Europe Trip, The Final Chapter: Rothenburg

Probably my favorite portion of the trip was the three days we spent in one of the nicest little towns in Europe, Rothenburg, Germany.  The history of this town is pretty incredible.  During the Holy Roman Empire, it was a major Imperial city that rested along two major trade routes.  As such, it was a very prosperous and wealthy city.  However, around 1630, a major invading army camped right in front of the city.  The army requested leave to enter the city, and when the city refused, it was completely sacked.  From that time forward, Rothenburg's economy stagnated and the city did not advance in any way.  Which was unfortunate for the people who lived there for the next couple of hundred years, but great for us!

As a result of the lack of funds to improve the city or develop in any way, almost the entire city was preserved as it was in the 1630s.  It wasn't until the late 1800s that tourism started to help the city rebound economically, and it has only improved since.  Now, using the revenue generated from donations from around the world along with from tourists, the city has been fully restored and repaired.  

One neat little anecdote: during the final months of WWII, as the Allies pushed into Germany, a large Nazi army retreated into Rothenburg where they entrenched themselves.  Hitler had ordered that army, and every other Nazi army, to stand their ground and fight to the last man, which order essentially doomed Rothenburg to destruction by the Allies' bombs and artillery shelling.  At the same time, knowing of the Nazi army's location, the US Army was planning a bombing and shelling attack against Rothenburg.  However, when one of the Vice Secretaries of Defense heard of the plans to bomb the city, he personally intervened to stop it and offer the Nazi army a chance to surrender first.  Of course, the Nazi army had orders never to surrender.  However, on the day that the US Army approached the city under a white flag to parlay, the Nazi general commanding the army at Rothenburg happened to be away.  The colonel who was left in charge loved the city and therefore disobeyed Hitler's command and surrendered to the Allies, thus sparing the city from certain destruction.  

Okay, now back to our trip.  Heather did an amazing job and found a quaint little hotel that was perfect.  It was built around the late 1600s, and the interior decoration all had a medieval air.  But thankfully, our hotel room had modern plumbing and even A/C, which is rare in Germany.  Even better, it had two rooms, so we could put the girls down early at night.  We loved our hotel!

Rothenburg had several things worth seeing.  There was a small cathedral with a very famous wood carving inside of the last supper.  It was made 100s of years ago and is famous for its intricate details, and I believe the whole sculpture was carved from one piece of wood.

One of our favorite things was the crime and punishment museum.   The museum was four or so floors packed full of records of how they enacted punishments in their town for the past several hundred years.  They had punishments for EVERYTHING, like being a tattle-tale, gossiping, having unclean thoughts, defaulting on debts.  And many of the punishments included being chained to a pole in the main square and wearing a metal mask of shame.  It was funny to watch, but made us so glad we did not live in those days.

One of the coolest thing we did was the Night Watchman's tour.  This guy starts a tour of the city at sundown and walks around for an hour showing you unique parts of the town and talking about the history of the city.  It was fascinating, and he had a great sense of humor, too.  Thankfully, the girls were quiet as we carried them on our backs for the entire time.

The final thing we did was browse through the two or three ENORMOUS Christmas village stores.  The biggest store took us literally 3 hours to walk through.  It was huge packed full of awesome Christmas decorations and ornaments.  It even had a museum in the middle of the store showing the history of certain Christmas decorations and traditions.  Heather and I both are kind of suckers for Christmas stores: for us, they're very nostalgic and magical.  So this store was one of our favorite things in Rothenburg.

But despite all the above things we did, more than anything else, we loved simply meandering through the city and coming across quaint streets, interesting shops, and cute buildings.  Here's some pics of us around the city.

And finally, here are some scenes from the city.

As a final note on our trip, I wanted to show one last thing.  Heather is huge into wall clocks.  Well, this trip was definitely a success from her point of view because she bought three unique clocks all from different countries.  This alone made the trip worthwhile for her.  (You're notice she didn't buy a German clock, but that was only because she already owned one.)