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.

Germany: Lack of memory: Heidelberg: 2 sensible methods

We started in Cologne and apart from the amazing size of the Cathedral building and the love padlocks on the bridge I have forgotten everything about it. This is because we walk everywhere with a map and then catch a train somewhere else and this is probably not a good way to have a holiday. You need to stop and think sometimes.

We knew that Cologne had been destroyed in the war so we were glad to see how well the town had been rebuilt. The next day we took the train to Heidelberg. The train journey was rather wonderful as it took us along the great Rhine valley and there are vineyards on the slopes. Heidelberg itself is sited on one side of the river Neckar,although there is a famous bridge going across, the town hasn't strayed over much. This was where I rebelled and demanded we get a guide book as we had no idea what was what in town; although you can guess that all the buildings are very historical and probably owned by the university. There is a brilliant travel bookshop in town but they had only one guidebook to Germany in English, and this was where Rick Steve, author of Germany 2014, came into our lives. This is is his incredibly helpful entry on Heidelberg:

Lowlights
Heidelberg
This famous old university town attracts hordes of Americans. Any surviving charm is stained almost beyond recognition by commercialism. It doesn't make it into Germany's top three weeks. 

 So this was very disappointing and also very untrue, because there we were in early August and we didn't hear any American voices, and we saw plenty of Japanese, Chinese and Korean people (maybe students at summer school?) and as the day turned to evening we had many of the cobbled squares to ourselves. Yes, there were many tourists on the hill seeing the castle and the castle gardens, but by no means so many that we couldn't enjoy the place! The views are lovely and the river is peaceful. We had dinner in the student canteen which is where I enjoyed the second example of brilliant German practicality. There is a buffet for all the dishes on offer. You take a plate and help yourself. I thought (wrongly) it would be an all-you-can-eat buffet and this encouraged me to be a bit of a pig, which isn't sensible. I probably took too many curried chick peas and a surfeit of spicy quorn glop. So how is it priced? By weighing the plate. This is so sensible I can't understand why I haven't come across it before.

The student canteen is in the old armoury. The town is full of make-do like this. We ate under the trees outside at trestle tables with students and sundry others. Apart from this, we were pleased to make the acquaintance of Robert Bunsen (in statue form only of course), as we had never realised he was German.

I should add that the first sensible German method was that for queuing for a train ticket - you take numbered ticket and then sit down on a comfy red bench until your number comes up. Queuing is never fun but this way takes some of the pain away.