Rothenburg ob der Tauber is another place we’d visited – very briefly – before we moved to Germany. The weekend before Christmas 2013, we booked two nights in a hotel there so we could check out the Christmas markets and re-explore the town. In German, the word rot means red and the word Burg means castle.Rothenburg therefore indicates a red castle.Der Tauber means The Tauber, which is a river.So, all together the name Rothenburg ob der Tauber (which I will hereafter refer to in this post as simply Rothenburg) means red castle above the Tauber. Rothenburg is a very touristy town that gets over 2 million visitors each year.It is a well-preserved medieval town and you can walk on top of the defensive wall that has surrounded the town for hundreds of years.It’s about 1.5 miles to walk the entire wall. The town was bombed on March 31, 1945 during World War II and about 40 percent of it was destroyed, including almost half a mile of the medieval town wall.The wall was rebuilt with donations from around the world. Coincidentally, just 2 days before I started writing this blog, the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was on television.Rothenburg was used in the movie to depict the town of Vulgaria.Oddly, the movie also uses Neuschwanstein castle as a backdrop and it appears as if it’s right in the town of “Vulgaria”.In reality, Neuschwanstein castle is about a 2.5-hour drive from Rothenburg. Rothenburg has been used in other movies as well, including two of the Harry Potter films. The hotel where we stayed was just outside of this city gate.
The gate is called Galgentor, which means Gallows Gate, and the area is in fact where the gallows used to be. After we passed through the gate and started our walk into town, we came across this memorial.
The inscription indicates that the stone is a memorial for Jewish citizens of Rothenburg who were displaced from 1933 to 1938.It also indicates that many of them were later murdered and that only a few escaped.It is always a sobering reminder to see memorials like this in almost every German town and city you visit. One of the things you can do in Rothenburg is climb the 214 steps of the town hall, and that’s exactly what we did as soon as we got into town.
Now, we have climbed several towers in our travels and I am here to tell you that this was absolutely the hairiest climb we’ve ever done.I wish I had taken some photos of the very last flight of steps to the viewing platform but I was too terrified.The opening at the top of the stairs was not big enough to simply step through.I had to use the handrails to push myself up far enough to kneel on the top step, which is the viewing platform, and then reach across to grab the railing surrounding the platform.Luckily the platform is only a few feet wide so I could reach it. I then had to pull myself through and up.Going back down was even more fun.Because that last flight of steps is almost straight up, you cannot walk down them face forward.I had to sit down on the viewing platform, grab the handrails, turn myself around, and lower myself down backwards.Very carefully.I’m glad I crossed that one off my bucket list because I don’t foresee myself ever doing it again. Luckily the views from the top were worth it and they would have been even more stunning on a clear day. The whole way up the stairs there is graffiti covering the walls.This little tidbit caught my eye.
Well yes, I’m sure it does, but apparently not when it comes to spelling. This was a sign inside the tower that appears to be directed at dogs who can read.
Here is one of the views from the top of the tower.
You can see some of the stalls of the small Christmas market in that photo. After our climb, we took a walking tour that is given in English at 1400 hours each day. The tour guide pointed out that the roofs in Rothenburg all have these tiles, which are called “beaver tail” tiles because of their shape.
The teeny railings that you see on either side of the window there are to keep piles of snow from falling on people below. Here is the tour guide pointing out one of the old wooden city gates.
You can see how big the gate is and also notice that he is pointing to a gate-within-the-gate.He called it an “eye of the needle”.At night, the big gate would be closed and locked at curfew (dark) to keep out marauders and evil-doers.If you missed curfew, the guard might be nice and let you back into the city through the eye of the needle.The smaller gate was built in for this purpose because it would take too much to re-open the big gate and it would also make the town vulnerable to the aforementioned evil-doers.This particular gate is from the year 1555. Once you walk through this gate, you are in a garden are where the old “Rothenburg” (Red Castle, as you may recall from the beginning of the blog) used to stand.
This mask is built high into the wall above the gate you just saw.
The openings in the mask were used for things like pouring boiling oil on anyone who tried to attack the town. Here is a view of the walls surrounding part of the castle garden.
There are actually windows in some of those walls that belong to apartments.I think that would be a pretty cool place to live. The yellow building you see in this next photo dates back to around the year 900.
It is now a restaurant called Zur Höll, which means “To Hell”. This building is the Medieval Crime Museum.
We had visited the museum on our first visit to Rothenburg, so we didn’t feel a need to go again on this visit.The museum made quite an impression on both of us when we visited, though, because it has one very amusing item.One normally does not associate humor with a crime museum, but take my word for it.The museum has a little section on punishment for children, and one of the items in that section is The Ass of Shame.The Ass of Shame is sort of like a rocking horse but instead of a horse it’s a donkey.Schoolchildren who misbehaved would have to sit their ass on the ass to be shamed for their bad behavior.Maybe it’s something you have to see in person.I unfortunately don’t have a photo of it from our visit there, but you can see a drawing of it atthis website.
I took this next photo to show the little tree at the top left of the doorway.
Maybe branch is a better word than tree, but in any case these were all over town and they were all decorated and made for a very festive atmosphere. This is a photo of the Röderbogen Arch and clock tower.
It is from the 12th century and was part of the town’s original fortifications. Here you see what is supposedly one of the most photographed spots in not only Rothenburg, but all of Germany.
It’s called the Plönlein, and I guess it’s a popular photo spot because of the little house in the middle and a tower on either side.The tower on the left-hand side is the Siebers Tower, which dates from 1384. The tower on the right-hand side is Kobolzeller Gate, which dates from 1360.
After a bit of a rest at the hotel and a bite to eat for dinner, we went on another walking tour.
This time it was the Night Watchman tour.
This tour was also given in English and I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Rothenburg at night.The Night Watchman manages to be a funny guy while also sharing interesting tidbits about the town during the tour. If you go and there is a huge crowd for the tour, don’t worry about it. We had easily 100 people on our tour and we had no trouble hearing him. This is another shot of the walls around the castle garden that you saw earlier, but this is a nighttime view.
Now here is a guy who is secure in his masculinity.
I think what happened is that he had to admit he was cold and inappropriately dressed, so his girlfriend gave him her earmuffs and she put up the hood on her jacket.I wouldn’t care what I looked like either as long as I was warm.
The next morning we set out bright and early to do the walking tour that’s in Rick Steves’ Germany tour book. This isn’t in the tour book, but this is a hair salon called Strewwelpeter.
Knowing what I know about Strewwelpeter, a character in a German children’s book, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable getting my hair done there.You’ll see why if you click on this link.
Here is one of the reasons I like to get up early to go exploring.
It was still pretty foggy that early, but as you can tell there was not a person or a car in sight, which makes photo-taking much nicer. Here you can see one end of the Christmas market before it opened for the day.
In the background is the St. James (St. Jakob in German) church and you will see more of that later. This is a local item called Schneeballen, which translates to snowballs.
This is one point on which I agree with the Rick Steves tour book – these things are not worth trying.We had one at the Mainz Christmas market last year and I wouldn’t pay for another one if that tells you anything.The inside of the Schneeballen is a dry, crunchy, flaky, crumbly pastry dough and not only does it not taste good, it’s also very messy to eat.If you ever try one, don’t say I didn’t warn you. As you can see by the sign on this building, it’s the Baumeisterhaus or Master Builder’s House.
The house was built in 1596.The two rows of statues that you see depict both the seven vices and the seven virtues. For example, this dude with the big belly represents gluttony.
The building you see here is the town hall.
The white part of the building on the left is the Gothic part from the 13th century, while the tan part of the building is the Renaissance part from the 16th century.If you look up at the top of the white part, you will see the railing of the observation tower that I mentioned climbing up to earlier in the blog. If you look closely at the right-hand side of the tan part of the building you will see what appear to be people standing on a balcony.This is one thing that I love seeing around Europe.That part of the building is actually under scaffolding , but they’ve thrown a covering over it that’s made to blend into the building.You see this a lot over here.So much nicer than just seeing steel, don’t you think?
Check out the metal bars (sorry, there’s a Christmas tree in the way) on the wall of the town hall.
I don’t know why, but that’s one of the few things I remembered very clearly from our first visit here.Those are measuring bars.Back in medieval days, each little town and city had their own system of measurement.Anyone coming to Rothenburg to buy or sell goods would know what their measurement was by looking at these bars. Not sure why I found that so fascinating, but I did. The tour guide the previous day had told us that this door, part of the town hall building, is often photographed and painted (meaning people create paintings of it, not that the door itself is painted).
This is one end of the St. Jakob church that I mentioned earlier.
Notice the arch at the left-hand side and the roadway underneath.The tour guide had told us that the medieval road was there first, so the church was built around it.
And here you see a car about to drive underneath the church!
This is a view looking down a street called Klingengasse.
The tower you see at the end of the street is the Klingentor.It is from the 16thcentury and is about 100 feet high.It was originally part of the town’s fortifications and was later converted to a water tower.
Notice the turret on the house in this next photo.
At the bottom of the turret you can see scallop-shaped shells (say that five times quickly!), which are the symbol of the pilgrimage route Camino de Santiago, also called the Way of St. James.That route ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the apostle Saint James is supposedly buried.The shells here indicate that this building has a connection to the church, which you just saw a few photos ago. This next photo shows a wall outside a Weinstube, which is basically a wine pub.
I just liked the look of it. This is the convent garden, which unfortunately is closed to visitors in the winter.
I had to take the photo through the bars of the gate.
Remember the giant wooden door from earlier in the blog?The one with the “eye of the needle” smaller door?That’s it on the right-hand side of the photo.
I wanted to show the view through the gate to castle garden while there was nobody around to block it.
So, in our travels we have noticed that certain groups of tourists love to strike funny or even bizarre poses while taking photos.Here’s an example.
On this morning, Sean thought he would join in the fun.
Back to a more serious note.In the castle garden, there is this stone that says it commemorates “…the so-called ‘Rintfleisch-Pogrom’ which almost extinguished the entire Jewish community in July 1298”.
It was erected in 1998 for the 700th anniversary of the event.I had not been familiar with this massacre before seeing this stone.If you aren’t either and would like to know more about it, you can read up on ithere.
This next little building, which you can see looking down into the Tauber Valley from the castle garden, is called the Topplerschlösschen or Toppler Castle.
It was the summer home of a medieval Bürgermeister of Rothenburg named Heinrich Toppler.Bürgermeister is the German word for mayor and I never get tired of hearing, reading or saying it.This is thanks to my love of the television movie Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town and its character Burgermeister Meisterburger.
One of the odd things we’ve noticed in Germany and some other parts of Europe is their love for U.S. cowboy-type stuff.
This is a display case underneath a medieval tower arch and there are two promotional signs for Arlington, Texas. The fascination is inexplicable. Toward the end of our morning walk, we stopped into the oldest church in Rothenburg, which is a Franciscan church that’s over 700 years old.
That altar was carved by a very famous German sculptor and woodcarver named Tilman Riemenschneider who lived from about 1460 to 1531.You’ll see more of his work in a minute.
The house that you see in the next photo is a patrician house that has belonged to the same family for over 300 years.
This street was full of patrician homes at one time and this one is the biggest.Notice the size of the doorway with the rounded arch.It was built that big so that a horse-and-carriage could fit through it. Here’s a better view of it.
Also notice a smaller door cut into the bigger door.That was for people on foot to use so they didn’t have to open the huge carriage door to get in and out, similar to the “eye of the needle” door you saw earlier. Finally, notice the chains hanging to the left of the door.That was the ancient doorbell system.The family finally had to disconnect them because tourists kept pulling them as they walked by. Across the street from that is a building with this sign.
It says Kaiser Friedrich (King Frederick) III lived there for a week in the year 1474.Sean got a kick out of the use of the word “lived” for such a short time period. Our next stop was the St. Jakob’s (St. James’) church, of which you saw the exterior earlier.
Does that altar look familiar?It was carved by the very same Tilman Riemenschneider who carved the altar in the Franciscan church that you just saw.It’s called the Altar of the Holy Blood and is incredibly detailed, as you can see in this close-up of the Last Supper scene.
That altar is located upstairs in the church. Downstairs is the main altar.Notice the central figure in this close-up of the downstairs altar.
Once you see the shells near his left hand, you can probably guess that it’s St. James himself, after whom the church is named. The guy to the right in this next photo is Saint Peter.
Rick Steves points out in his book that Peter is wearing eyeglasses, which you normally don’t see in portrayals of him. On the back side of the main altar is Jesus’ face.
It’s supposed to represent what was shown on the Veil of Veronica, a Catholic relic.
This statue next to the main altar shows the Trinity.You can clearly see that the two human figures are the Father and the Son.
If you look closely, you can see a dove on Jesus’ head, which represents the Holy Ghost to complete the Trinity.There is also a skull underneath Jesus’ feet, which according to Rick Steves represents him triumphing over death. I thought it was an odd little statue, maybe because Jesus is portrayed as a grown man but is the size of a child. Here’s a better view of the main alter with the stained glass in the background.
I found this altar more visually stunning than the wooden altar upstairs, although I appreciate the amount of work that went into the wooden altar. After the walking tour, we went back to the hotel before heading out to the nearby town of Dinkelsbühl.That will be covered in a separate blog post, so for now I will leave you with a photo of the sign in front of our hotel (Sean was calling him the Johnny Walker guy from the label on the whiskey of the same name).
If you’re ever traveling around Germany and see a sign that says “Zimmer Frei” like this one, it means there’s a hotel or inn that has rooms available.Zimmer means room in German, and frei means free or available. We had a good time on our second visit to Rothenburg and maybe we’ll be lucky enough to visit again during our time in Germany.
