Rothenburg - a medieval jewel

Travel writer Rick Steve's describes Rothenburg as 'the king of German cuteness' and it certainly lives up to that title. In the Middle Ages it was a 'free imperial city' under the Holy Roman Emperor and one of Germany's largest cities. However, it declined after the Thirty Years War and was rediscovered as a perfectly preserved medieval town in the 1890s. Tourism is now its major source of income and, even this early in the summer, it was crowded with parties from cruise ships and other groups today. I imagine you can hardly move in August!

It was a short walk from the station to the Market Square where we started our visit to Rothenburg with a Rick Steve's town walk. On the way we were intrigued to see the occasional bubble floating towards us but the mystery was explained when we came to a corner and discovered that there was a teddy bear blowing bubbles from the balcony of the famous Steiff teddy shop. Of course we had to look inside and I couldn't resist buying a cute little bear for my small collection.

One of the stops on our walk was St Jakob's Church with its glorious stained glass windows and the magnificent 'Altarpiece of the Holy Blood' by the famous sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider, completed in 1504.

We followed the town wall for some distance and wandered through the Castle Garden which is now a park, where there are some great views across the valley, and we visited the Franciscan Church.

In Herrengasse we passed the homes where the richest merchants lived and walked back up the hill to the wonderful Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop where we spent a good while deciding what to buy.

Back at the Market Square, we were in time for the 12pm Meistertrunk show. This is when small windows on each side of the clock on the Councillors' Tavern tower open to reveal a figure in each window drinking in turn from their tankard. It commemorates a mythical event when Protestant Rothenburg was supposedly spared from destruction during the Thirty Years' War. A Catholic general challenged the mayor to drink an entire three-litre tankard of wine in one gulp. The mayor was successful and the town was spared. The story may be good but, in our opinion, the show with the clock was pretty pathetic! Nevertheless the Square was quite crowded with tourists all photographing the action (what there was of it).

After lunch at Eis Cafe D'Isep (a comfortable cafe where we shared a toasted sandwich and a delicious apple strudel), we visited the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum which Ian seemed to enjoy more than me. There were some interesting historical documents on display but, as you would expect from the museum's name, most of the exhibits were rather gruesome.

We also sampled the local speciality, a schneeballen - this is a ball made from  pastry pie crust and, in the variety we chose, coated in chocolate.

We took the train back to Nuremberg at around 5pm and, after changing trains twice, we arrived back in time to change for dinner and walk to the Heilig Geist Spital restaurant. This is in a hotel that has been built on arches out over the Pegnitz River. A delicious meal in a very special location!