The Romantic Road, Frankfurt to Rothenburg, Day 6

We awoke bright and early the next day--which with kids means we made it out of the hotel slightly before checkout time--only 125 miles of driving on the day's docket. This was our first official day on the Romantic Road (die Romantische Straße). Yeah!

Here's a good description of the Romantic Road from Germany's tourist website: "For more than 50 years, the hallmark of the Romantic Road has been its wonderful combination of nature, culture and hospitality. Germany's most famous and popular tourist route runs for 350 romantic kilometres across a rich and varied cultural landscape along the river Main and through the Franconian wine country to the Alps. This fantastic route between Würzburg and Füssen offers visitors the opportunity to see small historic towns with impressive buildings and places of historical interest that have lost nothing of their original charm. The route leads through the charming Tauber Valley, the Nördlinger Ries situated in the heart of a giant crater, the picturesque Lechfeld plain, Pfaffenwinkel (Parsons' Corner) - a land of farmers, artists and monks in the foothills of the Upper Bavarian Alps - before finally ending up at King Ludwig's famous fairytale castles." http://www.germany-tourism.co.uk/EGB/highlights_of_germany

It gives you a glimpse of why I wanted to see this particular part of Germany. Cool, huh?

Our main stop on today's route was in Wursburg to see the Rezidence. This magnificent baroque palace, complete with incredible gardens, is definitely worth the stop. You can't take any pictures inside, which just about killed the photographer in me, but the palace feels like you've stepped into Beauty and the Beast, with massive, ornately carved columns and archways, sweeping stairways, immense rooms, and incredible artwork throughout. We didn't actually see Belle or Beast, but the gardens truly were stunning (see pic), and it was a fantastic excursion despite the rain.

Then it was on to Rothenburg. Rothenburg is a walled medieval town tucked into a breathtaking, heavily-forested area with sweeping hills and lush valleys. On the drive, the road twists and turns, every bend offering a fresh view of the "ooh" and a slightly different glimpse of the "ahh." It was everything I dreamed it would be, and I LOVED it!

Upon arriving at our B&B, we found that the booking agent had only reserved one hotel room for us instead of two. Luckily the owners would cut us a deal for the second one, charging us only slightly more than double the quoted price for the convenience of having a place to stay for the night--lucky us. We didn't really have another option, so we paid for both and headed into town.


The first thing we all did, of course, was scramble up onto the wall that encloses the original city. Hundreds of years old, you can almost feel the history around you--centuries of people living in the city for safety, busy city life bustling in the streets below, and the nightwatchmen walking the walls to make sure all were safe and the city didn't catch fire. What life must have been like for them! (I was almost envious until we went to the Crime and Punishment museum the next day and it put it all in perspective...) We then spent some time just walking the beautiful town, enjoying the picturesque streets, quaint storefronts, and interesting town square.

We even went to an interesting toy museum, with dolls and other toys dating from the 1700s; this was not Derik's favorite part of our trip.


After the museum we passed the time until the nightwatchman's tour at 8:00 with a little shopping and some fantastic dinner (yep, more schnitzel, some amazing fish, and apple streudel to die for). The nightwatchman tour is given by the actual nightwatchman of the town, and his descriptions of the town and history of the area are witty and entertaining, making the tour a definite must-see. (He doesn't care much for energetic, talkative six-year-olds talking so much that he can't do his spiel and ruining his punch lines, though... If that were to happen to someone, ducking out of the second half of the tour and buying his DVD the next day would be a good solution... It's an interesting DVD.)