Rothenburg Revisited

Ever since our quick stop in Rothenburg with Nick and Elli, we've always wanted to go back. We also saw this as a great warm-up trip for Toby. So Saturday morning we loaded the pup and our stuff into the car and pointed the wagon (yes, we actually have a Mercedes station wagon right now...and we seriously LOVE it!) towards Rothenburg. 1.5 hours later we had arrived in sunny Rothenburg and we were ready for some lunch. Prost!

A main reason to revisit Rothenburg was to see the Kriminalmuseum (great recommendation, Peggy!).



Right after lunch we walked our full bellies over for a visit. The Kriminalmuseum was extremely fascinating and slightly disturbing.

Here we have a view of one floor of the Museum and some serious handcuffs. Good luck breaking out of those!



Next up (from left to right) is one of many Shame Masks which would be worn by people found guilty of either gossiping, being overtly sexual, etc. In the center is a real, honest-to-goodness Chastity Belt (there were three displayed, this was the prettiest). YIKES. Finally, and most creepy, is the Executioners Mask worn by executioners to protect themselves from the Evil Eye of the executed.



After about an hour at the Kriminalmuseum we made our way back to the hotel to check on the pup and take a little snooze. Back on the streets a few hours later, I fell in the love with the quaint signs that most businesses and hotels have attached to their building. Here's one from our hotel and a restaurant we ate at:



Speaking of love, all over Rothenburg bakery windows are full of rows and rows of schneeballen, a local delightful dessert:



Last time we didn't try these little balls of joy, but this time we were in love after our first bite! We opted to try the smaller schneeballen:



For the Polish contingency out there, they reminded me a lot of Angel Wings, except in ball form and covered in chocolate (or powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar). We tried the milk chocolate with nuts and the dark chocolate. Both were fantastic and we found that the smaller schneeballen was the perfect size for one person.

Post-schneeballen we walked the pup around town to tire him out, fed him dinner and then tucked him in for an evening nap. We headed back out to meet up for the famous Nightwatchman Tour. This guy is the attraction in town. People flock to him and his tour. Check out the crowd we toured with:



And here's our entertaining Nightwatchman:



His speech pattern was very unique and added a fun touch to the whole experience. The tour lasted one hour and we felt like we learned a good amount about Rothenburg, most notably, the army that first conquered Rothenburg only did so because they needed a place to rest from all of the rain ALSO the US Secretary of State during WWII saved Rothenburg from being bombed and destroyed because his mother had visited the town when she was younger and he had heard all of her fond stories.

After our fun tour with the Nightwatchman we grabbed a cute outdoor table at a restaurant on the Town Square:



And watched the setting sun color Rothenburg in blues and golds:

Rothenburg proved to be a darling Medieval town and great warm-up trip for the pup;
he did an awesome job!