed than either of the other two medieval walled towns I have visited. The secondary effect, and also a very smart measure on the part of the local government, is that the streets in Rothenburg are often too small for cars, and car traffic within the town is severely restricted, making Rothenburg much more tranquil and foot traffic-friendly than its counterparts. Finally, Rothenburg just seems to have a friendly and welcoming spirit that Nördlingen and Dinkelsbühl lack. Not that people in those places aren't nice and friendly themselves, but people seem to be especially so in Rothenburg. For those reasons, and probably others I just can't articulate, I love it here and will happily return in future travels.
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| Rothenburg ob der Tauber |
So, on to what I actually did today. I slept in yet again this morning and got up at about 9:00 am, and had breakfast and was out the door by about 10:00. The first thing I did was drop off my dirty laundry at my hotel's front desk - I was down to my last set of clothes, and normally I would do laundry in the sink or find a laundromat, but I knew I would be coming here and that this hotel has relatively affordable laundry service (cost about 7 euros to do about the equivalent of two loads of laundry). Then I made my way to the
Deutches Weihnachtsmuseum (German Christmas museum) inside the Käthe Wohlfart Christmas store (which is itself an excellent Christmas gift shop). You would think that a "Christmas museum" inside a gift shop would be merely a ploy to get you to come in and buy stuff, and maybe it is, but the Weihnachtsmuseum is really a serious and very good collection of items which gives a very thorough and interesting education on the history and tradition of Christmas in Germany (which heavily influences our own traditions). The displays were all very well explained in both German and English signage, and the hour I spent walking through was an hour well spent.
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A Christmas tree in the Weihnachtsmuseum adorned with
handwritten well-wishes left by visitors from all over the world |
After the Weihnachtsmuseum I had a couple of hours to kill before the other museum I wanted to visit was supposed to open, so I decided to get some daytime photos around Rothenburg and to take a walk around the grounds outside on the west side of town, where the views of the Tauber Valley are best. I got some great photos of Rothenburg decked in Christmas decor, and also some good ones of Rothenburg looking from the outside in. I encountered a phenomenon there that I had seen before but forgotten about - the Japanese tourist/wannabe professional photographer. There are certain tourist archetypes that you tend to encounter while traveling in Europe, and one of them is the Japanese tourist. Of course not all are alike, but there are some common themes, and one of them seems to be the use of gigantic, probably incredibly expensive professional-style cameras. You almost always see those cameras in the hands of affluent-looking Japanese men, and they seem to take the art of vacation photography extremely seriously. I ran into one such guy there in the grounds outside of town, and I couldn't help but simultaneously chuckle and yet be somewhat annoyed as he occupied every good photo-taking spot for minutes on end taking probably a few hundred photos. I got all of the shots I wanted in a few minutes, and then spent some time strolling around and enjoying Rothenburg's scenic natural surroundings. The snow that covered everything on my arrival in Germany has melted away as the temperatures have risen to just above freezing, which is too bad because I bet this place would have been even more captivating with a covering of snow, but even without Rothenburg is beautiful inside and out.
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| Exterior of Rothenburg |
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| Exterior of Rothenburg |
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| Exterior of Rothenburg |
After my walk around the grounds outside the town, I headed back in and visited the
Reichstadtmuseum, which chronicles the history of Rothenburg. The city was founded in 1170, and was given the status of a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire (granting the city nearly complete autonomy and representation in the imperial assembly) in 1274. The Reichstadtmuseum covers the period from Rothenburg's founding to the present, although also with some exhibits of artifacts (mostly weapons and tools) from as far back as 500+ B.C. As a student of history and in particular of European history, I was fascinated. I particularly liked the huge collection of weaponry they had on display, showing the complete evolution of weapons used in this area from the middle ages to the 19th century. They had a few things there that I had never seen before, such as one very early (I think it was late 15th/early 16th century) black powder rifle that was probably at least six feet long and had to have weighed a couple hundred pounds, an air rifle (like a modern BB gun), and stonebows (crossbows that shoot stones used for bird hunting). Probably the coolest thing on display there, however, was the various illustrations and maps of Rothenburg over its history. In the preservation of those items we can see Rothenburg as people from the middle ages saw it, and my basic impression is that the Rothenburg we see today looks very much like the Rothenburg of 500 years ago. It's a very cool feeling, knowing that what you are looking at and experiencing is very much like what people from half a millennium ago saw and experienced. For me, it makes me feel connected to those people, and reminds me that while we may be separated by many years, we are essentially the same.
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| A 500+ year old original room interior in the Reichstadtmuseum |
After visiting the Reichstadtmuseum it was time for lunch and a break. I've been keeping my car in free street parking areas just outside the town, but I like to check on it once a day just to make sure that it's still there, and also I've been moving the car just to make sure it doesn't get towed or ticketed for sitting in one spot for too long. So I went and did that, took the car for a short spin and filled up the gas tank, and then I headed back into town and visited the local döner kebab place. You find döner kebab all over Europe and particularly in Germany. It comes largely from Turkish immigrants and it is a very popular fast food option. Döner kebab is basically a pita filled with meat that has been roasted on a rotating spit, with lettuce, tomato, onion, and a yogurt-based sauce. The döner kebab place here in Rothenburg, Cafe Bosporus, is one of the best ones I've found. I've been having lunch there every day here in Rothenburg because the combination of price (3.50 euros for a very filling döner kebab, which in Europe is an unbeatable price), quality, and excellent service is unmatched. The guy who I think owns the place speaks a little English, so in combination with my limited German we've conversed a bit when I've been in there, and that has been fun. I grabbed my döner kebab, bid the guy a merry tschüss! (the German equivalent of "see ya later"), and then returned to my hotel.
Back at my hotel room I found my laundry neatly folded in a laundry basket. Probably among the best 7 euros I've ever spent on the road here in Europe. I decided to make arrangements for the next leg of my trip while I had some down time, so I got out my guidebook and started planning. Initially my plan was to take a side trip Nürnburg today in the afternoon/evening to visit the Christmas market there (which is supposed to be the biggest and best in Germany), but I realized that I would be trying to cramp too much into just a few hours, so I decided to stay one more day here in Bavaria and do a full day in Nürnburg tomorrow. At the same time after reading up on hotel options in Strasbourg, which was going to be my next destination, I decided that I didn't really want to stay overnight in Strasbourg and would rather day trip there from a smaller town, so I decided to add a night here in Rothenburg, day trip to Nürnburg from here tomorrow, and then head over to the Alsace region of France the next day. That is the kind of flexibility I absolutely love and cherish when I'm traveling. I am never locked in to a set plan because I generally don't make reservations in advance, even during the peak tourism season. With a little courage and the gumption to call around to find a hotel when you decide to change your plans, traveling that way is so much better than keeping yourself beholden to a concrete plan. I have made changes to my itinerary every time I have come to Europe, and I have always appreciated having that capability.
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| Rothenburg ob der Tauber |
So having made the decision to change up my plan, I emailed a couple of hotels that I would like to stay at to ask if they have rooms available, and then I set back out to get myself some coffee and some gluwhein at the Christmas market ("Weihnachtsmarkt" in German) here in Rothenburg. The Christmas markets usually consist of temporary covered stalls set up in the squares, where people sell various Christmas-themed goods, treats, and especially gluwhein. Gluwhein is a hot mulled wine, and it comes in all sorts of varieties. You can get red gluwhein, white gluwhein, rose gluwhein, spiced gluwhein, gluwhein with rum, with amaretto, etc. I particularly like red gluwhein, so I got a cup and then took another stroll around town. That never gets old.
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| The Rothenburg Weihnachtsmarkt |
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| The Rothenburg Weihnachtsmarkt |
After my gluwhein I turned back in to write this post. Now that I'm finished I'm going to go get some dinner, take some notes and make some basic sightseeing plans for Nürnburg tomorrow, and then try to get to bed early. I'll post again tomorrow, so until then I bid you tschüss und ein gute Nacht.
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