Rothenburg ob der..huh???

I took a break for a few days to attend our friend Katie's wedding (it was awesome) but now back to blogging about our trip (only 3 more cities to go after this one).

After we left Fussen and the King's castles, we drove 2.5 hours north to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Apparently there are several towns in Germany called Rothenburg so whence referring to this town, you must add the "ob der Tauber". Regardless, this Rothenburg was definitely one of my favorite stops in our trip.

It's such an incredibly cool well-preserved medieval town. As we learned from our Night Watchman tour (more on him later), poverty is actually what helped preserve Rothenburg - and naturally it's a rich city as it once was before it got sacked a few times. After checking into our hotel, Altfrankische-Weinstube, we decided to go "walk the wall."

The wall is the original city wall from wayyyyy back in the day...Only a portion had to be reconstructed after WWII. It was pretty cool to walk on such a piece of history. Plus the views of the town were pretty great.

That evening, we wanted to eat at the restaurant in our hotel since it came highly recommended. We were actually very fortunate that there were no tables available except for the one reserved for the "English Conversation Club." This "club" is run by a gentleman who calls himself Hermann the German and every Wednesday night, he and several local Germans meet at this restaurant to converse with English-speaking travelers. It was by far one of the best nights we had on the trip. We met a lovely couple from Houston named Darlene and Phil. We very much enjoyed getting to know them in addition to some of the locals. It was terrific company. 

We were having such a good time that we didn't want to leave to go to the Night Watchman's tour but we're glad we did. His comic delivery was great and we learned a lot about the city. It was incredibly entertaining.  Since it was only an hour, we headed right back to the English Conversation Club for a few more beers and a lil more conversation. Fantastic evening and one that we'll never forget. 

The next day, we didn't really want to leave Rothenburg so we walked around some more and went to the Museum of Crime and Punishment. It was interesting to learn about all of the crazy torture and punishment devices they would use back in the medieval days as well as how little it took to send someone to prison or the noose. Naturally had to put Jerry in his place...

Thank you, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, for such a wonderful time. We'll be seeing you soon!