The Romantic Road of Germany

We spent two nights in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is a medieval city that has much of its wall still intact. We used Rothenburg as a jumping off point for towns along the Romantic Road.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

We toured the Medieval Crime Museum in Rothenburg. It was pretty creepy.

Can you guess what these tools were used for?

Also at the crime museum. These shaming masks were used for citizens who did things like gossiped too much or told dirty jokes.



 The two of us standing on the medieval wall still intact in Rothenburg OBT

The first day we drove north to Wurzburg and checked out Residenz, which is a huge palace dating back to the end of the Baroque era. The inside of this palace was impressive with huge pieces of art everywhere including these massive, gorgeous murals on the ceilings and walls of some of the rooms. Sadly, much of the palace was destroyed in WWII, but thanks to some impressive restoration work it is still amazingly beautiful. And I can now say that I have stepped inside a room that Napoleon has slept in. How cool is that?

Outside of the Residenz in Wurzburg. Sadly, no cameras allowed inside. Trust me when I say it's a must do if you're in the region.

Flowers in the garden of the Residenz

Another selfie. This one in front of Residenz in Wurzburg

Later that evening, after exploring the rest of the northern stretch of the romantic road, we returned to Rothenburg OBT to take the highly reviewed Watchman's Tour. It was excellent! The tour guide really makes the tour. He is hilarious and his tone of voice is great. I loved hearing the history of the walled city from its medieval beginnings to its near end during WWII. Fortunately, the city was spared.

Me with the famous Rothenburg Watchman

Rothenburg all lit up at night

On the second day of our time spent in Bavaria, we drove along the middle and lower part of the Romantic Road, which by the way is not A road, it is a series of roads that connect several historic towns. There was no time to stop and see all of the towns, but we did walk around several of them.

Here are a few pictures of the towns I recommend stopping at.

Rothenburg OBT

Dinkelsbühl - Very picturesque little town.

Nordlingen - Cool for 2 reasons, 1: you can climb to the top of an old church tower and get this view. 2: The town was built on top of an ancient meteor impact site.

The photo doesn't do this church tower justice. It was HIGH.

Selfie on top of the tower in Nordlingen. This was no easy climb! We are basically 20 stories high and we had to take the stairs the whole way!
 

The next day, my 28th birthday, was spent in Fussen, which is at the very bottom of the Romantic Road and at the foothill of the alps. More on that in another post...