Fri-Sat September 30-October 1

Friday-Saturday Sept 30- Oct 1
Took off early from Beilstein on Friday, leaving the misty morning river and rising up onto the high plateau in more brilliant sunshine. The weather has been Fantastic – mid to upper 70s each day. I’m running out of warm weather clothes and sunscreen – that is NOT a complaint. We drove west and slightly south toward the German “Romantic Road” which runs south from Wurzburg to Fussen. Destination Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
RodT was one of the largest and most important medieval cities in Europe. A strategic stop on both the North to South and East to West trade routes, it had everything until the 30 year war between the Protestants and Catholics (the fight at least at the start of the war). At one point a 40,000 strong army of the Catholics overran the city of 6000 and impoverished them with bribe payments to let them live – then killed everyone anyway. Over the next decade, the town was overrun repeatedly, losing 70 % of their population to war or disease, all their funds, most of their farmlands, and many villages or buildings once under their control. For the next 200 years, the town wasn’t much of a prize and languished as a city. This poverty prevented any reconstruction or improvements to the town…and then came the tourists – another type of invader, but one that pays!.
Last night we took a tour given by the German Jerry Seinfeld…in the form of a 14th century Night Watchman. Informative, funny and a great way to spend Friday evening learning some warped history. Today, we took a hike around the top of the town wall and ramparts, then another historical walking tour which filled us in on more history. In March of 1945, the US bombed the stink out of this area – destroying 40%of the medieval town. An American general whose mother had a picture of RotD hanging in their living room as he grew up, and who told him stories about the town as a boy, apparently stopped another bombing of the town the next clear night and arranged a surrender of the German troops hiding here. After the war, the people of RotD published a plea in every major newspaper around the world asking for funds to rebuild; those funds are still pouring in from visitors. For 1000 Euro, you can get a plaque put upon 1 meter of the reconstructed wall.
Food sampling here has run from the weird to the delicious. Federweisser is a cloudy drink available only at this time of year. It is apparently grapejuice dregs prior to, or left over from, filling the wine kegs. It looks like a pulverized white feather, hence, we think, the name. The other, strange, food that has struck us here is something called a Schneeballen (snow ball). Rollout some pie crust into a rectangle, make a bunch of slices through the middle of it, leaving the edges intact. Then play cats cradle with the inside “strings” folding it into a ball and deep fat fry it…then add flavoring like, chocolate, amaretto, cinnamon sugar, peanut butter, coconut---use your imagination. Seems to be a bit of an addiction around here. However, pie crust is still just pie crust…
Architecture adds another bit of info to the pix included. It was required that everyone inside the town walls maintain 2 years of food, so each home has a high pitched roof inside which lots of grain could be stored. Didn’t help the town much with the 40,000 army as some idiot inside the walls entered the gunpowder storage tower with a torch and blew down the walls for a good distance. They’ve been reenacting the 2 day siege all day with cannon fire, Hungarian mercenaries, and little children dressed in period clothing running and screaming through the streets. Final act is when the town supposedly offered the conquering general a 6 pt “glass” of wine as a welcome and he offered to spare the city if the mayor could drink it all in one continuous swallow, which he did. The “Meistertrunk” action occurs on the hour with the town square clock providing the scene and show. No mention of the condition of the mayor afterwards…Of course, this story was made up in the late 1800s to entice more tourists. Off to Austria tomorrow.