Around 11:30 on Saturday, Jayde and little Brandon met us at our apartment and all 6 of us climbed into the Journey. We were on the road by noon. Maddox and Brandon were in the far back seat, Carson and I were in the middle, and Jayde and Ben sat up front. The trip started with a bit of a hiccup as we realized we had no gas, missed the gas station the first time, and drove right passed on of our first exits because people in the front seat were busy gabbing instead of listening to Spongebob's directions on the GPS. Anyone who has diven on the autobann knows that missing an exit can derail your plans, adding quite a bit of time to find an alternate route. Thankfully it didn't add too much time and we made it to Rothenburg by 2pm.
My tour book told us to drive around the outside of the wall to the free parking in P5. The road was closed and we had to take a detour into the wall and through the city. This made for interesting driving maneuvers as we dodged horse drawn carraiges andtourists taking up most of the cobblestone streets. We exited through the other side of the wall, parked, and unloaded the boys. I smelled something during the last few minutes of the drive, so we checked butts and it was Carson. I had forgotten to bring extra cloths so we crossed our fingers that it all stayed in the diaper. Well, no such luck. It seeped out on a little on the inside, but Ben said it was salvagable and wiped it up real good. I cringed as I knew I would have to be carrying him around all day, but said ok. Oh, the joys of traveling with little ones. After the cleaning, we stuck Carson in my wrap, Maddox and Brandon in the strollers, applied sunscreen to the pale-skinned ones, and we were on our way.
Here is the wall that we entered through.
We crossed a little moat with lillypads in it.
We called the Rodriguez family because we had planned to meet up with them on the inside. It took us a little while, but after some wandering, we found them in Market Square.
The town hall with the town's tallest spire, 200feet and 214 steps.
The clock in Market Square used to be the Coucilors' Tavers (1446). The rich men who ran the town government use to drink here.
At certain times of the day people come out of the windows on both sides of the clock and commemarate the Meistertrunk (master draught) story:
In 1631 the catholic army took the protistant town. As was the etiquette, they mayor had to give the conquering general a welcoming drink. The general enjoyed a huge tankard of local wine. Feeling really good, he told the mayor that if he could drink an entire 3 liter tankard of wine in one gulp he'd spare the town. The mayor amazed everyone by drinking the entire thing, and Rothenburg was saved.
This is nice story, but was dreamed up in the 1800's for a theatrical play to promote a romantic image of the town (which was effective as this is a tourist hot spot when the locals dress up and reinact it).
Also in Market Square is the St. George's Fountain. There are long metal gutters in it that slid to fill the villager's buckets. It had many fountains throughout the town that provided drinking water and were even filled with fish during times of siege. They are also the main reason why the town was never burned down like all the surrounding towns.
Maddox at another fountain.
Another one.
After we found everyone, we looked at a local map drawn in my tour book (not very accurate) and tried to find the puppet theater. The Rothenburg website boasts a puppet theater that has shows every day at 3pm and 8pm. We planned our whole trip around this because I really wanted Maddox to see it even though it would be in German. We started in the direction we thought the theater was and ended up at a doll museum (wrong place). So we turned around and guessed a different direction. Along the way we passed lots of stores selling Schneeballen. This is a specialty in Rothenburg, but I have heard they are bland pie crusts rumpled into a ball and frosted. I don't really like pie crust, so we didn't bother to taste it.
A closer look at those little balls:
We finally found the puppet theater and it turns out they no longer do the puppet shows. We were sooooo bummed out! Both Rick Steve's and the Rothenburg tourist website need to update their info.
At least the puppet theater was located right next to the garden, so it wasn't a completely wasted walk.
The town originated with it's castle (1142), which is gone now, but there is a beautiful castle garden. They boys ran and played here while we took pictures of the scenery.
Here is part of the town fortified by the wall.
Maddox and JR were not happy that I interrupted to take their picture
As we left the garden we walked by the Medieval Crime and Punishment museum. This is supposed to be one of the best of it's kind, but we didn't go through it. We tried to get Maddox to put his head and arms in those old restraints and take a picture, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Here is a cage that was outside.
While we walked there was a door in the wall cracked open, so we looked down and it was a stairway down to someone's private garden. It made for a pretty picture.
We found the famous half timbered building and tower. This may look familiar as it seems that whenever you search for info about Germany this scene pops up. It is the Siebers Tower (1385) and served as an entrance to Rothenburg for about 150 years. Walking in through the archway, the visitor arrives at the picturesque Plönlein Triangular Place. Fishermen once stored their fish in the cages next to the fountain.
Before we left on our trip I did some research in my book about where to shop. There were a couple of places I wanted to go: one being the puppet theater, the other being a shop that sold toys made by Germans with disabilities. We wandered all over town looking for this store without success. Finally we entered it in Mayra's Iphone's GPS and found out we were on the wrong side. We headed down some back alley and finally found the sign! But the building was empty :( Rick Steves failed again. I think I need to send him an email.
This took us by a nifty thrift store with an elephant leg table, and St. Jakob's Church built in the 14th century. Inside is a 500 year old carving of the Last Supper. It is a relic church, which means it has something of Christ in it, in this case it's his blood on one of the alters. The church actually has a road running through it. One of the alters was built on after the church was completed and the road was in the way, so they just built over it. Ben quickly peeked inside, but we didn't get any pictures. Here are some of the outside.
The kids were starving so we made our way to dinner (schnitzel and beer - no wonder neither one of us can lose any weight). I refused to take Maddox to any indoor places because his behavior is so bad, so we sat outside on the square.
This worked out well as the boys had plenty of room to run and play.
After dinner we stopped and got some gelato. Maddox is getting spoiled with all of this real italian ice cream. I had pistachio, Ben had cookies, and Maddox had Vanilla, it was so, so good.
On our way the car we climbed up the town wall. You can walk all the way around the town (just over a mile and a half). It is narrow and the ceiling is low. Ben and Maddox took a little stroll as Jayde and I put the little guys in the car.
Maddox tripped and got a boo boo (a regular thing for him these days.)
We had a really good day in Rothenburg. The weather was beautiful and it wasn't too crowded. I am looking forward to going back to see the clock in action!
