Rothenburg ob der Tauber

We recently visited and stayed overnight in the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. The Tauber is a river. This little town, founded in 1170, is quite "touristy", but it is really quite remarkable too. The entire town - and it's pretty big (16 sq mi) - has come together to keep the medieval thing going. Every store, every hotel, every individual house, every restaurant, everything in this whole town is quaint and beautiful. I can see why it was the inspiration for the town in the movie Pinocchio and is actually in scenes from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

As you may have guessed, the city has endured a lot since 1170. It became an imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire in 1274. Fast forward past the Thirty Years War and the Black Death in the 1600's. In the 1880's it became a tourist attraction and laws were created to prevent any major changes to the town. Adolf Hitler found Rothenburg to be the epitome of the 'German home town' and was hailed as 'the most German of German towns'.

In 1938, all Jewishcitizens were expelled from Rothenburg.

In March, 1945, German soldiers were stationed in Rothenburg. Bombs were dropped destroying many homes, towers, public buildings, and 2000 ft. of the wall surrounding the city. The U.S. Asst. Secretary of War , John McCloy knew of the significance and beauty of the city and ordered the use of no further artillery in taking Rothenburg in 1945. In 1948, McCloy was named Honorable Protectorate of Rothenburg. You can even see an American flag in the town square in the video below.

The Town Square

Every street is like this

Here's another one

And another one

The entire city is surrounded by this wall

View of rooftops from atop the wall

Check out this Christmas store

Everything was "just so"

Schneeballen.

Basically strips of dough rolled in a ball, fried and covered in chocolate or cinnamon sugar.

Lekker.

While I was in the Christmas store, Jim and Ross were checking out the bakery across the street from our hotel. Jim had Winslow so Ross went in to purchase this huge loaf of bread.

It came in this huge shopping bag.

Jim asked him to find out more information about the bread since it seemed the town was famous for it. Ross asked the lady if she spoke English and she immediately said no, but called for her co-worker who apparently did. Ross asked to know more about the bread and she said in her best English . . . "it's, uh . . . . baked? . . . in a, uh ?? . . . hot oven". Thanks for the info and while that is pretty much right,

. . . it's actually called holzofenbrot and it's direct-fired in a wood-fired oven meaning it is baked on the same surface in which the wood has been burned.

It looked like a huge snickerdoodle cookie and tasted pretty good. Crusty on the outside and dense and soft on the inside.

The city park

As I said, it's a bit "touristy" and we heard more Engels spoken here than in Texas, but I want to go back and see this place again - with Randi - with snow on the ground - and with Christmas lights.