Rothenberg

So I am finally back on the blog.  Between our travels and then my computer and internet going down and being slow all this week I have gotten a little behind once again.  On Thursday, November 14th, we started our adventure in Rothenberg.  It is the only completely walled city left in Germany.  It is still very much in tact as it was hundreds of years ago.  We found out it is because during the early wars, they paid whoever was trying to conquer them to not tear the city down.  By the time it was all said and done they were broke so they couldn't update or change any of the town.  Bad for them back then, but good for the people who live there today.  Over 1/3 of their income is from tourism.

 

Mom and Dad in front of one of the most famous towers of Rothenberg and one of the most photographed.  Our hotel was right at the base of it.

 

Mom and I walking down a quaint street of Rothenberg

 

The boys found a really good hiding place.  I am not sure what it is really used for, but they got a kick out of it!!

We then stopped for some lunch at a pizza place  The boys decided that they had some energy to burn so they were dancing around the store.  Luckily we were the only ones there. 

 

I thought this was an interesting fountain.

 

 

These are called Rothenberg Schneeballen.  The tour book that I have said to skip them because they are bad tasting, bland pie crusts crumpled into a ball dusted with powdered sugar or frosted with sticky-sweet glop.  I have to say he was spot on, but I had to try them, they were all over the place.

 

Check out this building - they are remodeling it and they made the scaffolding to look exactly like the building underneath!  I thought that was so cool!!!

 

This is St Jakob's Church it was built in the 14th century.  We didn't take the time to go in it since we were only there for the day and had a few other museums we really wanted to go and see.  But one thing I thought was interesting is they took the stained glass windows built back in the 14th century out of the church during the war.  They kept them in a bomb shelter so they wouldn't get ruined.

 

As we walked further down the Reichsstadt museum.  It was a very interesting museum, one I couldn't take pictures in.  It held a lot of history of Germany and held things from back in the BC era.  Very cool!

 

Then we headed to the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum.  I figured this would be right up my boy's alley!!

 

 

Out in front with the paddy wagons.  The boys didn't believe that they actually put bad people in there. 

 

A cage where they would put people in for nags - complete with a metal gag.

 

I told them I was going to leave them there.  :-)

 

This was a stretcher, there were two types; one laying down and one standing up.

 

A very comfy looking chair - or maybe not.  Nails all over the place.  The boys didn't think they would like to sit there.  They said it was used to torment or just threaten with.

 

These were all sorts of torture devices for the body, legs and hands.

 

These were called shame masks - the one on the right side of the picture was one where the glasses show the wearer seeing everything and the tongue shows he talked about everything.  The middle one with the pig snout instead of a human mouth.  This symbolized that the person wearing it acted like a pig.

 

 

This I thought was great!!!  It is called a double neck violin.  It was meant for two quarrelsome women.  On the spot they were locked into it until they got along with each other.

 

Michael being a goof.

 

So this wheel was one where they killed people.  It was the most painful.  They put your hands on the outside and wheeled you around and around while it broke every bone in their body.  It was a very interesting museum and had tons of different masks of shame for just about everything.

 

All of them in front of the paddy wagons!!!

 

Then we went to Kathe Wohlfart store.  She is HUGE in Germany, has stores everywhere and makes some pretty cool stuff!!!

 

The boys and I with the toy soldier.  After this I found out I wasn't supposed to take pictures.  Oops.  The boys were fascinated with a movie in there showing how all of the decorations were made.  They wanted to buy tons of things because they saw how they were made.  We bought two of them.

Michael and my dad next to the knight in shining armor!

Then of course what did we have to have?!?  Ice cream!!  This one was cool because the spoons were crooked and so were the dishes!!!  Mom and AJ enjoying their ice cream with their crooked spoons!!

 

Michael with his cone! 

 

It was starting to get dark and here was our tower all lit up!

 

We wanted to see the wall so we headed there in the dark.  We found out it was very hard to find our footing and thought better to do it the next day.

 

Dad down below waiting for us!  So after that we had dinner and then Michael didn't want to go on the night watchman's tour so he and Grandpa stayed back at the hotel playing angry bird's uno.  They had a great time!!!

 

 

Here we are with the night watchman - he was really great!!!  We were a little nervous when a bunch of school kids came but they actually were really quiet.  He had some great history of the town and good stories.  He had a wonderful personality!!

 

This was the main entrance into the city.  There were four gates that were used.

 

There was a curfew when they closed all of the gates.  If you were caught outside after curfew you had two options; one to stay outside where it was really dangerous or two, you could pay the guards a months pay to get in.  As you can tell people didn't stay out much at all, it was a great deterrent. They called this the one man door.

 

AJ with the night watchman.  He let AJ hold all of his stuff and wear his hat!  AJ LOVED the tour!!!  He was like glue on him to make sure he could hear everything he said!

 

We walked to the other side of the city, the tower you can see is the one by our hotel.

 

This was at the front gate.  The mask had holes in it to pour boiling oil on whoever was trying to attack the city and the straight lines was for the draw bridge.  In the town of Rothenberg, they were told to keep two years worth of food in the top of their house just in case of an attack so they could survive that long.  Also, they were on the main trade route from North to South and East to West.  It was a very profitable city.  When we arrived back at the hotel, AJ had to tell Grandpa and Michael everything that he learned!  He really listened and did a great job of retelling all the stories!!!

 

 

In the morning we had a nice breakfast and then packed up and headed up to the wall.   You can actually walk around the whole city on the wall, totaling about a mile and a half.  We didn't have that much time so we looked at part of it.  Here I am with my two boys!!!

 

Grandpa and his boys at the top!  One interesting thing, to help raise money for the town they are selling parts of the wall.  For a small price of 1,000 Euros (about $1,400) you too can have a plaque with your name on it!!  We decided not to at this time. 

 

A view of the town and church from the wall.

 

AJ showing you the width of the wall.  Dad had to bend down a lot because the ceiling beams were at six feet.

 

The boys can find every nook and cranny to fit into!

 

Grandma and Grandpa and the boys in front of the tower, standing in the middle of the road.  Luckily it was a slow morning.  :-)

 

The van, and us, heading out of the town of Rothenberg.  We had a wonderful visit and really enjoyed our time.  The boys want to take their dad back there sometime and I am good with that!!!  Very quaint and not too far away.  I know I am behind and have about four more posts to catch up on, but you will have to wait for a bit. We are heading to Paris for a week, back for a day and then off to London.  I can't let any grass grow under Mom and Dad's feet while they are here.  I think by the end of their six week vacation they will have been in 6 different countries.  Not too shabby.