Another damp day today, that misty sort of rain that leaves you very wet, but wonderful medieval towns like Rothenburg don't look any worse in the rain! Having read an article about the Romantic Road was what started my planning for this trip, so Rothenburg was our first destination. The town is almost completely encircled by medieval walls interspersed with towers, so we parked outside (free, very impressed) & walked in through the Spital Gate, next to an amazing circular tower with hugely thick walls, the Spital Bastion. 


It was quite disorientating to wander round inside, as its full of steep cobbled slopes and twisted passages – very difficult for invaders to negotiate and attack the town. Outside are the entrancing original medieval walls with galleried pantiled roofs, so of course we had to walk round them. I have never seen walls with so many levels – up, down, views inside, views outside, all wonderful; we walked part of the walls in the dry, as they had those little roofs for shelter.

Leaving the walls we continued up Spitalgasse into the old town centre, and what a delight that was too; the town square is perfect, cobbled from end to end and full of colourful buildings with pointy roofs and tempting windows. We wandered around (in the rain) & just oohed and aahed at the houses, then took shelter in a cafe for “Kaffee & Kuchen”, the lovely tradition of coffee and cake to which our German friends had introduced us in 2013.

I noticed a crowd gathering in the middle of the square, and was informed by the waitress that at 12 mid-day the special clock on the Tourist Information building would chime, and that I should go & watch it – so of course I did. Two windows set high up in the wall opened up to reveal models of Mayor Nusch drinking 3 litres of wine without stopping in order to save the town in 1631.

Rothenburg is the place where they filmed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – those galleried walls with towers and fabulous-looking houses straight from the film made me keep glancing over my shoulder to check that the Child Catcher wasn’t creeping up on me. Finishing our cake, we visited the Christmas shop, which was HUGE & filled with every type of Christmas ornament known to man but quite expensive so we resisted the temptation to buy and continued our stroll through the town.












It finally stopped raining as we got to the Roderbogen Gate, (yet more photo opportunities) then we walked next to/on sections of the city walls on our way back to the car. We got wonderful views of the rooftops of Rothenburg as the walls are quite high in some places, and could appreciate just how well the walls protected the town.




Heading back south to Schillingsfurst, we decided to try and visit the schloss, home of the Princes of Hohenlohe, but sadly it had just closed for the day. Never mind, the cafe was open so we bought a very late lunch by dint of much pointing and saying Jah and Nein in our best German accents. We might return there in the sun/dry if such a thing should occur while we're here - otherwise we're heading south for the sun!