Rothenburg ob der Tauber

It feels like we’ve been in Germany now a looonngg time, but it’s only been two weeks. After moving out of the hotel and into our apartment, we’ve been exploring where we live while running errands every day. It’s been a different tempo that is equal parts super busy, exhausting and stressful, and also feeling bored and wondering what to do with our time.

With a borrowed car, and Matt not read in to his work just yet, we decided to make a day trip. My first choice was Strasbourg, France, just an hour and half away, but we aren’t able to get our international driver licenses just yet (something we are required to have to drive out of Germany). *If you’re coming just as a tourist, you don’t really need to worry about it. I lived in Strasbourg 20 years ago and cannot wait to take the kids and be there with Matt.

Our second choice — Rothenburg ob der Tauber. I’m still in awe at this perfect German village! It is in the Bavaria region and is known for being a well-preserved medieval town. It is also one of only three towns in Germany that still have completely intact city walls. It started as a settlement of the Celts around 950 A.D. and grew until the Thirty Years War left the town poor and nearly empty, and the bubonic plague in 1634 killed many of the remaining people there. Without any money or power, Rothenburg stopped growing so it remains in its 17th century state to this day. Once you go through the city walls, it is street after street of history well-preserved.

In more recent history, Rothenburg was the first German town to expel it’s Jewish citizens in October of 1938. It was hailed at the time as the “most German of German towns” for its Nazi ideology. Throughout the 1930s, a Nazi organization coordinated regular visits for people from all across Germany to visit Rothenburg as the ideal city and society to replicate.

In March of 1945, German soldiers were sent to Rothenburg during WWII to defend it. The city was hit with bombs and artillery from the Allied Forces killing 37 people and destroying and damaging 306 houses, six public buildings, nine watch towers and over 2000 feet of the wall.

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of the War knew about the historical significance of the city of Rothenburg and asked the U.S. General to stop bombing and see if they could negotiate a plan of surrender of the German Forces. A German-speaking U.S. solder was sent with others carrying a white flag. When they were stopped he said, “We are representatives of our division commander. We bring you his offer to spare the city of Rothenburg from shelling and bombing if you agree not to defend it. We have been given three hours to get this message to you. If we haven’t returned to our lines by 1800 hours, the town will be bombed and shelled to the ground.” The German military commander agreed to give up the town, ignoring the order of Hitler for all towns to fight to the end which saved it from total destruction. American troops occupied the town on April 17, 1945 and the U.S. Assistant Secretary of the War was named an honorary citizen of Rothenburg in November of that year. Money poured in from around the world to rebuild the damaged parts of Rothenburg and it was restored with exact precision to how it was.

The old town is such a beautiful place to visit and stay over for a night. You park outside the city walls in one of several public parking lots. We were relieved it was actually so easy. If you have the Parkster App you can begin and end your time on the App and it will email you an invoice later. Once you walk through the old walls, every street and corner is beautiful. I was taking pictures immediately and it just kept getting more and more beautiful and fun.

Matt’s main draw to Germany is the Christmas Markets and I loved seeing him so happy in the many Kathë Wolfhart stores filled with Nutcrakers, Smoking Men, ornaments, Cuckoo Clocks all year long. The Christmas Market here will be incredible this year. The shop off Marktplatz has the best displays and a museum. I kept laughing that it felt like we were in line for something at Disneyland because of all the fun scenes to look at. It was beautiful!

The tree was spinning and the rooms went on and on! No pics were allowed past this point 😬

We stopped for ice creams at a walk up window on the street and tried pomegranate, lemon, raspberry and chocolate in waffle cones just €1.50 each.

Granatapfel (Pomegranate) was so good!

Just past the Marktplatz was the church where we heard the choir practicing. There is a small charge to visit this church as it has a relic people come to visit, so we didn’t go all the way inside, but we stood in the foyer and watched and listened to the choir sing and it was absolutely glorious. I felt so lucky to be there just at the right time. I also loved seeing is the stone statues outside on the side of the church portraying Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while his apostles slept.

We ventured down an alleyway (Emme was convinced this was a bad idea because bad things happen in alleys, but I tried to tell her this wasn't that kind of alley) down to the oldest building in Rothenburg which is a highly recommended place to eat, Zur Höll at Burgasse 8. I really wanted us to have good, authentic German food, but it was closed until 6pm dinnertime so we planned to come back.

The kids were so excited to visit the Criminal Museum which I honestly could have passed on. Maybe because we saw so many of the same types of things with our kids when we lived in England. But it was an extensive collection of artifacts and documents of laws and punishments throughout the Middle Ages on. The kids loved it and it took less than an hour to walk through.

We had some time before dinner so we stopped to try the local treat in all the bakery windows, Schneeballen. These are large balls made of ribbons of pastry filled with marzipan, or hazelnut, or strawberry, and coated in chocolate depending on the flavor you pick. We sat by a fountain in the Martkplatz to eat them. Honestly, they aren’t my favorite. If I was offered a whole platter of different treats or desserts, these would be my last pick 😆. They are dense, don’t have much flavor, and are very messy especially on a hot day.

We made our way back right at 6pm to dinner only to find we would need a reservation for a group our size or wait an hour. The kids were so tired from walking so we decided we would come back to eat there the next time we came to Rothenburg. We headed back to the church square and were able to eat at the best Hotel with a Biergarten. I had asked one of the local shop keepers where they like to eat and this was it. We were looking for good German food and it didn’t disappoint. We ate different kinds of Schnitzel - the fresh lemon squeezed on top was so good. The best part was the church bells that rang and rang at 7pm. It felt like the perfect end to a perfect day.

One thing we know we need to go back for in addition to eating at Zur Höll, is the nightwatchman tour. This is free, happens in English every night at 8pm, and we’re told its the best mix of history and humor and entertainment while you walk through the town. It takes about an hour and a half. Our kids were exhausted and all walked out at this point so we plan to do this another time.

I LOVE living in a foreign place because you know you can come back to experience things again and again, and on a deeper level. It becomes your own. Rothenburg is a place we will take our parents when they come and everyone who comes to visit because it is such a perfect old German town. I smiled the whole day and laughed with Matt and the kids. If you’re ever in Germany, this town is on the Romantic Road and stopping at. We arrived at 2pm and stayed until 7:30pm. I recommend arriving around 3 or 4pm and staying for the nightwatchman tour.

Next day trip will be Strasbourg!