Rothenburg ob der Tauber

With school out, the tree set up, and a good part of Heidelberg visited, we made our first big trip: a day trip to Rothenburg o.d. Tauber. Rothenburg is a medieval town that was left fairly untouched in WWII and has had little changed in the downtown area in the last 700 or 800 years. Gayles iPod proved a valuable travel asset in keeping Mikah occupied. I think he watched "Wild Hogs" at least 7 or 8 times while she was here, no lie.

We basically just walked around town and saw the major sights. It was REALLY cold, so we enjoyed some nice German cuisine in a restaurant across the street from the neat-looking town hall. The town still has a wall all the way around it. If you have the time and energy, you can walk around the whole thing (or almost all of it, at least). There is a medieval incarceration and torture museum that we wanted to go to, but you know how museums are with kids sometimes. Besides that, Gayle needed some time to spend in Käthe Wohlfahrt, a popular Christmas store chain with a particularly large store in Rothenburg. We looked around at Rothenburg's Weihnachtsmarkt, enjoyed the sights and caught the train home that evening.

One of a few gates to the Altstadt.

Lookout tower that was in the background of the last picture. Gate and tower are 13th Century construction, I think.

BreAnne and Mikah up on the city wall.

A view of the Altstadt from the city wall.

This is the wall that goes around the whole city (the downtown anyway).

Shot of the old downtown area.

Fun mix of medieval and 15th Century half-timber architecture.

Neat building next to the Rathaus (town hall) with a Glockenspiel.

The hybrid Rathaus. The older, white part was built in the 12th Century (again, I need to check the dates), and the front during the renaissance.

Another downtown shot. In the background is a different gate and tower.

Cool half-timber buildings to the left of the Rathaus.

I forgot the name of this church, but let's face it, you probably don't care anyway. It reminds me of the Heilig Geist Kirche in Heidelberg (architectually).

This is on the edge of the Altstadt in an area where the town is level with the top of the wall. To the left is a 50 ft drop-off.

BreAnne and I sitting on the wall. The view from there made it one of my new favorite places in Germany.

Gayle with Asher and me.

This tower was on the opposite side of town that we came in on.

This is what's left of a chapel that was originally part of a palace built in the early 12th Century.

Gayle and Asher by part of the ubiquitous city wall near the chapel above.

This is the other side of that tower and gate you saw a few pictures back. I'm not sure, but I don't think this gate was quite as old as the first ("front") gate.

Asher was happy to get unwrapped on the way home and get some fresh train air.