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.
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| Rothenburg "Röderbastei" city gates |
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| 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.
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| 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 Hefeweizen as well. And what a nice weissen it was!
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| Bier 13 - Tucher Bajuvator Doppelbock |
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| Bavarian-style schnitzel |
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| Bier #14 - Gutmann Hefeweizen |
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.
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| 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,
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 Hefeweizen. 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!
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