German Christmas Tour: Day 8 - Rothenburg ob der Tauber (1/2)

We were up early this morning (jet-lag still haunts us) but we used the time to drink copious amounts of coffee and eat an obscene amount of cold meats, brotchen and croissants for breakfast. By 9am we'd left the hotel and we're heading back to the Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof to catch our string of trains to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. 

Now let me say, I was a little worried about the logistics of this journey. We had two changes of train, with each of them only allowing 4 minutes grace, and DeutscheBahn are not currently known for running a tight ship.

As our first train pulled away 2 minutes late, I resigned myself to a day of missed trains and lengthy platform sitting. I may regret it later, BUT let me go on record by saying that DB was amazing. Yes their trains ran a little late, but each of our connecting trains waited for the late ones, and all the while the DB phone app kept us very well infomed - letting us know the connecting trains would wait! Totally professional job DB.

Arriving at RodT train station, we debunked and walked the 15 minutes up the hill to the city walls and the Röderbastei gates just below the Röderturm (red tower). From there it was a very short walk to our hotel.

Rothenburg "Röderbastei" city gates

Into the city along Rödergasse.

Annoyingly, our hotel the Alter Keller is also a restaurant, and didnt open its doors until it started business at 11:30am. Admitedly, checkin was not until 2:00pm, but it would have been nice to be able to drop our bags. We had to wait only 20 minutes in the end, so no harm.

The Alter Keller Gasthaus in Rothenburg.

Bags dropped, we were immediately hungry. Clau spied an interesting restaurant, the Golden Griffon, and we decided to give it a try. I'm so glad we did! We all ordered the chef's special Bavarian-style schnitzel, which I've been dying to try ever since we got here. In addition, they also had one of the great seasonal beers from the region: bier #13 - Tucher Bujavator Doppelbock Dunkel. 

The doppelbock was soooo sweet it went down very nicely indeed, and the schnitzel was to die for. Eb and I couldnt pass up the oportunity to imbibe bier #14 - Gutmann Heffeweissen as well. And what a nice weissen it was!

Bier 13 - Tucher Bajuvator Doppelbock

Bavarian-style schnitzel

Bier #14 - Gutmann Heffeweissen

With an enormous, totally delicious lunch consumed (not to mention a litre of beer), we ventured out with the intention of walking as much of the city wall as we possibly could. We started walking west on Herrngasse and found ourselves at Burgator and Burggarten. Whilst the tower and gate were nice, this side of the wall had no rampart on which to walk!

And so we tried to follow the wall, as best we could, until a rampart appeared at Strafturm (Penalties Tower) on the north eastern side of town. A few hours were then spent happily walking the ramparts, sticking our heads out balistraria (where possible) and generally musing on medieval millitary strategy.

Walking the ramparts.

Eventually we reached the Roderturm (Red tower) on the west side of the town, and thankfully it was open to ascend! We climbed up the steep wooden steps right to the top and enjoyed spectacular views out over the town,

Amazing views from the Roderturm.

Descending the stairs again, we once again commenced our wall walk. Just past Roderturm we encountered one of the most striking buildings of the city - an immaculate and weirdly shaped half-timbered house close to the wall. We dutifully snapped a bunch of pics from the wall and continued on our way.

One of the most famous of Rothenburgs beautiful houses.

Continuing on, we finally reached the massive fortifications at Spitalturm and Spitaltor, situated at the south western end of the wall. Much fun was had ascribing LotR and GoT scenarios to the battlements, which were unlike any others we'd seen previously (and built specifically to house cannon).

Spitalturm and Spitaltor battlements.

Just past Spitaltor, the walkable wall section finally came to an end. We were quite done in and the idea of coffee and cake was floated. This was duly seconded! Walking a little way up Spitalgasse we happened upon Cafe Gerberhaus and felt its call! In no time at all, coffee, chocolate cake & apple strudel were being consumed with gusto.

Coffee & Kuchen at Cafe Gerberhaus.

By this stage we were pretty exhausted. We did a little window shopping, and a lot of jigsaw shopping on our way up Spitalgasse towards the Plonlein. This we dutifully photographed despite the fading light and the hoardes of tourists still milling about. We'll be back early tomorrow morning to try and snap a nicer photo.

Plonlein in low light and high body count.

One thing we also spied was a gingerbread nutcracker that really took our fancy in one of the Kathe Wolfhart shops. I'll definitely be back tomorrow to see if I can buy one.

Gingerbread nutcracker

Postscript
We had dinner at the hotel. Noone was hungry at all, but steak and salmon pasta was consumed nonetheless. Of note was the consumption of bier #15 for the trip - Paulaner Heffeweissen. An oldy but a goldy! And our room was on the top floor of the guesthouse - a goddamn suite! Pretty cushy if yu ignore the floor sloping back from the windows. All in all very, very happy!

German Christmas Tour: Day 7 - Nuremberg (2/2)

Out of bed this morning for an 8am breakfast in the hotel. Man how I love a German cold meat and brotchen spread. German coffee? not so much! but I'll take what I can get. Bellies full, we headed out to get more of a look at old town, heading in the general direction of the castle.

Just behind the weiss turm, which is itself just around the coner from the hotel, we found the famous 1984 sculpture by Jürgen Weber inspired by the poem 'Bitter-sweet married life' by Hans Sachs. The Ehekarussell (Marriage Merry-Go-Round) depicts the various ups a downs that can befall a couple during their life, and is at the same time comic and profound.

The Ehekarussell (Marriage Merry-Go-Round)

Continuing on down towards the (Pegnitz) river, we explored the set of bridges that criss-cross the waterway at the centre of old town. Of particular interest was the covered Henkersteg (hang man's bridge) leading to the hangman's residence on an island in the centre of the stream. Some amazing views were had of the various towers and residences built close to the water's edge, and all without any tour groups to get in our way (or our photos!).

Bridges and buildings of the Pegnitz river.

Crossing the river for the final time, we made our way back up to St Sebaldus church, through Albert Durer platz and thence along Bergstrasse to Tiergärtnertor Square at the base of castle hill. More picturesque half-timbered houses were glimpsed along the way, culminating in Albert Dürer's house on the square. All quite lovely, if not quite serene, now that the tour groups had started to make an appearance.

Tiergärtnertor Square

Still, we made time to admire the amazing sculpture dedicated to the work of Albert Dürer - the Düre-Hase - which shows a huge Hare (with a few smaller ones) bursting out of a crate and squashing a human trappen underneath. Really amazing work.

The Düre-Hase sculpture

  Albert Dürer's house

Feeling the need for coffee before we started the next part of our day, we descended back down Bergstrasse to a quaint cafe (Café Maulbeere) that Eb assured us was a jazz cafe. It was playing Whitney Houston when we arrived, much to the chargrin of all :). The quality of the coffee (fresh milk!) more than made up for the lack of Jazz however and we spent a few quiet minutes recharging our batteries.

Yummy coffee at Café Maulbeere

From coffee to beer! No sooner was the coffee drunk than we joined an organised tour of the rock-cut beer cellars that honeycomb the higher areas of old town (like castle hill). Absolutely essential for the production of the cities red beer in the middle ages, and again for saving the population during the second world war, the cellars were amazing to visit and I couldnt recommend the tour more.

Rock-cut beer cellars under Nuremberg

The all-important gerkin chute

We ended our tour at the Altstadthof brewery right there on Bergstrasse (being the main user of the cellars for beer production these days). We were shown their whiskey still, as well as the maturation barrels. Not that interesting for me, for I was now gagging to taste the Altstadthof Rot bier in all it's various forms!

Whiskey distillation/ barrels from rot beer.

In no time we had ensconsced ourselves in the Altstadthof Braustuble, and ordered a round of drinks. In particular Eb and I ordered a tasting set consisting of Altstadthof classic Rot Bier, the Altstadthof Weissen and the Altstadthof Roter Bock. Biers 9, 10 & 11 of this trip!

Biers 9, 10 & 11 - Altstadthof Weissen, Original Rot and Roter Bock

The Original Rot Bier was particularly good, and even the Bock was really, really smooth; lacking that normal 'Bock' fume you sometimes get (dare I say it - similar in smoothness to the Andechs Doppelbock!).

We complimented our beer selection with some lunch - the Nurnberger wurst with Sauerkraut making another very welcome appearance. This time Eb and I even had a side salad! Probably a good idea given our recent beer + pork diet.

More Nurnbergers! Yum!!

Bier 12 - Altstadthof Nuremberg SchwarzBier

We finished off our meal with one final bier from the brewery roster, bier #12 - Altstadthof Nuremberg SchwarzBier. Yet another sensational beer displaying the same smoothness of the Rot beer but with darker, maltier, caramal undertones. Very nice indeed!

Our bellies full, and our legs a little wobbly, we proceeded up the hill to the Nuremberg Imperial Castle. Whilst we didn't pay for admission to any tours or such, it was still an incredibly impressive structure, commanding an awesome view out over old town.

Nuremberg Imperial Castle

Descending from the lofty heights of castle hill we rejoined the literal throng of people at the main christmas market. Still as impressive as fuck, it now had maybe 10x the number of people crammed into it, making each of the American tourists I had to get stuck behind all the more rage inducing. Who told these guys about Europe anyway? To be fair, most of the throng were German weekend trippers, but hey.

We browsed a little, and gave Clau the opportunoty to sample some of the market that she'd missed the day before. I bought some more warm Lebkuchen straight out of oven, and existed in a state of bliss while it lasted. Katrina and Clau pawed over the mushroom castles (it's too complicated, ask me some other time) until several were duly purchased. 

The chaos of the christmas market on a Saturday

Having had jack of the crowds though, we decided to have a rest back at the hotel - not before I bought a take-home pack of Lebkuchen. This one was from a different supplier, so let's hope it's just as good!

After a good rest (and work on this treatise) we ventured out for an evening in the christmas-adjacent-carnival that had sprouted around the weiss turm near the hotel. We started with a round of drinks - the now infamous egg nogg, which the others couldn't stomach (basically all brandy) - and my perfectly acceptable hot chocolate.

The christmas-adjecent carnival

Like all carnivals, the quality of fare just wasn't quite there. I ordered a half metre wurst in a baguette, and spent the rest of the time valiantly trying to locate the wurst. Eb ordered some very dissapointing curry wurst and pommes. Katrina and Clau got themselves Nutella and strawberry crepes which were, by all accounts, perfectly acceptable!

Before we left the carnival, we decided to ride the ferris wheel. OMG. How did I forget how absolutely terrifying ferris wheels are? How did I forget that they stop and hang you at the top? At least I've re-affirmed my fear of being locked into unsteady, rocking high places. And seemingly Eb has inherited my fear of same. Poor bastard.