It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Rothenburg, Germany is a magical walled city that is home to the largest year round Christmas shop in Germany,
Kathe Wohlfahrt. The shop is open year round and is modeled after the annual Christmas market in the town square. I would love to go back to Germany during December to enjoy a holiday market filled with gingerbread, mulled wine and booths of Christmas goodies.
Here is Rothenburg decked out for the holidays with a fresh dusting of snow! To plan a trip in December to Bavaria consult this
site for a list of all the markets and outdoor activities.
Rothenburg is on the Romantic Road, see map below, that starts in Wurzburg and ends at Neuschwanstein. When I first visited Rothenburg in 1999, after my semester abroad in England with my family, we ended up at the wrong Rothenburg wondering where the walled city was...luckily we were only 45 minutes away. So it is important to type the full name of Rothenburg ob der Tauber into your GPS.
For this trip we arrived by car from Heidleberg. We decided to rent a car for a few days while we explored Bavaria since many of the castles that we planned to visit were not close to train stations. It is still possible to visit these locations with public transportation but more planning is required.
We stayed at
Goldener Hirsch Gastehaus, our room was across the street from the main hotel in the blue building in the photo below. Breakfast is included, wifi is 1 euro and parking is 6 euro a day adjacent to the hotel. Make sure to find a hotel that has a lot close to your actual room or you will be hauling your bag over cobble stone streets for blocks. We chose this hotel because it was with in the walls of the city, it is a few blocks from the town square and it is reasonably priced.
This intersection is quite picturesque and can be found on artwork sold throughout Bavaria.
We arrived in town on the afternoon on the last Wednesday in September. I was expecting to see a a ton of tourists but they must of been in Munich for Oktoberfest (don't worry we go there too!) There were a few buses of people but not overwhelming. We went shopping at Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop to buy ornaments, smokers and to see the museum on the second floor.
After dinner at a quaint restaurant, off the main square, of delicious Bavarian fare (read meat, potatoes and beer!) we stopped into a cafe to have a schneeballen and a latte. Schneeballen, snow ball, is a pastry made out of strips of dough folded around into a ball, deep fried and then coated with powdered sugar, chocolate or other flavored toppings and it originated in Rothenburg over 300 years ago. I prefer the simpler ones compared to the ones we bought here.
Right after breakfast we set out to walk the historic wall surrounding the city. Rothenburg is a very well preserved walled (fortified) medieval town that has been featured in many movies including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a few Harry Potter films and inspired Walt Disney for the animated film Pinocchio - Geppetto's village.
There is an elevator (2 euro) that will take you to the top of Town Hall so you can get a birds eye view of the town.
Cedric enjoyed tagging along for this adventure
Jessica@The Independent Travel Cats has written a very informative
blog about the top seven things to do as well as history and other pertinent details when visiting Rothenburg o.b.T
Our other stops in Germany:
Cologne,
The Rhine River by ferry and train,
Burg Rheinfels - traveling the Rhine,
Marksburg Castle,
Burg Eltz,
Heidleberg
Have you been to a Christmas market or plan to visit one this season?
Cheers,
Amy
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