October 3-6, 2013
3rd- This is our first trip since arriving in
Germany. We were very excited for this trip. Today we got up early and drove
the 3 hours to Rothenburg, it is a walled in city that is very old. We checked
into our hotel Gladius Raidel, and met Norry, our housemaster. It was a cute
wooden hotel and Norry was very sweet. We checked in and then parked the car,
as there cannot be any cars parked on the streets overnight, and barely any
cars are allowed in the city at all. It is very narrow and hard to drive. Then
we walked into town and found market square, the center of the town. There we
waited for the English Walking Tour. Our guide was Claudia and she took us
around the city telling us about the sights and the history. We learnt about
the traditional food of an onion pastry with fresh wine and snowballs- circular
dough fried in a ball mechanism and sprinkled with sugar, or non-traditional
have chocolate, cream, nuts, anything you can imagine. She even let us have a taste
of the traditional kind. It was good, but I think the non-traditional ones
sound better! They made these snowballs because back in the old days when they
hosted parties, lots of important people came and the cooks needed something
that would last for a while so they could bake it ahead of time. This worked
perfectly. We always learnt about the war and the wall that was built for
protection and the towers that could overlook the wall. We saw the museums and
the fancy houses and learnt that everything in the city must stay preserved and
must not be modernized which is why everything looks so old. After the tour we
went back to Market Square and tried one of the onion pastries with the wine.
It was very good! We met a couple from Colorado doing a bike tour and chatted
with them for a while. Then we did some shopping and decided to get a
non-traditional snowball with a coffee. I was right!!! YUM YUM!!! We continued
to shop along the high street and then picked up a pizza to have later for
dinner. We went back to the hotel and relaxed, read, and ate our pizza.
4th- Today we got up early to have breakfast at
the hotel. We met a mother and daughter from California on their way to the
Czech Republic for some genealogy stuff. They were really nice. Then we went
into town to look at some more shops and then back to Market Square for Rick
Steve’s walking tour. He is very popular in the city, some shops even said they
were recommended by him in his books! We began with Market Square and were sad
to discover one of the first things on his list was to watch the clock tower
open up and chime, but because they are doing some upkeeps to the building it
was out of use and we couldn’t see it. So next was Town Hall. There is two
different looking buildings for town hall and one has a tower. We went inside
to go up the tower to one of the best view points in the city, according to
Rick Steves. However, as you begin it is okay but once you get towards the top,
it gets very scary with narrow stairs and even a ladder to climb up to the very
top where it is very, very narrow! Heavens didn’t like it very much but we did
get to see a lot. It was a beautiful view. After that we went to St. Jakobs
Church, and saw the dog statue which symbolizes a story that the bell ringer
jumped out of his tower because he built a tower and another person built a
fancier tower right next to it, his dog followed but got stuck halfway down and
this is where the statue is. Although this is only a story. Inside it had a
beautiful altar, stained glass windows, and a huge organ. But the main event
here is the famous wooden, hand carved Altar of the Hold Blood which contains a
crystal with God’s blood inside. It was truly amazing at how old and beautiful
it is. We also witnessed some men performing a song, which was random but cool.
Next we walked to Covent Garden, which is not the same as the one in London,
this one is literally a garden and very tiny. Then to the Castle Gardens where
there once stood a castle that was partially destroyed with bombing but also the
bricks taken and used elsewhere. Although there are some beautiful views there
and I found a house that I absolutely love but would never live in…scroll down
to see! Next we walked to the Christmas Museum- Kathe Wohlfart’s Christmas
museum, very famous. The museum part was not so amazing, but the shop was
outstanding. First of all giant, so many floors I don’t know if we saw it all,
a giant, 3 story Christmas tree and decorations everywhere. Although, very
expensive, so we just looked around. We did learn a little bit during the
museum visit, like the history of the Christmas tree. It began in Germany when
they would hang the tree from the ceiling and use candles instead of lights,
which caused lots of fires. They travelled out of Germany via soldiers receiving
them as gifts and began to be popular in the US. Later on the angel became
famous because a man put one on his tree to remember his daughter and it caught
on. Finally, much later the US began using lights instead of candles. Next we
went to the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum. This was very interesting.
The crimes you were punished for, like baking bread badly and selling it in
your bakery, or a musician playing bad music on the street, or two women
gossiping or fighting. And the punishments you received were terrible- being
trapped in a cage and dunked in water, being put in the stocks, or having to
wear masks to make you look silly. These weren’t even the severe punishments,
those could cost you an arm and a leg….literally! You could be pulled apart,
limb by limb, beheaded, or hung! There were three floors of pictures, replicas,
and original torture devices. Very interesting.
After the museum we went to a café and got a coffee and an onion
pastry..got to love them! Then back to the hotel to nap. Then we went to an
Italian restaurant for dinner. We still tried to eat German food by ordering
Ribs and Schnitzel though. Then we went on the Night Watchmen’s Tour. The Night
Watchmen dresses up and carries and axe and lantern. He was very funny and informative. He explained that back in the old days it was
a very low class job but it was important to guard the walls and keep an eye
over the city. They would be in charge of telling everyone to go to bed and if
you were not inside the walls before time was up they would lock you out. The
only back in would be through a tiny door inside the bigger door and it would
cost you a lot to get through. He explained that Rothenburg has been through a
lot. It was very rich, then poor, then rich, then poor, then almost
non-existent, and now rich again. He said they almost died out because of
plague, war and bombings, but barely survived even though nothing happened for
hundreds of years. They were saved during the war by an American Military Man
who loved the beauty of the city and years later by artists who also loved the
city. This brought tourism back to the city and made it the wealthy place it is
today with 2,000 overnight visitors every day and many more who come just for
the day. Only about 2000 people live inside the walls. You can now pay 1000
euros to help fix up the wall, as everything must stay preserved and have your
name put on the wall. There is even one family who after generations and
generations still live in the house. They had old fashioned door bells but had
to disable them because tourists ran them all the time lol. It was a nice tour
and great to see a different side to the city, as well as the tour guide was
hilarious. He even made a DVD so that we didn’t have to remember all the
information lol. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel to go to bed.
5th- Today we got up early again to eat breakfast
at our hotel, then we finished up some shopping while the shops were still
open. Then we headed to the wall. You can walk the wall almost the entire way around
the city so that is what we did. Along the way seeing the names of all the
people who have paid to help fix it up. It was a beautiful view as well to see
the city and the surrounding areas. After we looked in a few shops and again
went to a café for onion pastry and coffee. Then on our way back to the hotel
looked in some more shops. We went to take a nap before dinner. Then we were
walking to a pub that Rick Steves recommends and saw a marching band in the
Market Square. They were celebrating the holiday where the Berlin wall came
down. They were even going to have a performance but we decided because it was
in German, and we were hungry to go eat dinner. However, Rick Steves did not
mention that on a Saturday night you should make reservations and therefore we
couldn’t get into the pub so back to the Italian place, but this time for
pasta!! YUM! We also met a tour group from America so we were chatting with
them the whole night. We even forgot it was our anniversary! Oops! On the way
back to the hotel we stopped and got some snowballs to take back home with us
and then back to the hotel for bed.
6th- Today we got up early for breakfast again
and this time after breakfast packed our bags, said goodbye to Norry, and
headed out. We stopped in Zwichau to see Annette (our new best friend in
Germany, and also my boss) on our way home and chatted with her for a few hours
then home to relax as it is back to work tomorrow.
Until next time,
¬D¬
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