The Bailey Planet : Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Germany (Take Two!)

After we did a bit more exploring at Burg Colmberg, we made the quick drive to Rothenburg before the rain started. In fact, much of the day was surprisingly decent!

Gray and a little cool but not bad at the Rothenburg Rathaus!

Naturally, we had to immediately get a schneeball. Grant opted for chocolate (as you can see!) and Natalie opted for powdered sugar. And of course, half of her schneeball is on the ground in front of her!

Our friendly Mayor Nusch is on the right, and his challenger, the evil Count Tilly is on the left. Good thing he finished three liters of wine in ONE GULP and SAVED the city of Rothenburg from being destroyed in 1631. Of course, many know this is a fable, but it's such a fun story anyway!

Half timbers of Rothenburg. This is the famous Meat and Dance house. It was built on the foundation of the original Town Hall (Rathaus). They sold meat on the bottom floor, and it was a dance hall on the upper floors. You can't really see it from this picture, but there are little pulley systems at the top of each building. The kids thought this was really funny that they would have to haul larger loads up by a pulley, but we told them this is how it's done all the time in the older cities of the northeastern United States! Todd once had to cut a bed in half to get it up the stairs of a narrow building in Baltimore. If only he had a pulley!

The St. George fountain, which holds up to 100,000 liters of water! It was built in the early 1600s, and was previously a very important drinking fountain (although I wouldn't drink from it now!) Behind it you can see the St. Mary's Pharmacy. It was built in 1448, although has been a pharmacy since 1812. As it was built by Mayor Jagstheimer, many famous people stayed here, including the Emperor Maximilian I. It was also the home to our pal, Mayor Nusch!

Old town hall (left) vs. New town hall (right). The Gothic building on the left was built in 1250, and it extended to the right, but this portion of the town hall burnt down in 1501, so they rebuilt it in Baroque style.

The official measurements of the city of Rothenburg. The one Todd has his arm in is supposed to be a measurement of the arm from the finger tip to the elbow. (Although... really? Because Todd is a giant by today's standards!) Next to it is one that is about the size of a foot. These were used back in the medieval days.

If there's one man who loves Rothenburg ob der Tauber, it's Rick Steves. And they love him too! #RickSteveswuzhere

What the.... it might be a bird. Or a chicken. Or a mouse? Or a deer. Or a rodent of some sort. Or maybe one of the most disturbing animal statues I've ever seen!

The beautiful St. James' church.

You had me at fancy sun dial clocks.

Finished in 1485 (although started in 1311!), St. James' Church is a Lutheran church that many stop at on their pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain (which many believe holds the remains of the apostle James, although this has been debated). This scene above depicts Jesus in the garden, praying while his apostles have fallen asleep around him. Not long after, Jesus was arrested.

James is almost always depicted holding a staff and a seashell.

This troublemaker up at the alter of St. James' Church in Rothenburg.

In the front of the church, the stained glass is almost entirely original, placed in 1350-1400!

The High Alter (or the Twelve Apostles alter) was carved in 1466 by Herlin. The tabernacle (where the hosts are kept) is to the left.

Behind the wood carving at the alter is a painting of Jesus. If you walk back and forth behind the alter, you will find Jesus never takes his eyes off of you. The kids were baffled by this!

Looking back toward the organ of St. James' church.

Upstairs behind the organ, you will find a very important relic of the church... the Holy Blood Alter. It contains an alleged sampling (3 drops) of Jesus' blood. You can "sort of" see this in the glass piece in the center of the cross. Interestingly, not many reputable places mention this as I'm fairly certain they don't actually believe it's his blood!

Carved between 1499 and 1505 by the famous woodworker Tilman Riemenschneider, the main centerpiece shows a carving of the Last Supper. Judas, in the center of it all, is removed during the Easter time period for his betrayal. I'm not sure if you can see him, but John is laying in the lap of Jesus. Interestingly, the table itself is hard to see because the artist couldn't QUITE properly show the depth of the table. Although the detail in Jesus and the apostles is amazing, the table is actually awful!

St. James' Parish house.... OMG. Please. Buy me this.

Nothing super spectacular here (except the three cuties in this picture!) but notice the scalloped shells on the right side of the building. Many buildings in Rothenburg pay homage to St. James by including his emblem, the seashell.

Behind the Reichstadtmuseum (which we didn't go to because... children) is the gardens of the former Dominican monastery. They weren't looking all that super impressive, but then again it HAS been very dry here in Germany lately.

They still grow plenty of herbs here, including some which are poisonous. The signs show you just how poisonous they are by how many black crosses they include.

Cats of Rothenburg! Look at Natalie's face here! She wants to take him home! Too bad Daddy is allergic.

It's just a simple hotel, but it really took my breath away!

So, so German.

We stopped at the Weinstube zum Pulverer for some lunch, right inside of the Burg Gate. The wood carved chairs were a big hit! This restaurant was actually really good. Good food, great décor and lots of locals.

I LOVE this light fixture portraying the different towers around Rothenburg!

I know that in a few weeks all of the flowers will be gone. I'm just trying to hold on.

We went through the Alte Burg and into the Burggarten to run around after a late lunch. Ahhhhh die blume!

Looking down into the valley at the Tauber River. It's really beautiful! I would like to check out this bridge - the Tauber Bridge, or Double Bridge - at some point. It was originally built around 1330, and was renovated a few times since.

The last time we were in Rothenburg, the church that is in the Burggarten was not open. But this time, it was! After the massive earthquake in 1356, the only building within the Staufer Castle grounds that was rebuilt was the Chapel of St. Blaise. Originally, it had been a conference room where the king had received guests. But it was renovated and turned into a chapel. I don't know much about this chapel, but I certainly love the solitary face staring down on me from the wall!

Statue in the chapel with a pretty cross stained glass window.

The Burggarten isn't spectacular. But it is simple and pretty.

The Burg Gate is very well preserved. There is (if you look closely) the face of a man near the top between the two pointed tower corners in the above photo. From here, they used to pour hot pitch out of the statues mouth to burn the enemy. Gross!

You might not know, if you hadn't listened to Rick Steves audio guide (!!) that this unassuming square hole in the wall was where they would take a large piece of wood and reinforce the gate. (Grant! Get your fingers out of your mouth!)

This house has a cool story. This home has been in the same family for hundreds of years, and the front door is still wide enough to fit a horse and carriage! In 1540, King Ferdinand stayed here, and in 1546, King Karl V (Charles V) stayed here. There are front door bells hanging to the left of the archway that random people would walk by and occasionally ring! The family got a little annoyed and had them disabled.

Looking toward the Marktplatz down Herrngasse.

After our self guided Rick Steves walk and a quick trip to the Kathy Wohlfahrt store where we dropped some Euros on some future family heirlooms, we went back to our hotel. And this happened. It's exhausting spending money!

We ate dinner at the restaurant at our hotel (the Hotel Sonne) and then went out for the famous Night Watchman's tour. I'm fairly certain I would have absolutely enjoyed this had it not been very cold and VERY rainy. Also: The above picture looked WAY cooler on Todd's phone.

This guy has got it down. Even on a rainy night in September, he had a crowd of probably 75 people. And it cost 8 Euros per person. You do the math!

After a good night sleep, we tooled around in the morning, doing a little shopping on the Untere Schmiedgasse. We found this place that sold a lot of medieval knight sort of costumes and gadgets. In the basement, they had a little set up with a real dungeon!

The famous Plönlein, in the rain, with two cute kids. And Sara's awesome British flag umbrella that I won at her awesome Christmas party swap.

Siebers Tower with some of the prettiest building signs that I saw. There's one with grapes (they sell wine!) and one with a pretzel (they were a bakery/café!). The Siebers Tower is from 1385, and was the main entrance to Rothenburg for about 150 years.

Since it started to rain, we knew the best thing to do was just walk the walls of the city.

Please note my giant does not fit on medieval walls. In fact, about halfway through our walk, he had to get down off of the wall because his neck started hurting from crouching over too much.

The walls are lined with the names of companies and families who donated money to repair a section of the wall after the war. This person, from Pforzheim, donated enough money to repair 4 meters of wall.

For now, the greenery still grows along the wall.

This sign just made me mad, ha ha. Karl Fischer and wife. Geez, doesn't she have a name?!

After the giant got down off the wall, he was able to take artsy fartsy pictures like this. Looks like I'm rubbing off on him.

Me and the kiddos kept walking though, and we walked almost 3/4 of the way around the wall. Here we are approaching the Klingenturm (Klingen Tower).

Finally, we got down off the wall and began to walk outside of the wall at the Klingentor. (Tor = gate and turm = tower). We spotted this little park outside of the wall. The kids were in heaven, and I was annoyed cause everything was wet!

We ducked back into the gate and wanted to grab some lunch before we headed home. I took this picture because you can see the concrete blocks that adorn the corners of each building. They're here so that when cars take a corner too sharply, they don't destroy the foundation of the building! So cool!