Rothenburg ob der Tauber – one of our favourite towns!
Tuesday 20 December 

We left Augsburg this morning on the 8.16am train which, after two changes of train, brought us to Rothenburg around 11am. We left the cases in Augsburg so with only a backpack each, the travel was a breeze! Rothenburg is the best preserved medieval town in Germany and we fell in love with it when we came here last year.

We started our visit today by doing a Rick Steve’s walk. After strolling through the Old  Town, we made our way to the Castle Garden and found a path which took us outside the town walls, down to the Tauber River. The river there was partly frozen, with a relatively thick covering of ice in some places and elsewhere flowing freely. The surrounding countryside was blanketed in frost and we were thankful for our down jackets, gloves and beanies.

We followed the path for two kilometres to the village of Detwang and enjoyed the picturesque scenery.

In Detwang we stopped at St Peter and St Paul’s Church where there is an artwork by sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider (1460 – 1531), but the church was not open today.

We returned to Rothenburg by a different route, up a very steep but mercifully short path. We felt we had earned our lunch after that exertion and found a café where we enjoyed an apple strudel each, with a Coke for Ian and a coffee with Baileys and cream for me. We also visited the Christmas market which is based in the Old Town, surrounded by medieval houses.

We spent the next couple of hours visiting the Reichsstadt Museum which is housed in a former convent. We saw an immense collection of weapons, furniture, ceramics, craftsmen’s tools, paintings and sculptures covering nine centuries. The highlight for us was the 13th century convent kitchen which had many of its original fittings, such as the ‘monastery winch’ in the wall, a turntable barrel where food could be provided for beggars and pilgrims.

Monastery winch 

Medieval artificial hand

Our next stop was the Hotel Hornburg, just outside the town walls, where we checked in for the next two nights. We have a beautiful spacious room on the second floor with our own enclosed balcony.

After a short rest we returned to the town for dinner at the Gasthof Goldener Greifen before joining a crowd outside the Town Hall for a tour led by the Night Watchman. There were probably a hundred people of all ages on the tour and he kept everyone engaged with his dramatic and humorous stories of life in Rothenburg  through past centuries.