Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Over a year ago a friend at my German classes back in Australia told us about this town we must see.  I remember seeing the name and brought the small piece of paper she wrote it on with us with the idea that we will go see this town she raved about.  So finally after over a year we had a free weekend which was going to be sunny both days so off we went.  It only ended up being a 3 hour drive from here and was well worth it.  Rothenburg ob Der Tauber is a very popular place with both American and Japanese tourists and the place was full but that did not deter from its beauty.  It was the town where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed and is known for being one of the best preserved medieval towns.

After an early start we got there mid morning on Saturday and had Schneeballen (snowballs) for morning tea.  These are the town's speciality and they were piled high in all the bakery windows as well as Schneeballen speciality shops.

We then took ourselves on a bit of a walking tour of the town.  Rothenburg is in Franconia (also part of Bavaria but Franconians like to still call themselves Franconians not Bavarians) so we were keen to try the local food and wine.  Great food, light wine.

Malcolm was keen to climb the Tower at the town hall and as I twisted my ankle recently I let him climb whilst I looked in the Christmas shops (Malcolm was quite pleased to miss these).  These Christmas shops are open all year and have amazing displays that you usually only see in good department store windows.

In the afternoon we went to the Medieval Criminal Museum which was very interesting with displays of instruments used for finding out if someone was a witch, shame masks for tattletales, chastity belts and many more interesting items.

In the evening we did The Night Watchman's tour which had over two hundred people hanging on every word that he spoke.  We thought it would be too hard with so many people but it didn't matter.

The next morning we went for a walk around on the fortress walls that surround the town and into the bastion.

On the way home we drove through Noerdlingen, an almost perfectly circular town (it had a tower so Malcolm could climb it and see this).  Another lovely medieval town on the Romantic Road.  We were interested in seeing it as it lies inside a huge crater (25km in diameter) that was created more than 15 million years ago.

More photos.