Rothenberg aub der Tauber

Mmmm.... Schneeballen.

Rothenberg skyline.

A mask of shame, with a shameful boy hiding behind it.

On the ramparts.

In the Marktplatz.

Last year we had a ridiculously short stop in Rothenberg for reasons beyond my control. So this year I booked an entire afternoon, evening, and night here. We are currently staying in the building that housed the medieval mill, which has been converted to a youth hostel. We had a very German dinner of mashed potatoes, green beens, and as many wieners as one could eat (vegetarians and those who don’t eat pork got scrambled eggs – I’ve never had that in Europe before). Rothenberg features a beautiful Lutheran church (a Catholic church in the pre-reformation days, which explains why it is beautiful I guess), and a museum of medieval crime and punishment. After exploring all methods of torture the innovative thinkers of the middle ages could come up with, we split into groups and did a city wide scavenger hunt. Some of the groups got sidetracked by the plethora of shops – Rothenberg has a real touristy side to it, and one of the stores features year round Christmas decorations for sale, and seems to go on for about ½ a mile – you’ve never seen so much Christmas stuff, in March. Apropos to the Christmas feelings welling up inside us, it started snowing heavily while we transported our bags through the city gates to the youth hostel at the end of the scavenger hunt. Another great day. And we’re only half way home.