Relaxing in Rothenburg
We spent six days in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Jon and I visited here in 2009 for a couple of days and loved the cute, medieval town. It was once a very prosperous town, in part because it was situated on and around vast fertile ground that provided excellent food resources. And in part because it was at a crossroads for travelling, thus attracting travellers and traders to stop on their journeys.
This attractive location made them prosperous and wealthy. But, this brought about its own complications during the 30-year religious wars in the early 17th century. While during good times, their location attracted traders, in war times their location attracted military troops. Rothenburg was sacked, repeatedly and extensively, so that there was nothing left of this once prosperous town long before the war officially ended.
And so, due to the town being struck into extreme poverty and the death of so many of its residents, it became a sleepy little backwater. They couldn’t modernize or improve for hundreds of years as they tried to climb out of their destitution. Then, in the late 1800s, people began to romanticize the medieval period, and this sleepy little backwater that remained mostly medieval due to lack of funds to modernize was rediscovered and began to climb back into prosperity thanks to tourism.
The town is beautiful and so different from any other town we have ever seen. The buildings are large and the architectural style is stunning. It’s very clear that these must have been owned by extremely wealthy people hundreds of years ago. We loved how colourful the buildings were. And all the twinkly Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and other Christmas décor around really added an extra layer of beauty to this quaint town.
Rothenburg had a Christmas market, which spread around throughout their downtown core, including their main square and some little side streets off from the square. We enjoyed many hot cups of kinderpunsch and gluhwein as we sampled various tasty sausages, steak on-a-bun sandwiches, and garlic bread with cheese and salami. The girls adored kinderpunsch, which is essentially an alcohol-free mulled wine. Even Jon and I found it delicious!
We also went into a café to try the traditional sweet treat in this area, Schneeballen (Snowballs), which are like fried crispy balls of twisted dough, with a variety of fillings and exterior coatings. Traditionally, they would just put powdered sugar on the outside, but today there are dozens of options! We tried apple cinnamon, milk chocolate coating with marzipan centre, and milk chocolate coating with chocolate cream filling.
In addition to the beautiful buildings, the town also has medieval walls. Some sections are just walls, and some have ramparts that are open for walking on. We walked the entire route around the town along the walls. The walls and the gates into the town are stunning and very different from the architectural style of York’s walls. Having just come from York, it was interesting for us to compare and contrast the different wall styles with our girls. Things they observed that were similar, and things they observed that were different. For example, these ramparts are all covered, while York’s are not.
While wandering the city, we checked out several shops and the girls each picked out their want item for Christmas. A small stuffed bunny for Emmeline and a unicorn figurine for Katia. There are some beautiful Christmas shops in Rothenburg, including multiple Kathe Wohlfahrt shops. These shops are more museums than shops, in my opinion. They are truly gorgeous inside! They had several videos showing how they hand-make their ornaments, which the girls found truly fascinating.
While most of our meals were at home or cheap Christmas market street food, we did have one exception. We knew we wanted to go to Hell (also known as Zur Hoell in German). We went to Hell in 2009 and found it quite cozy and the food quite delicious. And this time was similar. The food was outstanding, the location warm and cozy, and the company friendly. So, the next time someone tells you to go to hell, I highly suggest you take them up on the offer! And if you need help finding your way, I’ll gladly help!
We made it to two different museums and one tour during our stay. We did all three of these our first time and thought them worth doing again with the girls. The Night Watchman tour is at night and takes you on a walk through the streets, learning all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful history of this town. It’s so much fun, you don’t realize how much you’re learning along the way. Our shy children warmed up quickly and ran up to the front of the group to be next to the tour guide the entire time.
We went to one fun and one not-so-fun museum. The fun one was at the town hall. Brief side note: we love that the German word for City Hall, which is on every municipal office building, is Rathaus. Inside, you got to see various interesting historical displays. This included the dungeons below, complete with some torture devices. But our favourite part was on the main level, the Meistertrunk scene. Aka Master Draught in English.
During the 30 years war, in 1631, there was a 60,000-strong army that easily conquered Rothenburg, population 6,000. The invading general was known for burning down towns he conquered, and they thought to soften him up with a welcome drink. Out comes the ceremonial tankard, which holds 3.25 L and was filled with wine from their valley. The general, being in a good mood after his victory, looked at the tankard and jokingly said that if anyone could drink that all down in one go, he’d spare the town.
And so, a legend was born!
Up stepped a council member and former mayor. In 10 minutes, he managed to drain the entire tankard without pausing for a break. True to his joking offer, the general followed through, took his men, and departed the next day, leaving Rothenburg intact and unharmed. And so, by drinking a lot of wine, one man saved his entire town. The man received a lifelong pension from the town as a thank you, and there is an annual festival every spring where they celebrate this feat, complete with a play reenactment. I can imagine that must be quite the festival to attend! In the town square, their clock tower also plays out the Meistertrunk scene multiple times a day on the hour. You’ll also find various other Meistertrunk references throughout the town.
The not-so-fun museum was the Medieval Crime Museum. We thought it was important for the girls to understand what law and justice was like over the years. They found this museum “boring”, which they told us a few times while we were here. But I think they gained an understanding of how hard and scary life could be back in the day. They learned about how children were punished in schools over the years, about punishments for minor infractions that involved public shaming, and how torture was used to extract confessions. They saw torture devices, shame masks, neck violins, pillories, various old weapons, execution methods, and much more.
In addition to our explorations in the town, we also went out of the town walls to explore the valley. Ob der Tauber literally means above the Tauber (Tauber valley or river). It was a beautiful hike. We found a couple of playgrounds, which the girls enjoyed. We were surprised that the river was much more narrow than we thought from the town above. It was nice getting out into nature here.
While it sounds like our days were packed, we found that this town was a much slower pace for us. Our first two days were very long, as we took advantage of exceptionally good weather our first two days. Afterwards, though, we would have a slightly lazy morning, get out mid-morning, and return mid to late afternoon. We then spent our time relaxing and unwinding. We were always so busy in the UK that we didn’t get nearly this much relaxation into our days or nights. It was nice to slow down and rest so much for our time in Rothenburg. Much of our relaxation time was spent writing our blog posts from the UK to get caught up!
Our accommodations were also extremely luxurious compared to what we have experienced so far, complete with an amazing jacuzzi soaker tub and a fully stocked wine cellar. We had three levels of living space, with our bedrooms/bathrooms on the main level, kitchen/living/dining on the second floor, and a loft living room on the upper level. The girls were able to take over the entire loft to play, in addition to having their own beds in their shared bedroom. After their tight quarters and shared bed in our much smaller York apartment, it was nice for them to have space and be able to get a bit of a break from each other at times!
We are grateful we went back to this amazing little town and explored it with our girls. We all loved the different pace and atmosphere compared to the UK. Both are amazing areas, just very different from each other. While we missed York, it was nice that our first stop after leaving was back to another place near and dear to our hearts!