Rothenburg ob der Tauber

The city of Rothenburg  is on the cover of our Lonely Planet Travel Guide for Germany, and touted by Rick Steves as 'the king of medieval German cuteness.'

 

See the background?

Six years ago, we spent six weeks in Germany, with a then 18-month-old Ryan, and visited Rothenburg.  At the time we visited it was February. when most of the shops and restaurants are closed for the season, and Ryan spent most of the time chasing pigeons around the main square.  While my sister Sarah was here visiting over the holidays, she mentioned that she would like to visit the city, and so we headed out for a day of touristy sight-seeing. 

Main square

 When visiting this city, you have to park outside the city walls, since the streets are narrow and full of people wandering about.  Both times we have been there have been in the winter, and I can only imagine the number of people that would be visiting in the warmer weather.  

 

Rothenburg is one of the bus-tour stops along the Romantic Road, which runs from Wurtzburg (which is north of our city) to Fussen (south of our city, down in the mountains).  We fit right in doing the touristy photo-ops, but most of the other tourists were Asian!  Apparently there is some animated Japanese movie that is set in Rothenburg, making it a popular destination for Japanese tourists.  I also learned through Wikipedia that there was some filming done there for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Parts 1 and 2.  I will have to check for that next time we watch!

The Christmas market was over when we were there, but the Christmas spirit was still alive! All the decorations were still everywhere, and there are quite a lot of permanent Christmas-themed trinket stores.   Sarah used the opportunity to do some souvenir shopping at the Kathe Wohlfarht store.
     



 



Pretty walls in the restaurant.

 After we had lunch at a small German restaurant, we headed outside the city walls and down to the double bridge on the Tauber river.  We passed through some pretty vineyards and a picturesque church on the way.

 

 Despite all the other tourists within the city walls, we had this area to ourselves.

 

 

 

 After heading back into town, we stopped in for coffee, hot cocoa, and the local sweet specialty, a Schneeball.  Schneeball translates to 'snowball', and is a treat made of ribbons of dough formed into a ball, deep-fried, then covered with various topping such a powdered sugar, caramel, or chocolate. 

 Despite the quaint image that the city exudes, it has a quite tumultuous past.  The town was founded in the 1100's, and in the 1600's was defeated during the Thirty Years War.  Following the war, the plague caused much suffering and death in the town. 

 

The town also has quite a bit of Nazi history.  The city expelled all Jews in 1938, and was used as a model of Nazi idealism.  German soldiers were stationed there in WWII in an effort to defend the city, but in 1945 the city was bombed, and much of it destroyed.  Just like modern day tourists, the Nazi party also believed that Rothenburg was a quintessential German town.  As a side note: I found this WWII information on Wikipedia, because it is NOT mentioned in any of the guidebooks. 

 

We really enjoyed our visit to Rothenburg, and it is a great place to wander the cobbled streets and let yourself be engulfed by the jovial Christmas spirit.  Hopefully we will visit again in the warmer months, and see what else this interesting city has to offer! (If I had to guess it will likely have more than a few biergartens to choose from!)