Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Our first experience in the German town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber was during a medieval festival. That experience was all kinds of amazing, but we wanted to see what the town had to offer on an ordinary day. We had heard rumours about a wonderful night tour and so we set out again to the cutest and best medieval town in the world - Rothenburg ob der Tauber!
This time we happily left our younger two kids with a friend and we were ready to explore for an afternoon of Medieval learning and fun!
Here are 5 reasons why Rothenburg ob der Tauber is simply fantastic;
1. The Wall
A walk along Rothenburg's medieval fortress wall is totally cool. This well preserved 14th Century city wall surrounding the old town is 3.5 km long. We didn't walk the whole way as there are several on and off points available, but it was so fun to be with the kids in a real medieval town!
2. Medieval Torture Museum....??!!
Yep, there is a torture museum...gross. The Rothenburg Medieval Crime and Justice Museum is definitely a one-of-a-kind. I was way too squirmish for that particular experience, so I split off from Ross with my younger girls and he took Levi and a friend into the chambers of hell....mwahahaha!
They of course loved it and emerged with all kinds of gruesome stories about the horrible things they had seen. My husband returned laughing about something called a 'shame mask', used to punish gossiping or talkative women! ....very funny....NOT
Another favourite was this punishment for squabbling women, they were locked together until they could resolve their differences!
I seriously considered constructing one of these for our kids on our European road-trip, you know, just keeping up with the local customs...
Most horrifying was the discovery that back in Medieval Times people were most definitely not innocent until proven guilty. They were tortured and if they withstood the pain for a certain length of time then they were deemed to be innocent! Often people just plead guilty so that they didn't have to endure the barbaric way of proving their innocence.
3. The Christmas Museum ( Christmas Ikea overload! )
In the centre of the fairytale German town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Christmas comes alive every day of the year! This town is the home of the Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas Village and the German Christmas Museum. Yep, that was definitely more my thing, endless christmas decorations in a adorable German village, yes please!
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014, the Käthe Wohlfahrt was our yuletide dream come true, however, as I'm usually running late in my life, sadly this day was no exception and the museum was tragically closed by the time we got there...
This was a bit soul crushing but my two girls and I still thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Ikea style Christmas Village where there is a one way path that leads past every type of Christmas decoration imaginable, enticing and cajoling the innocent observer to suddenly, desperately need to purchase ridiculous quantities of Christmassy things.
Luckily for our budget I was all too aware that we were barely squeezing into our car as it was (and I had recently purchased a fabulous cuckoo clock that I pretty much had to cradle in my lap whilst we traversed all of Europe..) and so sadly, I didn't buy a lifetime supply of Christmas decorations as I would normally like to.
Hmmm, maybe I'll have to go back...
We particularly loved the German Christmas pyramids, they are hand crafted wooden windmills that spin from the heat of a candle. These beautiful decorations are thought to be the predecessors of the Christmas tree.
