The quintessential medieval walled city in Europe, I actually booked a hotel here for two whole nights, and was looking forward to the drive from Munich up the fabled Romantic Road. We wound up having an extra night before we arrived in Rothenburg, which seemed exciting, as we were then free to find somewhere to stay along the Romantic Road. I was ready for the romance! At least visually, as I knew it would be none too romantic without my boyfriend.
We left the area outside of Munich, where we had visited Dachau for most of the afternoon, and a steady rain began. My mind was a bit muddled, and my thoughts were elsewhere, as I flipped through the guidebook and found the Romantic Road section. I found a town between Rothenburg and Munich, and punched it into the GPS, and we were off. After over an hour of driving, I realized that we were heading in the wrong direction. Mom is not much help with the maps or the GPS, so I pulled over and consulted five different maps, and finally realized we were headed away from our destination. After some swearing and reprogramming of both the GPS and myself, we were off again in search of the Romantic Road. More driving found us in the country, but it was triflingly romantic, and actually much less cute than the Black Forest region. I was holding out hope, because technically we were not on the Romantic Road, but once we found it, I gave up. It just wasn’t that cute. I mean it was cute, but not that cute. Not cute enough to receive billing as one of the best places to visit, worth two nights or more, and so on. We found our way into Dinkelsbuhl, our first stop on the Romantic Road, and it was nice. Got a hotel due to the continuing rain, which had a great breakfast spread. Wandered around, checked out the shops, of which there were plenty, and then drove on to Rothenburg, after of course arguing with the GPS and following plenty of signs which pointed us in opposite directions along the so called Romantic Road.
Got checked in to our cute hotel and had a wander about, finding more shops than I thought possible in a medieval walled city. Picked up some postcards, read about the town square and walls, had a walk through at least seven stores of varying size which sold Christmas goods. Thought we had become trapped in once, but eventually wormed our way out between the baubles and candleholders and steins and junk. More junk than anywhere else, I swear! And hordes of tourists all snatching it up. There is some beauty to be found here, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Rothenburg is great, but if I had to spend a week here, I would make sure I brought a few good books.
We had a nice time on the Night Watchman’s Tour, along with (seriously) two hundred and fifty other people. He told stories of Rothenburg from long ago, and also more recent tales, which were interesting. And watching two hundred people from Nebraska wander around in medieval Europe was a kick. At one point the Night Watchman asked the ground how many people live in Nebraska, as in, ‘What is the population of Nebraska?’ and most of the people in the group just raised their hands.
Tomorrow we are driving on from Rothenburg towards Berlin, and I’m looking forward to it. Going to be meeting up with my old friend Andreas, who I met during his trip around America many years ago. Should be fun times! Long drive up there, and hopefully the rain will finally let up. Still hearing from locals as we head north that this is the wettest, coldest June ever. I don’t dare tell them it’s because I’m here from California and I have a tent in my car which I planned to use to camp in, thus the bad weather.