A few hours Northeast of Basel is the top of Germany's Romantische Straße ("Romantic Road"), a 200-mile road running across Bavaria and passing through "quintessentially German" towns. At the North end is Rothenburg ob der Tauber, known for its well preserved Medieval old town. We arrived on Friday night just in time to check in to our hotel and make it to the main square to catch the night watchman's tour (we even had enough time to grab a schneeball (snowball), a local pastry specialty). The tour was led by a character dressed like a medieval night watchman, who talked about the history of the town and about life back in the 14-16th centuries, all with a bit of humor thrown in. The town is pretty quiet at night, but we were able to find an establishment open "late" (beyond 9:00pm) to stop in for a drink in a 15th century building (our table was in the old "kitchen"!).
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| Schneeball !! |
We began our Saturday by circumnavigating the town along the ramparts surrounding the city. It provided good views across the rooftops as well as across the countryside. After making our way back to our starting point we criss-crossed through narrow alleyways to the city center, which housed several Christmas themed stores.
In the afternoon we made our way to Nürnberg, taking the back roads through the countryside. The city was largely bombed during the war. It has a nice and big pedestrian area filled with shops and cafes. Because the weather was sunny and warm the sidewalk tables were full, and the city itself was buzzing with people. After a bit of window shopping we headed up to the castle for a nice view overlooking the old town.
Instead of touring the castle we decided to head to the Nürnberg Trial Museum, held in the same building (and courtroom) as the original Nürnberg trials. There was a lot of interesting history, and because it was late in the day we had the museum almost to ourselves.
On the way out of town on Sunday we stopped by the old Nazi rally grounds, the area Hitler designated for the annual party rallies. The area is not maintained, but you can still get an impression for how large these rallies were.
Next we headed a bit further south on the Romantic Road to Dinkelsbühl, a town similar to Rothenburg in that it is a well preserved Medieval walled city, although smaller and with a different feel (filled with more colorful half-timber houses - very much like the Alsace).
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