Wurzburg - Day trip to Rothenburg

8th August
Wurzburg - day trip the Rothenburg
The morning was spent looking out over at the passing villages and vineyards as we glided along the Main River. This is where grapes for Reisling are grown. An early lunch and then at 12.15 we headed off on buses on the 'Romantic Road' to Rothenburg. This was gorgeous - we travelled through villages with narrow streets with lovely old homes and each home had flowering window boxes. It was so beautiful.
We arrived in Rothenburg 11/2 hours later, but it was like we had turned the clock back 500 years. The town dates back to 970ad. The town wasn't bombed during WW2 because the American officer who had been given the orders to bomb it remembered the name of the town. His Grandmother had visited it many times before the war and had always told him about the town and how it was still in its' medieval state and so he bombed a different area and Rothenburg was untouched. There are too many lovely buildings to describe so I hope our photos will do Rothenburg justice. If ever you come to Germany I would definitely mark it as a 'must see' place. The town market square is home to the City Councillors' Tavern. It has three clocks. A normal clock, a calendar clock and a sun dial. On the hour the windows either side of the clocks open and inside each you see a figure with a tankard of beer. The clock chimes the time and then the figures take the same number of drinks from the tankards. And then the windows close again. The town hall is also in the market square.
The original hospital was outside the city walls and run by the monks. They became very rich because they had the monopoly on doctors working in the hospital and would not allow any outside doctors to work there. Eventually the towns people talked the monks into having the wall extended around their monastery and hospital for their safety. Once the wall was completed the monks were thrown out and the towns people kept the hospital.
You can still walk up the wooden steps and stone steps to the walkway which is on top of the wall surrounding the town. We only went a short distance as all of our free time would have been taken up going around the whole town. The views from here were excellent. Out over green rolling hills, across to castles in the distance and forests.
I'm sorry that I keep saying gorgeous beautiful and lovely etc. but there are so few words to describe how it looks. But I guess you get the idea that we both really like it!!!!
There is of course an ABC - this one has carved wooden pictures of biblical scenes. They are quite amazing in the detail.
There is a museum of Crime in the town. If people complained that two women were always fighting with each other and the council decided some thing had to be done about it the women were put together in an arrangement similar to stocks and had to stay together for 3 days. If they spoke badly to each other during this time they were sentenced for another 3days for each offence. If a woman cleaned too much she had her hands tied together so that she couldn't clean for 3 days. Similar if the loaf of bread was the wrong weight the baker was publicly humiliated by being put into a large wooden cage which was swung out over the water and he was dipped into the water. He was brought up again quite quickly but women accused of being witches were not always brought up in time.
The paths and roads here are also cobblestones. This type of paving was very expensive to do and was a statement of the wealth of the city to any visitors to the town.
We drove back on the normal highway. I was alarmed to hear that although buses had a speed limit - no such law applies to cars - they can do whatever they like!!!!! We all arrived safely. Tea was a fairly quiet affair as we were all so tired and mostly it was lights out by 9.30pm It was a very memorable day. The trip to Rothenburg was one of the highlights of the trip so far.