For my 23^rd birthday last November my husband surprised me with tickets to Germany! We vacationed there for a week and a half. It was an amazing, over that top gift that I loved every minute of. One of our stops in Germany was a small medieval town in Bavaria (the southern region of Germany) called Rothenburg Ob der Tauber. It had buildings dating back to the 1100’s! Plus it is one of the most well preserved towns from that time period. It is so beautiful!

The downside to traveling through Europe in the winter is that it is the off season for tourists. All the scaffolding and repair teams come out and that makes for super sucky pictures. So “the” picture spot in this city was not the best, BUT the whole town is super picturesque and we quickly found other spots to take cute pictures.

 

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Rothenburg ob der Tauber

We got off to a bit of a rocky start when, after getting off the train, we got to our hotel only to find it all locked up. When they said check-in at two, they meant it. Nobody without a key could get into the building. I guess that what we get for booking a super budget friendly hotel ($50 a night in Germany is fairly unheard of). So we lugged our giant suitcases with us as we got lunch and wandered around until check-in time. The suitcases on cobble stones were a nightmare, but once we got rid of the baggage we were able to really explore.

Walk the City Wall

First we walked to Old Town and walked along the city wall which is still the original wall and it wraps around the perimeter of the original town. Then we headed into the center of the town to the main square and explored all the cute shops they have. Since it was November a lot of the shops were completely dedicated to Christmas. They may be like that all the time but I’m not sure.

One shop that stood out was the medieval themed shop! It had swords, quills and lots of awesome beer mugs. There were so many cute decorations and toys, the weather was FRIGID that day so walking outside wasn’t the most fun thing so going into the shops offered some warmth. We also stopped by some of the specialty bakeries in the area to pick up the local treat: the snieballen or snowball. It is basically a ball of fried dough covered in frosting of powdered sugar. They look really cool but in reality they were really dry. You would need a huge glass of milk to eat one. But it was a fun idea!

Finally we decided to go inside for some dinner. We stopped at a cute little pub restaurant that served very traditional foods. My husband, Robin, ate rabbit and potatoes which I felt was very appropriate for the time period of the town.

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Kathe Wohlfahrt’s Christmas Store

After waiting a long time to warm up we headed back out only to find that it had gotten much colder! We went to one of the few shops that was still open: Kathe Wohlfahrt’s Christmas store. Which ended up being a very popular high end Christmas store. It was insane how many ornaments they had in this one store. They had wood workers there who were showing how they hand make all the wooden ornaments and the pieces for the Weihnachts Pyramide (Christmas Pyramids). It was really fun to see it all and of course I had to get a Christmas pyramid for myself!

Night Watchman’s Tour

By now it was about 6 pm but it was really dark and cold outside. We were waiting to go on the Night Watchman’s tour at 8 pm. So we decided to stop in at another place to get some hot chocolate and warm up again. After we ordered the hot chocolate and said that was all we would be ordering though the waitress became very rude and ignored us completely until we paid and left, so apparently that is a big no, no in some of these restaurants.

Finally it was time for the Night Watchman’s Tour. Where a gentleman dressed up as a night watchman from medieval times walks you through the town and tells you the history of the town using comedy. The tour was AWESOME! It was all in English and costs about 7 euro a person. It was one of the highlights from our trip and I definitely recommend going on the tour if you ever find yourself in Rothenburg. After laughing a TON we decided to head back to our hotel for the night and get out of the cold.

Unfortunately that was all the time we had in Rothenburg but I would have loved another day to explore a little more and see the church. We also heard a rumor about some underground tunnels or tour beneath the city hall that sounded fun. Overall I think two days there would have been perfect.

Things to do in Rothenburg Ob der Tauber:

1. Visit the Christmas stores
2. Walk along the city wall
3. Try snowball treats
4. Take stunning pictures with the old buildings and clock towers
5. GO ON THE NIGHT WATCHMAN”S TOUR!!

If you’re in southern Germany for a while you should also check out Neuschwanstein Castle! Sometimes I wish I could’ve lived in those days. I could wear gorgeous ball gowns, ride horses and live in castles. But then I remember they didn’t have heating or AC and I think maybe I’m ok living in todays day and age.