Rothenburg ob der Tauber

We have had trips planned to different places for the last few weeks but then some thing would come up and we had to change our plans.  Which was annoying!  First, we had a leaky window and the only day our landlord could come look at it was the Saturday that we had planned to go to Bastogne, Belgium.  But then our landlord had to reschedule an hour before he was supposed to come over, and our leaky window still leaks.  Which is annoying!  Then, we were going to go to Strasbourg, France and Eric had work things come up, forcing us to stay close to home.  Which was annoying too!
So we decided that no matter what annoying thing might come up, we would spend Labor Day weekend in Rothenburg ob der Tauber!  Thankfully though, nothing did, so we didn't hesitate for a second and booked it out of town! 

Rothenburg (Row-ten-burg) is a perfectly preserved medieval German city surrounded by a medieval wall, and is the epi-center of Christmas trinkets.  I couldn't tell you much about the history beyond that because I was too busy taking pictures of all the cuteness.  

The hotel we stayed at for the weekend put us in their Gasthaus ("guest house").  We had a tiny 2 bedroom apartment all to ourselves, giving Eric and I a little privacy; The cutest little gasthaus/hotel we've ever seen! 

Actually, everything about Rothenburg is cute!  Cute buildings, cute restaurants, cute doors, cute cobblestones, cute everything!  

The head office of Käthe Wohlfahrt's Christmas company is located in Rothenburg.  I've heard that all of Germany becomes magical during Christmas time, but Rothenburg is supposed to be especially magical.  Since not a single one of our Christmas decorations made it here, I can't wait to see it!

Eric, Isabelle, and I had planned an entire weekend in Rothenburg.  This gave us all the time in the world to sleep in, stay up late, and do or see whatever we wanted, and weren't rushed at all like we were in Italy.  
We went on the Night Watchman's Tour, went to the Crime & Punishment Museum, went into the torture chambers & dungeons under the city, walked the wall, and shopped.  We enjoyed every second of it!

The Night Watchman.

The Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum has everything connected to medieval criminal justice- which after going through it, I'm not sure there was any "justice" in medieval criminal justice. 

A common punishment was to lock a person into this thing for a period of time. 

Chastity Belts- women would be required to wear this when their husbands would be away for an extended period of time, and/or if they would be going to an area where rape was common.  Only their husbands had a key.

This is a contraption that would pull a persons limbs off of their body.  Pull. Limbs. Off.

So then I guess we needed to go to the torture chamber and dungeons under the city because seeing contraptions that pull limbs off wasn't enough, we had to see where they actually did it.

I'm usually up for anything- while we're here I want to see it ALL!  But, I didn't think that seeing it all would take me underground.  I mean, it makes sense that a dungeon and torture chamber would be under the city, I just had never thought of it before.  My problem with that though, is that I am extremely claustrophobic- I have been for my entire life.  I lose all reasoning when I'm in a confined space and panic to an extreme.  I literally can not function.  So this part of our trip....sucked for me.

These things are red-hot pokers that would poke victims eyes out, or pull their ears off their head, or tongues out of their mouths.

I wouldn't have even gone down into the dungeons if Eric hadn't gone with us.  He's my level-headed half and soothes my energy.  It would have literally been impossible for me to even look at the stairs going underground without him at the bottom.  Anyway!  Enough of that!  I needed fresh air!

The medieval wall is a mile and a half long and goes around 3/4's of the city- the other quarter of the city is an 80 foot cliff that didn't need protection from a wall.  After walking the wall we left the city and walked around the moat (which, obviously, had been drained centuries ago). 

All along the way and all weekend long, we relaxed and just enjoyed the scenery.... and especially each other.  Our last weekend of summer couldn't have been spent in a cuter, better way!  And there was nothing annoying about it!

(Isabelle took this picture.  I had no idea until I was putting all of her pictures onto the computer.)