Germany: Rothenburg: We didn't go by the romantic road

The guide book we used on our last trip, in Eastern Europe, is called Frommer's Europe by rail. I looked at it before we came away and it was very enthusiastic about the Romantic Road, so I decided we would take the romantic road from Wurzburg to Augsburg. But we left the book at home because very little of it deals specifically with Germany and we thought we would get another. Part 1 of my plan went well and so we caught the train from Heidelberg to Wurzburg enjoying beautiful views all the way.

View through train window - lots of this

 Also, I loved Wurzburg. It is nicely proportioned and seems like a homely market town, cheerful and comfortable, like Stamford, only bigger. The first day we just walked about with our new guide book, which had been so unhelpful on the subject of Heidelberg, and enjoyed the churches and the squares. At the town hall we went to see the WWII display, and were horrified to find that poor Wurzburg had been bombed with thousands of incendiary bombs only 6 weeks before the end of the war. It was completely destroyed. And that was not the whole story, for when the Americans came to liberate the town the townspeople fought them over nearly every house and you could imagine the confusion and rage over the place. So it was a rebuild. Nevertheless, the old town retained its charm and there was a great Rathaus, cobbled streets and interesting statues. I especially love the Madonnas on the street corners.

The second day we went to see the residenz (spectacularly baroque) and learned more about German history, and then caught the train to Rothenberg. The plan had been to catch the Romantic road bus, which Frommer's had considered one of the most beautiful routes in Europe, but our new guide, Stevie Nicks, (for we changed his name for being so opinionated) was less enthusiastic about it and so we caught the slow train to Rothenberg, instead of the bus, the town which Stevie considered the highlight of the trip. Stevie assured us we would have no difficulty in finding somewhere to stay the night because the many tourists that came by day were usually day trippers. However, Stevie was wrong; because we happened to arrive on a day when R'berg was hosting some kind of rock concert and every bed in town was booked up.

Rothenberg - medieval story book town

So we went around R'berg for a few hours just looking at the lovely well-maintained old buildings and pretty squares and soaking up the idea that this had once been a functioning town as one might find in old stories about rich merchants' daughters and wicked step-mothers- I spent longer than I meant to do seeing round a church guided by a local elderly lady, and admiring a splendid wood carving that had held a reliquary of the Holy Blood. We had beer and fries in a pub garden and managed to get away without buying anything in the long streets of tourist shops for here was the ultimate in tourist traps and a crowd of people taking photographs in all directions everywhere we walked; but our mate Stevie positively recommended it as being of more interest than Heidelberg. So we returned to the tiny village where we had changed trains and stayed in a proper German guesthouse for a change, eating German meat and dumplings and enjoying the peace of the scenic countryside. After looking at the map we decided to change our minds about the Romantic Road and go to Nuremberg instead.

I'm afraid my photos are never quite focussed but I hope you can see that this is a masterpiece. St James (or John) has his head on Jesus' lap.