We awoke to a glorious Easter Sunday morning. Although I would have loved to spend Easter in Italy, where it’s probably the country’s most important holiday, it was such a pleasure to spend it with my family in Germany. And it’s really quite a special place to celebrate Easter. You see, Germany is where the Easter Bunny originated, and they definitely love this holiday. Trees and plants and window boxes everywhere are covered and filled with Easter eggs, making for a quite festive atmosphere.
But before we could enjoy any chocolate eggs, we had to move on to our next destination:
Rothenburg ob der Tuber (Rothenburg Over the Tuber), which is located on the
Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road). After breakfast at our hotel, we packed up and Doug went to get the car. (And Jake was extremely happy to be placed in charge of guarding the luggage!) And then we hit the Autobahn! Somehow, even as fast as Doug was driving, Jake managed to get some shut-eye! In a flash we were in Rothenburg.
We were thrilled when we located our hotel, the Hotel Gotisches Haus, which is located within the city walls, right in the middle of the historic town. The hotel is located in a 13th-century mansion, in which crown princes once lived. The building was recently restored, but they stayed as true to the original as possible, retaining 700-year-old timber floors and ceilings and natural stone walls. What an amazing place! Paul even had a secret hiding place in his room that had been discovered during renovation, which was on display under glass. And all of our rooms had views over this charming town.
Rothenburg is located in the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany, in the southern part of the country. The town gets that last part of its name from the fact that it sits on a hill overlooking the Tauber River. The first part, Rothenburg, is thought to come from the German words
rot (red) and
burg (fortified medieval town), but no one knows for sure. Even so, it is one of the best-preserved Medieval towns in Germany, with its wall completely intact. We couldn’t wait to explore!
After settling in, we were long overdue for lunch, so we headed down the street to Town Hall Square, where we had lunch at the Gafthof Marktplatz. And we arrived just in time for the 3 p.m. reenactment of the historic
meistertrunk, which takes place at the
Ratstrinkstube (City Councilors’ Tavern) eight times a day. (I guess they’re proud of this!) Anyway, here’s the story: In 1961 Rothenburg was under siege by the Catholic forces under the control of Count Tilly (Rothenburg was Protestant). For some reason, the count told the citizens that he would spare the town if anyone could drink
a tankard containing 3 ½ liters (six pints) of wine in one big gulp. The mayor stepped up to the challenge and was successful, thereby sparing the city from certain destruction. Now, to commemorate this historic event, mechanical figures come out of the clocktower to reenact the wine drinking. (I must admit that it was a bit lame. Just don’t tell the Rothenburgers I said that!)
After lunch, we set out to explore more of this quaint town. I had stopped to take some pictures when I heard Jake yell to me, “Carolyn, I discovered something that’s authentic to Rothenburg!” Jake had discovered Schneeballen! Just what is a
schneeballen? It’s lengths of dough that has been formed into a ball, and then deep-fried until
it’s crunchy, sort of like a hard, round donut. There are various types; some are stuffed with chocolates and creams, and many are rolled in powdered sugar or cinnamon. And they’re huge! They all sounded good to Jake, so he got a dozen. That boy must have been eating Schneeballen long after I returned to Florence!
We returned to our rooms for a short time to relax and read and enjoy the views from the hotel's rooftop terrace. And that night we decided to have dinner at the hotel, which turned out to be quite good and very affordable. The service was also excellent. After dinner Paul went up to go to bed, and the rest o us headed out to explore Rothenburg after dark. And we quickly learned one thing—medieval walled cities after dark are a bit spooky!
We turned left out of our hotel, and shortly we had exited out of the one of the town gates into a park. We looked back at the gate and noticed an eerie face staring down at us, no doubt placed there to scare away enemies. That started it all. Suddenly everything looked eerie. After all, how could a town this old not have a few ghosts? In addition, it was pitch black in the park, and no one was there but the four of us, and a few ghosts of course. It was like being a kid on a camping trip again and telling ghost stories around the campfire. We got each other so scared that we practically ran back to the hotel for safety.
But, once there, we realized that we were also staying in a centuries-old building, which certainly had its own ghosts. The stories and speculations continued; in fact, I don’t know how any of us slept that night! It was great fun!
We awoke to a glorious Easter Sunday morning. Although I would have loved to spend Easter in Italy, where it’s probably the country’s most important holiday, it was such a pleasure to spend it with my family in Germany. And it’s really quite a special place to celebrate Easter. You see, Germany is where the Easter Bunny originated, and they definitely love this holiday. Trees and plants and window boxes everywhere are covered and filled with Easter eggs, making for a quite festive atmosphere.
But before we could enjoy any chocolate eggs, we had to move on to our next destination: Rothenburg ob der Tuber (Rothenburg Over the Tuber), which is located on the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road). After breakfast at our hotel, we packed up and Doug went to get the car. (And Jake was extremely happy to be placed in charge of guarding the luggage!) And then we hit the Autobahn! Somehow, even as fast as Doug was driving, Jake managed to get some shut-eye! In a flash we were in Rothenburg.
We were thrilled when we located our hotel, the Hotel Gotisches Haus, which is located within the city walls, right in the middle of the historic town. The hotel is located in a 13th-century mansion, in which crown princes once lived. The building was recently restored, but they stayed as true to the original as possible, retaining 700-year-old timber floors and ceilings and natural stone walls. What an amazing place! Paul even had a secret hiding place in his room that had been discovered during renovation, which was on display under glass. And all of our rooms had views over this charming town.
Rothenburg is located in the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany, in the southern part of the country. The town gets that last part of its name from the fact that it sits on a hill overlooking the Tauber River. The first part, Rothenburg, is thought to come from the German words rot (red) and burg (fortified medieval town), but no one knows for sure. Even so, it is one of the best-preserved Medieval towns in Germany, with its wall completely intact. We couldn’t wait to explore!
After settling in, we were long overdue for lunch, so we headed down the street to Town Hall Square, where we had lunch at the Gafthof Marktplatz. And we arrived just in time for the 3 p.m. reenactment of the historic meistertrunk, which takes place at the Ratstrinkstube (City Councilors’ Tavern) eight times a day. (I guess they’re proud of this!) Anyway, here’s the story: In 1961 Rothenburg was under siege by the Catholic forces under the control of Count Tilly (Rothenburg was Protestant). For some reason, the count told the citizens that he would spare the town if anyone could drink 
a tankard containing 3 ½ liters (six pints) of wine in one big gulp. The mayor stepped up to the challenge and was successful, thereby sparing the city from certain destruction. Now, to commemorate this historic event, mechanical figures come out of the clocktower to reenact the wine drinking. (I must admit that it was a bit lame. Just don’t tell the Rothenburgers I said that!)
After lunch, we set out to explore more of this quaint town. I had stopped to take some pictures when I heard Jake yell to me, “Carolyn, I discovered something that’s authentic to Rothenburg!” Jake had discovered Schneeballen! Just what is a schneeballen? It’s lengths of dough that has been formed into a ball, and then deep-fried until 
it’s crunchy, sort of like a hard, round donut. There are various types; some are stuffed with chocolates and creams, and many are rolled in powdered sugar or cinnamon. And they’re huge! They all sounded good to Jake, so he got a dozen. That boy must have been eating Schneeballen long after I returned to Florence!
We returned to our rooms for a short time to relax and read and enjoy the views from the hotel's rooftop terrace. And that night we decided to have dinner at the hotel, which turned out to be quite good and very affordable. The service was also excellent. After dinner Paul went up to go to bed, and the rest o us headed out to explore Rothenburg after dark. And we quickly learned one thing—medieval walled cities after dark are a bit spooky!
We turned left out of our hotel, and shortly we had exited out of the one of the town gates into a park. We looked back at the gate and noticed an eerie face staring down at us, no doubt placed there to scare away enemies. That started it all. Suddenly everything looked eerie. After all, how could a town this old not have a few ghosts? In addition, it was pitch black in the park, and no one was there but the four of us, and a few ghosts of course. It was like being a kid on a camping trip again and telling ghost stories around the campfire. We got each other so scared that we practically ran back to the hotel for safety.
But, once there, we realized that we were also staying in a centuries-old building, which certainly had its own ghosts. The stories and speculations continued; in fact, I don’t know how any of us slept that night! It was great fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment