Rothenburg

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Rothenburg and the Romantic Road

An August 2000 trip to Rothenburg by xine Best of IgoUgo

This journal documents my solo trip along the Romantic Road, focusing mostly on Rothenburg.

  • 12 reviews
  • 2 stories/tips

Rothenburg and the Romantic RoadBest of IgoUgo

Overview

Walking the wall.
Climbing the Town Tower for a great view of medieval Rothenburg.
Ascending the Rödertor.
Touring the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum.
Seeing Tilman Riemenschneider’s “Altar of the Holy Blood” at St. Jakob’s Chuch. Strolling through Herrgasse and the Castle Garden.
Taking the Night Watchman’s Tour.

Quick Tips:

Pick up a copy of the free brochure “Worth seeing, Worth knowing” at the Tourist Office located on the Markplatz. It contains a listing of sights to see, places to stay and a map of Rothenburg.
Do your Christmas shopping at Käthe Wohlfart’s Christmas Village.

Best Way To Get Around:

The Romantic Road bus makes numerous stops along the Romantic Road from Füssen and Munich to Frankfurt (and vice versa). There is a 75% discount with the Eurail/Europass. The drawback of the bus is that it stops in each city only once per day. You are free to hop on and off as you please, but it is probably best to make reservations ahead of time to guarantee that you’ll have a seat. The Romantic Road bus schedule and reservations can be made at the Euraide offices located in the train stations.

The Romantic Road bus stop drops you off about a 7-minute walk from Rothenburg’s city wall. The best way to get around Rothenburg is to walk. It’s impossible to get lost.

Hotel Goldene RoseBest of IgoUgo

Hotel

The Hotel Goldene Rose is run by the Favetta family and is about a 15-minute walk from the train station, 5-7 minute walk from Market Square. I had a single room for DM35 in the annex. The room was very small, but clean, and was equipped with a sink. Bathrooms are shared (at least in the annex). The one drawback is that there’s only one shower in the annex. There are singles, doubles, triples and family apartments that can sleep up to five. Breakfast which consists of an egg, slice of kiwi, rolls, butter, jam, coffee or tea are included with the room. The hotel serves lunch and dinner Thursday-Monday, but the kitchen is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The woman who showed me around the hotel was very conscientious and serious about her job. She scurried around to attend to each customer’s needs. The front door of the hotel/restaurant closes around 9 or 10 pm, but you get a key to the back door so there is no worry of being locked out.
  • Member Rating 3 out of 5 by xine on October 21, 2000

Hotel Goldene Rose
Spitalgasse 28 Rothenburg, Germany
(09) 861-4638

Medieval Crime MuseumBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

This is Germany’s most important historical law museum. It houses a variety of old legal documents and instruments used for torture and punishment. There is a lot to see, read and learn from the displays which are well-described in English. I found the shame masks amusing and got a kick out of the head/neck violins used to lock together quarrelsome women. Some of the torture instruments are really awful though-- Be glad you did not live in Medieval Germany!

Admission is 4DM for students; 6DM for adults.

  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by xine on October 22, 2000

Medieval Crime Museum
Burggasse 3 Rothenburg, Germany

Reichsstadt Museum (Imperial Town Museum)Best of IgoUgo

Attraction

Upon paying your admission fee, you will be handed a one-page guide to the museum which you must return at the end of your visit. About half of the displays in the museum are described in English. One of my favorite parts of the museum was the statue of Moses with horns. Apparently, there was a mix-up when creating the statue and the sculptor mistook 'coronata' which means 'crowned' for 'cornuta,' meaning 'horned.' Instead of giving Moses a crown, the sculptor gave him horns. I thought this was pretty amusing.



The museum (formerly a convent) also has one of the best preserved medieval kitchens. At the end of your tour, you will come to the main highlight of the Reichsstadt Museum -- Martinus Schwarz’s 'Rothenburg Passion,' a twelve-panel painting of scenes leading up to the crucifixion of Christ.
  • Member Rating 3 out of 5 by xine on October 23, 2000

Reichsstadt Museum (Imperial Town Museum)
In a former convent on the Klosterhof Rothenburg, Germany

Doll and Toy MuseumBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

The Doll and Toy Museum is one of the largest private collections of its kind. It’s a great place to visit if you are into miniatures. The museum is well-organized. Each display is numbered and there is an English guide you can borrow that explains each number.



The gift shop sells antique and collector items. I saw several stuffed bears costing hundreds of dollars so be careful when browsing with the kids!



Admission is 5DM for students; slightly higher for adults.


  • Member Rating 3 out of 5 by xine on October 23, 2000

Doll and Toy Museum
Hofbrunnengasse 13 Rothenburg, Germany

St. Jacob's ChurchBest of IgoUgo

Attraction | "St. Jakob’s Church"

This Gothic Church is tastefully decorated with paintings and sculptures and has beautiful stained-glass windows. Go up the back stairs of the church to see the impressive Altar of the Holy Blood, a woodcarving by Tilman Riemenschneider. It is over 500 years old!



Open daily from 10am-noon and 2-4 pm. Admission fee DM 2.5 for adults, DM 1 for students.
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by xine on October 23, 2000

St. Jacob's Church
Klosterhof 7 and Klingengasse Rothenburg, Germany

The wall around RothenbergBest of IgoUgo

Attraction | "Walk the Town Walls"

Be sure to walk the town walls while in Rothenburg. It offers many great views of the city, so bring your camera! Don't forget to climb the Rödertor, the tower nearest the train station, for a fantastic view of the city.
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by xine on October 23, 2000

The wall around Rothenberg
The boundary of the old city in Rothenberg Rothenburg, Germany

Herrngasse and the Castle GardenBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

Walk from Market Square down Herrngasse, the street where the richest people lived. At the end of Herrngasse, you will hit the Castle Garden. This is a nice place to relax, read, write in your journal, or eat lunch. The garden also offers yet another great view of the town.
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by xine on October 23, 2000

Herrngasse and the Castle Garden
Herrngasse Rothenburg, Germany

Town Vault MuseumBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

You can visit the dungeon with the guard room, torture chamber and prison cells. Upstairs, there’s a display of a medieval town life. Aside from the dungeon, I did not think the museum was all that interesting. It would probably be the last on my list of museums to visit.

Admission is 2DM for students.
  • Member Rating 2 out of 5 by xine on October 23, 2000

Town Vault Museum
Town Hall on Market Square Rothenburg, Germany

Town Hall TowerBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

This is a pretty steep climb so be prepared to sweat! If you're out of shape, you might find the climb a bit grueling, but once you get to the top, you will be rewarded with a great view of the entire city. Don't leave your camera behind. You'll want to take pictures once you're up there.

The fee is 2 DM which you pay when you get to the top.
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by xine on October 23, 2000

Town Hall Tower
Downtown Rothenburg, Germany

Käthe Wohlfahrt’s Christmas VillagesBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

Even if you don’t plan to buy anything, it’s fun to stroll through either of Käthe Wohlfahrt’s Christmas Villages. There are Christmas ornaments galore! She also sells nativity scenes, dolls, cuckoo clocks, and pretty much anything that you would need to decorate your house for Christmas. Prices are very high, but judging by the number of Käthe Wohlfahrt bags I saw around town, hardly anyone walks out empty-handed. (I didn’t actually purchase anything, but I kind of regret it. An ornament would’ve made a great souvenir of Rothenburg.)

Käthe Wohlfahrt does have a discount store which sells discontinued and damaged items at a reduced price. It’s located at Kirchgasse 5. The store is unmarked, but sells authentic Käthe Wohlfahrt trinkets.
  • Member Rating 3 out of 5 by xine on October 23, 2000

Käthe Wohlfahrt’s Christmas Villages
Herngasse Rothenburg, Germany

The Night Watchman of Rothenburg ob der TauberBest of IgoUgo

Attraction | "The Walk of the Night Watchman"

The Night Watchman’s walking tour is probably the "in" thing (well, actually the only form of nightlife!) for tourists to do during the evening. Hans Georg Baumgartner, the Night Watchman, leads one-hour English tours daily from Easter to Christmas beginning at 8 p.m. and guided tours in German at 9:15. Meet at the Market Square in front of the town hall.

Dressed in black and carrying a lantern, the Night Watchman comes to the Market Square promptly at 8:00. Before beginning his tour, he lets people watch the Glockenspiel go off at 8. The show is less than thrilling-- two windows on the Glockenspiel open and two figures come out.

I highly recommend taking the Night Watchman’s tour. Baumgartner takes you around Rothenburg and provides you with an overview of the town's history in an interesting and humorous manner. You won’t be disappointed!
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by xine on October 21, 2000

The Night Watchman of Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Daily from 8.00 pm. from Marketsquare Rothenburg, Germany

Internet Access in RothenburgBest of IgoUgo

Story/Tip

Planet Internet
Paradeisgasse 5
09861/934 415


The connection here was painfully slow, but I needed to check train schedules and e-mail, so I had no other choice. The charge is 9DM per hour or 6DM per half hour with a half hour minimum.

The Romantic Road Bus TripBest of IgoUgo

Story/Tip

The Romantic Road Bus Tour is easily done alone. I did this trip solo and had a good time. It was very low stress since you just sit on the bus and the bus driver takes you to your destination. At the beginning of the trip, the bus driver hands out a map of the Romantic Road route and a timetable with the bus schedule. My bus driver also served as a tour guide and narrated parts of the trip. He also supplemented what he said with videos of each Romantic Road city we passed through. I hopped on the Romantic Road bus in Munich and spent the nights in Röthenburg and Würzburg. Along the way, we made 15-minute photo/bathroom stops in Augsburg and Nördlingen as well as an hour stop in Dinkelsbühl.

In Dinkelsbühl, I wandered around the Weinmarket and climbed up St. George’s Tower for a view of the city. Unfortunately, I did not have time to visit the Museum of the 3rd Dimension—a museum dedicated to simulating acid trips—that is supposed to be pretty entertaining. There really wasn’t a whole to do in Dinkelsbühl, but if you’re not rushed, it might be worthwhile to spend the night there. If you have a car, stop there for a couple hours and let me know how the Museum of the 3rd Dimension is!

An added perk of the Romantic Road bus is that the bus driver hands out brochures and maps for each city so you don’t even have to make a trip to the Tourist Information Office!

About the Writer

xine
xine
Santa Monica, California

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