I’m looking cheerful despite the constant presence of rain, rain, rain. Recovering from COVID might have had something to do with that.
In planning this trip through Bavaria Mark wanted to find one little picturesque village that would feel as though you were in medieval Germany. With Rothenburg he hit a home run. My recovery from COVID couldn’t have come at a better time, allowing me to wander the old streets at my leisure.
This is what our forecast looked like for Rothenburg. Just rain.[/caption]Rothenburg is a seriously beautiful city, one of only three towns in Germany with the old city walls still intact. Just how beautiful is it? During the Nazi era, Rothenburg was considered the epitome of a German “Home Town,” representing all that was great about German culture and family life. It sustained a bit of bombing during World War II, but the Assistant Secretary of War ordered that troops abstain from using artillery to take the town. Instead, the local American commander sent six men – two officers and four enlisted men – to negotiate a surrender. The German in charge disobeyed Hitler’s standing orders that all towns were to be defended to the end and instead handed Rothenburg over to the American troops. The result is an almost unbelievably lovely old town.
Our super charming hotel
How perfect a German town is it? Rothenburg was the inspiration for the 1940 Disney production Pinocchio. I mean, you can’t get more German than that, can you? OK, maybe not the best example but clearly it represents olde Europe.
Now, truth be told, there isn’t a lot to actually do in Rothenburg, so a two-day stop was just fine. And lord knows the weather wasn’t helping – it was cold and rainy the whole time we were there, unfortunately consistent with much of our weather in Bavaria. But if all you have to do is wander around, hang out in our cute little hotel, read a little, and search out good food … that’s a good way to spend our last two days in Bavaria.
I was a little freaked out when we had to drive through this gate into the old town…
…but if that wasn’t bad enough we soon had to drive right through the middle of the cathedral. Never done that before!
Mark in one of the main squares in town. Those tourists in back are taking selfies, not dancing…
This altar in the cathedral boasted a little reliquary with a few drops of the actual blood of Jesus. How cool is that!
Does this look like a traditional enough Bavarian restaurant?
Loved the looks of this traditional butcher shop, but there’s no way we were going to buy meat from Erich Trumpp!
On our way to Frankfurt we stopped for lunch in one final Bavarian town. Here is the town square in Memminger.
Jim shows off the cute centerpiece at our lunch spot in Memminger