Christine had wanted to see a castle during her visit to Germany , and
clearly Neuschwanstein fit the bill, but the weather decided it for us on
Friday morning. We got up early, checked the forecast and saw low 40’s and rain
in Fusson and mid 50’s and sun in Rothenburg. So, having decided we headed out
early. We headed up the Autobahn for about an hour then dropped off onto the
side roads, and while passing through the town of Abenderg we sure enough saw a sign for the
Berg (Castle) Abenberg. We made a short detour and found this darling 12th
century, now privately owned as a hotel, castle. We only spent a brief time
there, as it appeared to be deserted, even though we did walk around a bit and
did use the restrooms.
We then headed down into the middle of the old town in Abenberg,
found the local bakery, and bought some snacks for the road. Back up the hill
and into the car and we were on our way to Rothenberg, which was about another
30 minutes up the road.
We soon arrived in Rothenburg on a cool and originally
cloudy day. The town has a long and unique history, and you can learn more on
Wikipedia.
This town is one of the main tourist attractions along the
Romantic Road, but we arrived early in the season on a cloudy cool day and we
actually able to drive into the Altstadt (Old Town) and get a parking spot
right on one of the side streets. The town has a number of towers all around it
and your drive through these old towers to enter the town.
We toured around for a bit, and then found ourselves a
Turkish restaurant and had some delicious ….. for lunch. Over lunch we poured
through our Romantic Road
tour book and decided upon a few key spots we wanted to see. We decided upon the
old town square, Saint Jacob’s Church, one of the towers in which you could
climb to the top, and the Rathaus (town hall in Germany ) as Christine wanted to see
the Dungeon and the torture chambers!
After the Town
Square we head into the Rathaus which had a small
museum and the dungeons and torture chambers. The museum had recreations of
life in Bavaria
from the 1500’s, including numerous rooms and settings reflective of the times.
During this time period people we routinely identified by the very specific
dress that they wore, and there were many examples on view.
Most fascinating to me though was the sequence of
coat-of-arms for each profession that existed then. I am including a number of
the pictures here, and pay close attention to that last one for the “Backer”.
Our next stop on the tour was to head down into the basement
to see the dungeon and the torture chamber. You first go down this narrow,
creepy staircase and end up in the guards’ room below.
After that you travel down a very low, very dark and cramped
tunnel that leads to the torture chamber and the dungeons.
In the main room you come to there are numerous implements
used, all of which need not really be explained. The first photo shows the
stock where prisoners were locked up by their feet and their neck. There are
even some mannequins in place so you can get a better idea of this. The second
photo is some gruesome apparatus that was use to stretch people out. The
subjects’ feet were locked in irons and attached to the large concrete blocks
on the floor and then the crank on the left side was used to help make you
taller! At one point during the 30 years war the mayor of Rothenburg found
himself on the wrong side of the religious argument and ended up here, never to
come out alive. To the right of where Michael is standing were two cells that
were low, dark and damp and not a place to find yourself in. Some good did come
of all this for during World War II the residents of Rothenburg used these rooms
during Allied air raids.
We then headed out through a long extensive archway, with a
plan to visit the Saint Jacob’s church to see one of the rarer religious
relics, but upon arriving at the church we found it very crowded and requiring
a 2 euro entrance fee to get in. This was the first time I had ever seen an
entrance fee required, so we decided to pass on this church. To bad as I would
have liked to see the Altarpiece of Holy Blood which serves as a shrine and
reliquary for the relic of The Blood of Christ.
We then wandered around through the back streets of
Rothenburg for a bit, snapping pictures and just enjoying the charm and beauty
of this town. At one point, to our utter amazement, we came upon a person
ridding and Segway, which seemed like such and odd coincidence since Mike works
for the company that invented them and it is certainly one of the last modern
things you might expect to see in this town.
We continued to wander the streets, at one point passing
through a former convent to see the view from the outside walls as you gazed
over the Tauber river below. Eventually we passed back through the main town
square and Deb and I wandered into a art dealers shop were we bought a print on
one of the more famous view in Rothenbeurg. Deb snapped a picture or me
standing outside the art dealers’ shop where the road parts and you can clearly
see two of the old towers and gateways into the city. If you go to Google
images and search on Rothenburg ob der Tauber this is most likely the first or
second photo that will come up. It is in all the guide books, and is actually
on the cover of our Romantic Road
guide book we use.
Just outside this location you can pass through the
buildings and get out onto the wall. I snapped a few pictures of Deb sitting on
the wall, with parts of the old city in the background. You can clearly see one
of the towers in the left side background.
Our next stop was to get up on the wall and climb up one of
the many towers that surround the city. It is rare in the old towns that you
can either climb on the wall or up into the towers, but you can do both here in
Rothenburg. I also included a few pictures of the main room up in the top of
the tower.
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