Day 1,380
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
After 3 nights we finally dragged ourselves off Sigi and Nina's kitchen sofa and headed back on the road. Tom was soon feeling the love for his new bike, though it's more of a love/hate relationship with his new Brooks saddle! We wound our way along the beautiful countryside making our way to a campsite for the night. It was chosen for its proximity to the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We had a particular interest in the town, but first we settled in at the campsite. We quickly realised we were probably in our best campsite of the trip so far. Our tent was pitched in a quiet and very sheltered spot, close to the shower block which wouldn't have looked out of place in a 5* hotel. There was a shop, restaurant and warm lounge to relax in, all just yards from our pitch, we were seriously happy.
The lovely Sigi and Nina, in their very cosy kitchen
Clean and warmed up, we left the bikes and walked uphill to Rothenburg, founded in 1195 when a castle was built by Prince-Bishop Rudolf 1st of Verdun.The Castle took its name from the colour of the bricks, rot, or red, burg meaning castle, hence Rothenburg! Over the years it has changed hands many times, but we were interested in a particular date when it actually didn't!
Back in 1631,and as you history buffs will know, that means right bang in the middle of the 30-Years War, the town was Protestant and back in the day the commander of the Catholic League, the Count of Tilly wasn't too impressed by that, and decided to burn the place down. The locals pleaded for their homes and their lives but old Tilly wasn't having any of it. So the wise folk of Rothenburg came up with a cunning plan, to offer him some local wine. He had a drink, which clearly softened his opinion and he set the town a challenge. If one of the townsfolk could drink in one go a whole gallon of this wine, he would spare the town. However, if they failed they would be killed on the spot. Never one to shirk a challenge, and probably feeling a tad thirsty after all that pleading, the local mayor, Georg Nusch, stepped up. The rest as they say is history. He downed it in one, Tilly spared the town and good old Georg's brave act is celebrated to this day. Daily from 10am to 10pm the drinking challenge is recreated by two windows in the 17th century Ratstrinkstube Clock Tower, which open to reveal Tilly on one side and Georg, tankard in hand drinking his beer, in the other. If you pop to the town around late May the descendants of those grateful townsfolk recreate the event in a performance of a 1881 play written about the incident. Now I may be wildly inaccurate here, having never seen the play, but I bet a bit of beer is drunk that day!
The window opening is, to be honest, rather underwhelming, but the town, oh my that's another matter. We wandered around for hours, street after street lined with medieval houses, churches, towers, seriously there must have been a whole clan of Rapunzels here, encircled by town walls and a moat. People live here, businesses thrive, but it's all so wonderfully done we felt we had woken up a few hundred years ago. We loved it, I'm sure in the height of summer it's hell, but a cool day in March it was just perfect. Go, go now, you won't be disappointed!
A cold night in the tent, but worth it
