A major part of our European motorcycle traveling style is that when we come upon something we like, we stop and enjoy it. We really don't generally have a 'punch list' of stops we want to do. So it was in Rothenburg. We enjoyed our few hours there the first day, so we decided to camp here one more night.
We had pre-ordered rolls from the local bakery which makes a Campground delivery every morning (fairly typical in Europe). We bought some meat, cheese, and orange juice and made our own continental breakfast before heading out for the day.
We first walked around our little village of Detwang. There's several hotels here as well as the Church of St. Paul and St. Peter. The church has bells that ring 4 times per hour 24/7! There's also another campground called Idyll located slightly closer to the river.
From Detwang we once again walked the mile long footpath up the hill to the old city of Rothenburg, passed through the northern city gate and rejoined the charm of this ancient city. We ended up walking the length of the city and verified that there was a 2pm English speaking walking tour. At the southern entrance to the city we once again had Greek food for lunch before heading back into the walked city. We eventually found an entrance to be able to walk along the top of the wall, and we did that until we reached an exit that put us back at the town square and the starting point of our tour.
Renate, our guide met us promptly at 2pm; and after watching the 2pm clock tower performance, we headed off on our 90 minute walking tour which went north to St. Jakob's church and then over to the local museum which was a former nunnery, the city park which was the former location of the castle that was the original purpose for the town, and back to the town square. While this tour was good, I really liked the Night Watchman's tour better because of the guide's delivery style.
If one looks at a map of the town, it sure looks like a duck's head, although our guides both referred to it as looking like a hat. The town museum looked to be interesting, so we headed back there and enjoyed seeing lots of history of the area. There is an impressive arms collection as well as a nice stein collection among many other things. We were the last visitors out of the museum at 5:20pm and walked the mile back down the hill (much easier) to our campground where we drank soda water and watched more of the World Cup. I could not keep awake, so we headed back to our tent by 8:30pm, and sleep came easily. This night in our little area we were joined by a German bicycle camper and a Dutch motorcycle camper.
Tomorrow we head for Nürnberg which has a walled old city and other historical sites. Stay tuned.
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