We are parked tonight at Rothenburg ob der Tauber in a big car park with water & toilets next to a fire station, hoping they don't have any emergency call outs at silly o'clock. We travelled the 95 miles today avoiding, mostly, motorways taking country lanes and back roads with some pretty countryside and quaint villages. Not much traffic other than plenty of groups of motorcyclists on big throaty machines, quite a few Triumphs amongst them. One of the things we've noticed is that, generally, German drivers obey the speed limits so when it's 50kph that's what they do, 70kph and we all speed up, 100kph and I have a queue behind me! The other thing we've noticed is how clean Germany is. There seems to be a complete absence of litter both in the countryside and towns. I don't think this is because they have an army of litter pickers that come out at night and sweep the country clean, I think they just don't have a culture of dropping their rubbish wherever they like and it makes for an impressive environment. Of course, they may just have horrendous penalties for littering which brings us to the highlight of the day.
Rothenburg is near the start of the Romantic Road which was dreamt up in the 1950's to encourage tourism in Bavaria. It's a 300 kilometre route from Wurzburg to Fuesson taking in breathtaking scenery and picture postcard villages, churches and castles. After parking we set off to explore the old town of Rothenburg which is a bit too chocolate boxey we thought but it has a Kriminalmuseum! A museum exhibiting the laws, legal processes and punishments for criminals during the 15th to 17th centuries together with all the gruesome torture devices in use during these times. Seeing some of these instruments I'm hardly surprised at the number of "confessions" they obtained. The museum also held an impressive number of books and documents from that period, including highly ornate papers showing that apprentices to a variety of trades were now eligible to join their guild. A great little museum and well worth the €5 admittance.
No churches visited today though, we could see all the main features of the main one, which charged admission, from the entrance before we reached the kiosk and so like almost everybody else we wandered around for a bit and then wandered out. Besides, it didn't have a bell tower and so didn't present enough of a challenge to us!
Tomorrow we head for Nordlingen, another medieval town which has four museums.
Pat
Posted with Blogsy
Hey Pal,
ReplyDeleteI remember visiting Rothenburg in the dim dark past - I regret not coming across their Kriminlamuseum.
Hope your well!
naz
I followed you half way round Morocco and find it hard to beleive you are holding traffic up because you can't do 100kph unless the remapping has sapped you power. Second thoughts perhaps you were trying to shake us off your tail.
ReplyDeletePaul, I could do 100kph when diesel was 60p a litre! Here in Germany if I go over 95 I start checking my bank balance! You weren't a slouch in Morocco either, probably re-visiting your rallying days.
ReplyDeletePat