A Thing of Past – II

On reaching Rothenburg odT train station, we checked the way to our hotel. Contrary to my imagination, about the quaint little town, a wall and a gate and all that, we were welcomed by a traffic signal. The lady at the information center had drawn the map for us and assured that the hotel is just 5 minutes from here, ours is not that big a town, you can walk – she said. But walk into traffic? Now, for that she had not prepared us. But we went down to the traffic light, turned right, walked a few meters and the old wall and its gate welcomed us! The concrete road turned to a cobbled old street and the imposing wall surrounded us by its very existence.

About Rothenburg ob der Tauber

This is a quaint, little old town, which has preserved much of its 12th and 13th and 14th century buildings. Contrary to Hitler’s orders, the Nazi military commander in charge of this town gave it up easily and the American Assistant Secretary of War knew enough history to ask the allied general not to use artillery while taking the town. So much of the old buildings, towers and walls are still preserved. In 12th century, a Hohenstaufen Roman-German king built a castle here and started holding his court. Though on a trade route, Rothenburg soon fell out of the charm as a capital city. It lived through the Staufer and Habsburg dynasties and became one of the 20 large cities of the Holy Roman Empire. By 1800s, the town became a part of Bavarian Romanticism and laws were passed to prevent major changes to the town. Since then this middle-Franconian town has been well preserved as a medieval town.

The narrow cobbled alleys and the omnipresent wall and its towers are a constant reminder of the past. The Old Town House, the Christmas Decoration Shops, the gardens and the observation decks in the wall – all are very charming. The view of the Tauber valley is also splendid. And the unkempt grass and weed (yellow and white flowers) sometimes growing outside the wall limits have their own beauty! Although the cars whizz past you on those cobbled roads, there is enough history for time travel! We walked on all the major alleys and roads, explored the gardens and walked through the wall.

On the Menu!

May be it was the influence of the history or may be we were just hungry, but we decided to have a German dinner. The size of the dinner was as big as an average German! But it was the menu that took us aback. We went to a place that can be roughly translated as Potato House. The menu had everything potatoes! You could order just the boiled potatoes, boiled but unpeeled, if you wanted to earn what you eat, fried, hash-browned, baked, French-fried, mashed – the way you want. Of course, all these were side dishes, the main ones being pork, more pork and some more pork and may be a small fillet of salmon.

Trees?

Even though there are enough old buildings around, what struck us was the absence of any trees on the streets and inside the walled-town. Many of the large trees were found in the gardens or on the slopes of the valley, but not inside the town. Was it by design or chance – we do not know.

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

We wanted to sample the original Black Forest Cherry Cake. Hopefully we did that in Rothenburg! We don’t know if it was the mom-and-pop shop that we were looking for, but it was one of those melting-in-mouth cakes for which we will always remember Rothenburg!

On our way back to Mumbai, I was asked so what did you like the best? Rothenburg; came an emphatic reply!