Today we drove the famous ”Romantic Road” to Rothenburg. Oh my! This grandfather of scenic routes took us through historic towns with striking buildings, cute little houses, historic sites and fabulous scenery all along the way.

Rothenburg, our destination today, is the best-preserved medieval town in Germany, scarcely changing in appearance for hundreds of years. There’s a 1.5-mile wall that encircles Rothenburg giving brilliant perspectives of architecture in the Middle Ages. The wall connects five medieval gates, complete with guard towers dating from the 13th to 16th centuries, and there’s a walkway on top the entire way. The whole of the walled town is a museum and we strolled the narrow cobblestone streets and admired the Gothic, Renaissance and baroque houses of fountains, and of course, we shopped in a few of their many adorable shops. This place just feels like Christmas!

First, a few photos from our drive along the Romantic Road.

On our drive along the Romantic Road, we saw small villages and lots of rich farm fields like these.

Lots of windmills. Our guide said that some farmers had switched to just ”raising” windmills because the government will pay them $10,000 to $20,000 for each windmill on their land.

We saw lots of solar panels here, sometimes whole fields covered with them or entire farm building roofs covered with them like this one is.

I loved the little villages we went through with houses right next to the road. But it was hard to get photos, especially in the countryside, because the bus moved so fast that mostly what I have are blurs. Lots of houses, like this one, have turned their small front or side yard into a combination of flowers plus an impressive vegetable garden.

 

A makeshift fall market in one of the villages..

 

Then we arrived in Rothenburg and our guide led us off on our walking tour.

This is a part of the 1.5-mile wall that encircles Rothenburg. Wish we had had time to walk on top of the entire thing.

A building used for storage during the War.

 

How cute are these buildings!

 

A good-looking sausage shop with many, many different varieties of sausages.

 

Chuck standing in front of a very large advertisement.

 

Isn’t he adorable! And big!

 

Another fun window display. Many of the shop windows, like this one, were Christmas-themed.

Another Christmas shop.

 

The city’s walled area is shaped like Pinocchio’s head. And there’s a long peninsula on one side (his nose) with a short tunnel that opens up into a park-like area with a small monastery or chapel next to a lovely little garden and a breathtaking view of the greater city area.  With all of the trees turning color, it’s gorgeous in this little secret area.

Another view from the peninsula that is Pinacchio’s nose.

 

Another view from ”Pinocchio’s nose.”

 

Another view from Pinocchio’s nose.

Wurzburg Bishops’ Residence

After Rothenburg, we got back on the bus and drove to Wurzburg where we visited the residence of the Wurzburg prince-bishops.  Built in 1720-1744, with the interior completed in 1780, it is now on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage List. 

The Wurzburg Bishops’ Residence is humongous!  It has a world-famous staircase with a ceiling fresco representing the 4 continents.  The ceiling is one of the largest frescos ever created.  The residence contains almost 400 rooms but besides the amazing staircase and fresco, only about a half dozen are open to the public, 3 of which were absolutely amazing.  Unfortunately no photos were allowed anywhere in the residence!  Bummer!

So now it’s back on the bus and return to the boat.  Tomorrow we’re going to Bamberg.