Rothenburg o.d. Tauber
Building in Rothenburg
July 1, 2005
It seemed to be raining every time I stepped outside in Rothenburg, but I stopped
waiting for the weather and just stepped out to see the city. We walked randomly
around the town stopping everywhere, including the town's main church to see
an alter with the blood of Christ in it, and another alter, which was supposed to
be important or beautiful, but I don't remember which and I was soon confused as
to why I was looking at it.
We continued our meandering, to the southern end of town to see the fortifications
and dry moat, home to a playground and drunken teenagers. I was oddly more intrigued
by the drunken teenagers than I was by the fortifications.
We walked around the city on the wall. The views were great, however only looking
inward; outside the city walls there's little more than fields. The town is extremely
picturesque and very well preserved. Once we were finally approaching the end of
the wall walkway the rain began again, but I had given up trying to hide from it
so just headed out. On the way back we stopped to buy a local specialty, which has
a reputation as being quite bad and for the most part, it lived up to the hype.
At the hotel we relaxed before eating in the restaurant attached. The food here
was the best I’ve had so far, I had pork steaks and French fries, both made to perfection.
There was nothing special about it other than it was cooked perfectly and had great
natural flavor.
After dinner, we headed out to see the Night Watchman, a guy who is making a killing
in this town giving historical tours of the city in English and German. He threw
in a few jokes and knew his history well enough to fool a group of tourists... or
at least he read the same guide book I read, because he covered everything in there.
He told us of the thirty years war and how after the city’s loss, they simple were
trapped in poverty for the next couple hundred years preventing them from building
anything new.
Tyler and I finished the night by watching WWF; Ray Mistero beat Eddie, it was pretty
exciting and I think Tyler was pretty happy that I stayed up to watch it with him.
City walls
Herrn Lane
Old Forge
July 2, 2005
We started the day at the top of the Rathaus (city hall) tower, walking around the
castle gardens, through the valley and along the main streets. The view from the
tower gave us perfect views beyond the city walls and displayed how few settlements
actually exist in the area; the city is surrounded by a valley, and farms on three
sides and little more on the fourth side other than the autobahn in the distance.
Brent bought a string puppet of a pirate today, which he named Peg-legged Pete.
Yarr, shiver me timbers! Shiver me Timbers!
Rain
Southern end of the city
Streets
Valley