Rothenburg- A Christmas Tale

Overcast, with light rain

Gerlachshausen/Rothenburg/Schweinfurt

Awoke (seems like early after sleeping in yesterday) and disembarked in Gerlachausen.  We only saw parts of the city as we boarded the bus and departed for Rothenburg, The Christmas Village). Rothenburg is one of the highlights for Cheryl as she was dying to visit the Wohlfahrt Christmas Shop.  This historic medieval city was fun to walk around and see the half timbered homes with three doors, vertical to store their grains. The city was full of color and yes, rain today.

The Wohlfahrt shop has a Christmas Museum that was fun to walk thru and brought back memories of trees and ornaments, and  toys from the past.  Also reminded me of how old some of our current ornaments, that have been handed down, really are, too.  Of course, we could not leave the museum without wandering thru the store which is purposely designed as a maze for customers.  It took most of us at least 30 minutes of wandering around all the trinkets before finding the exit - hmm... Is there a sales technique here.  I doubt it, but after spending some significant money, we were able to exit.

 


Lunch and a walk or two, or was it three, down the hill and back.  First down and back up (emphasis on the positive uphill grade) for an ATM, down the hill for a purchase at a print shop, back up the hill and down again when we discovered the wrong settings on the camera for earlier photos taken.  Finally, with a few photos more, back up the hill to meet the group and go walk the city wall.  Oh yes, a steep climb of some 32 steps is required to access the top of the wall.  So here are the pictures, first, second, and third trips combine.  Hopefully it was all worth the exercise - I think I set a new record today with my pedometer.

Rothenburg held a special significance for Nazi ideologists. For them, it was the epitome of the German 'Home Town', representing all that was quintessentially German. Throughout the 1930s the Nazi organization organized regular day trips to Rothenburg from all across the Reich. This initiative was staunchly supported by Rothenburg's citizenry – many of whom were sympathetic to National Socialism – both for its perceived economic benefits and because Rothenburg was hailed as "the most German of  German towns". The US, knowing about the historic importance and beauty of Rothenburg, ordered the troops not to use artillery in taking the town, thus saving it from total destruction.


Walked a 1/4 of the 1.9 mile wall around the city, which gave us a birds eye view of the town of Rothenburg. Then back on the bus for an hour plus drive to the city of Schweinfurt.  It is famous for being the ball bearing capital of the world and heavily bombed during WWII because of this fact.

Our River Cruise Ship - River Aria