Day 5: Medieval Rothenburg
Daily Briefing
Today began with a bus trip to Rothenburg, a Medieval walled city, and an important trading location on the road between Frankfort and Munich between 1150 and 1400. Our free time here was scheduled in the afternoon and followed by a fun evening walking tour with Rothenburg’s famous “Night Watchman”. Lunch was a picnic at the hotel with 4 other members of the group.
During the afternoon we visited the Crime and Punishment Museum which provided a fascinating look at “law and order” in the middle ages. Beautiful manuscripts displayed alongside tools of medieval torture gave us a view into the life and times of the middle ages. The museum is very well done. We also visited St Jacob’s Church to see the famous carved wood altar-piece known as the Altar of the Holy Blood (1499 to 1505). We found the altar piece to be amazingly detailed, no wonder it is considered one of the most spectacular wood carvings of the period. There is a second altar piece in the main church that is also very beautiful. We stopped for supper at a fun little sidewalk cafe serving really nice pizza (in Germany)! I guess pizza and gelato are good wherever you find them! The local guide for Rothenburg was the Night Watchman who provides a medieval tour of the city every evening. He deserves his reputation as a “don’t miss” attraction. Our group joined other travelers and we walked through the twilight city learning the details of life in the middle ages through the eyes of the night watchman, a critical member of medieval society, providing warning of night time attack or fire. The Watchman is quite a comedian and his insights into the life of the town were light hearted and very interesting. After the Nightwatchman, we took the chance to take night photos and meet the locals. While lining up a photo of one of the towers, Bob laying on the cobblestones to get just the right angle, we seemed to attract some attention. A lovely gentleman who was out for his evening walk stopped to chat and made us feel really welcome. Later 2 young men stopped and we had a wonderful talk with them about photography. They put tremendous effort into using their limited English to make us feel at home. The evening photo op was capped off with a light rain that made the cobblestones glisten. |
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