August 30th - Morning of Sept 1st

---

August 30th
Had breakfast in the room this morning, from supplies we’d bought yesterday since we knew breakfast wasn’t going to be available due to the hotel not being truly open yet (that still kills me 😉 ). We packed up our stuff and loaded up the bikes, but then locked them up in the hotel courtyard, and called for a taxi to take us to the German National Museum. We were 15 minutes early for opening, so we did a little window shopping (literally, as nothing ELSE opened until 10am as well!) and wandered around for a bit before heading back to the museum. We first headed to an exhibition hall that had an exhibit entitled “Saints and Hares, Book Treasures of the Dürer Period”. To quote the pamphlet, “The era of Albrecht Dürer is a golden era for beautiful books. Neither before nor after was there such a wealth of opportunity both for those who created books and for those who enjoyed them.” If you have never seen a hand illustrated book before, I don’t think I have the words to describe how lovely and painstakingly intricate these book s can be. It was a most impressive collection. We next went to the Masterpieces and Masterworks(?) exhibition, and this just about left me speechless. Paintings, wood carvings, porcelain, metalwork, stone sculpture, needlecrafts, arms & armor, musical instruments, furniture….all were well represented, and many were so close you could touch. We had all morning, and only covered four “rooms” of the museum, with something like 11 or 12 untouched. You could easily spend a day here, possibly more if you like to read (or listen to via audiotour) everything available. I recommend planning to have a full day here, or two half days split with rest, as you can get pretty tired! After the museum, it was train time! We had two hours to get to the train station and find our correct platform for the trip to Rothenburg ob der Touber. Our only problem with the trip was one leg where a group of young (20ish) male mountain bikers took up half of the car reserved for bicycle use by spreading out all the ingredients to their lunch and making camp. Jerks. Spent about 15 or 20 minutes standing & holding the bikes on that leg ofthe trip, but we otherwise made it in to the town of Rothenburg and our reserved hotel. Did a small amount of window shopping in this very tourist slanted town, then had dinner (more great German beer!) and gathered with other English speakers at the steps of the Rathaus (Town Hall) for the walking tour with the Night Watchman. The Watchman shows up from across the marketplace, dressed in period garb and carrying a halberd and lantern. He’s quite the funny storyteller, and the roughly hour long walking tour of part of the city is quite entertaining.


August 31st
Today we explored the city in more detail, taking a walking tour that’s set up in the little Rothenburg Map & Guide that’s available in every spot you’d expect to find them in tourist towns in the US. The Guide contains a decent map of the town with all the attractions listed, has their hours, and the best way to walk a tour to see all of it. At the beginning of the tour we climbed the stairs up (and up, and up) into the tower of the Rathous to the observation deck. As you climb, the stairs get narrower and steeper, until you finally emerge from a ladder into a tiny little room just below the deck, where sits a cashier, her chair, a register, and a TV. She takes up 1/3 of the room, so you can imagine how tiny it is. And here they get you for two Euros if you want to go out onto the observation deck. You’ve just climbed the seemingly hundreds of steps in the stairways, so of COURSE you want to go out onto the observation deck! 😉~ Bathroom breaks must truly suck for the attendant…Anyways, you pay your two Euros and then squeeze up the last remaining ladder and wind up on a narrow metal platform that surrounds the top of the tower. The platform is only about a foot and a half wide, and narrow enough that for two people to pass one another, one has to lean belly in to the outer rail, while the other has to lean in towards the metal dome of the tower’s top and brace themselves against the dome. Definitely NOT a place for someone who’s scared of heights! I have no problem with heights, generally speaking, but coming from California and earthquake country….brrr!! Gives me the shivers thinking about what would happening with even a little trembler! In spite of that, we had an breathtaking (literally) view of the surrounding countryside from the highest point for miles. Squeezing back down the ladders and stairways, the spiral staircase at the bottom seemed like nothing compared to the cramped stairs at the top. We reached the marketplace again and headed off to our next destination, the so-called Historical Vaults. This is a museum dedicated to Rothenburg’s difficult situation during the 30 Years War, and has on display weapons, armor, uniforms, and other artifacts from the era. After descending a staircase through the vaults, you wind up in the former dungeons. Not the most pleasant place to stay, back in the day. As we continued our tour, we went into the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas Store, which is actually quite famous. This place is insane! This store winds upstairs and downstairs through at least two buildings (keeping spatial awareness in there is impossible), and must contain something like a bazillion Christmas ornaments and displays, all whilst twinkling music reminiscent of Disney’s “It’s a Small World” plays in the background. The place overwhelms you after awhile, and had a path setup kind of like Ikea so you can never get out without going through the entire store. I had to wonder what the average length of time is before a clerk working there snaps, goes insane, and starts stabbing customers with Christmas ornaments 😉 After the Christmas store we headed to another bright and cheery place, the Medieval Crime Museum. It was not a good idea to commit any kind of crime in those ancient days. Spiked chairs, the rack, breaking at the wheel, shame masks (some with spikes, of course), pliers, axes, and more awaited those that broke the law. The museum totals four floors and a dungeon area, and gives you 1,000 years of insight into law and law enforcement in Medieval Europe. We had a classic German lunch of bratwurst and potato salad, then continued our walking tour out towards the town walls, and the Spital Bastion. Heading back in to the town, we went to the Imperial City Museum, which is Rothenburg’s local heritage museum. It’s housed in the former Dominican Priory, and from 1258 until the Reformation in 1544 nuns of this convent resided there. The size of the property speaks for the great economic importance of the convents in the Middle Ages. The completely preserved priory kitchen dates back to this era. It’s quite incredible to walk around in a kitchen dating from the 1500s! Also housed in the museum are displays of weapons, tools, pottery, paintings, sculpture, and more dating from pre-history all the way to 19th century, showing the richness of history to be found in Europe. We had another wonderful dinner and more great German beer, then headed up to the room and sleep.


August 1st
Last night saw quite the show pass through town, with at times blinding lighting, raucous thunder, and hard rain lasting a good portion of the night. When we woke up, it was still lightly sprinkling, but it stopped by the time we showered, and was clearing into a glorious looking day by the time we finished breakfast. Today we head out from Rothenburg back towards Giebelstadt.

---