Early in the morning on Saturday the 12th of April, I took a day trip to scenic Rothenburg ob der Tauber with Cliff and Sarah of Regensblog.   Cliff already posted his write-up of the trip, and he included a ton of great pictures.

Rothenburg is incredibly popular with tourists, and it’s often featured in package tours.  The town is compact, but we walked past an astonishing number of hotels on the outer edges of town.  We had good weather and a very light level of tourist crowding, but I shudder to think what this town would be like in June or July.

One of my favorite things about Rothenburg is the wall.  Many towns in Germany still have intact sections of their original outer walls, but this is the first time I’ve seen one with the entire wall up.  It’s been rebuilt over the years, so it’s not all original, but it’s still quite amazing.

I mentioned it was scenic, right?  It gets used in film quite often.  In fact, sections of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows were filmed here.  Not on this specific street, but here in town.

There were a couple of great fountains around town, but none of them were actually moving water around.   There was a lot of construction, so perhaps they were turned down during the other work.

This is the town hall.  The tallest point is the Rathausturm, a tower that you can climb for the low, low cost of €2.

This elderly tourist couple was just really adorable.

Naturally, we climbed the tower.  You can actually see the outer walls, and the towers at intervals along the wall.

The wall is especially clear in this picture.

While we were walking around, we were all kind of amazed at this tree-  it had clearly been encouraged to grow almost as part of the building.  It was fascinating.

While walking around, we found a small cloister garden containing a very pretty green space.

I’ve lost track of which tower was which.  This one was on the western side of the city.

…but this one is the actual western town gate.

This face is set into the tower on the western gate.  It’s kind of interesting.

Did I mention how picturesque the city is?

This street is the Plönlein.  The tower to the left is the Siebersturm, built in 1385.  This is one of those views that people take pictures of quite a lot.   Seriously, just put “plonlein” into a Google image search and you’ll immediately see what I’m talking about.

It was just before Easter, so these wreathy crown things are starting to show up all over Bavaria.   I’m not sure what they’re called, but they’re always draped with colored eggs.

The design on the eggs is quite intricate.

This kind of archway appears all over town.

It is possible to walk along the wall.  There are stairs at regular intervals to go up to the walkway.

Wooden railings keep you from walking off the edge.

This house caught our eye because the seal over the door looks a great deal like Trogdor.

Seriously, it’s an ancestor of Trodgor.  Ready to burninate the countryside.

I think the wall may have been my favorite part of the city.  Right behind Trogdor, that is.

We had fairly spectacular weather for the day, also.  Blue skies, whispy clouds.   I secretly believe that the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber employs weather wizards to keep it pretty like this.

To break up these pictures of scenic Rothenburg, here’s a teddy bear blowing bubbles.  This is at a shop in town-  it took me a minute to figure out where the bubbles were coming from because it’s in an upstairs window and it’s not constant.

One last shot of the wall on our way out-  this was close to where we parked for the day.

Have you ever been to Rothenburg ob der Tauber?