Day 7 - The Romantic Road

Today is a rainy day in Munich. I needed to do light and easy from yesterday’s tour. I signed up for a 10 hour, 350 mile tour of Harburg and Rothenberg along The Romantic Road in a Greyline Tour bus. The Greyline is the rich brother of the Greyhound bus. It’s a double decker with an amazing view on top and no weirdos sitting next you. This is not my typical tour but as I learned from my brother Eric, “You will win some and lose some but you’ll never know unless you do it.”

I could have done this trip on my own. A high speed train is available to Rothenberg but I wouldn’t get the pleasure of “Helga” blaring all the sites and history at me via the bus intercom system. And, I only pay a few extra Euros for this bonus and not having to interpret train schedules. Although, it would be cool to go on a 300 KM train! 

The Romantic Road in medieval times was a trade route that connected the center of Germany with the south. Today this region is thought by many international travelers to possess "quintessentially German" scenery and culture, in towns and cities such as Rothenberg and in castles such as Harburg and the famous Neuschwanstein. 

The gardens inside the castle wall.

The skies open up and the sun pops out. It is a gorgeous day when we pull into Harburg Castle. It is one of the oldest and best preserved castles in Southern Germany, completed in the late 11th century so this castle was built way before Columbus discovered America. It is a working castle as opposed to Newschwanstein which is/was for looks. It is one of the most amazing castle’s I’ve ever toured. Michael Jackson charted a private helicopter and flew to Harburg Castle. He wanted to buy it but the owner wouldn’t sell because it’s been in his family for over 700 years.

Well.

About 50 to 60 people lived inside the castle. If the castle was attacked, they could hole up for a few weeks because they had gardens, farm animals, a granary and most important a well. The well is 198 feet deep and it took 30 years to dig down to the river by hand. Whew! Talk about digging ditches for a life time. It took 40 minutes to bring a bucket of water to the top. They had a huge hamster wheel to pull the bucket up and had a prisoner in the wheel to run it. Needless to say, not many folks bathed inside the castle.

This is the only castle in the world with a ‘wooden eye’. The wooden eyes were carved out of wood with a hole in the middle. The bowman could turn the eye to shoot the enemies. 

Who's looking at you now?

Wooden Eye with the 'ball' missing.

Also, above the gate, is the ‘murder hole’ or ‘pitch hole’ and this is where they pour boiling tar or pitch onto the enemies. In German, the word for bad luck is 'pech' which is pitch. This comes from getting pitch poured on you - you have bad luck as it was certain death.

The metal smith always tested the chest armor by shooting a bullet at it with his rifle. If the bullet didn’t penetrate the armor, then it was approved. 

Chest armor

The shields were important when fighting. Shields had the families symbol painted on them. When one is wearing a helmet  with a metal visor in front, you didn’t know if it was farmer Paul you were looking at. If you looked at his shield and saw the red bull, you would know friend or foe.

 

In the medieval times, they didn’t have china or silverware. When plates and bowls arrived from China, it was all the rage as you can imagine. The dishes were shipped into one of the Italian ports and hauled over the Alps in wagons pulled by horses to southern Germany. The china had to be packed extremely well to prevent breakage. The plates and bowls were packed in butter to prevent breaking in the wooden crates. They would pour ice around the crates in the wagons for transportation. German’s don’t say, ‘Everything is okay.’ They say, Everything is in butter.’ Have I mentioned how amazing the butter is here? It’s delicious!

We saw an old chest but I was not able to take a picture as no photos were allowed in the room due to light exposure. Traditionally, a dog was painted on the inside bottom of the chest to guard the contents. The chest is where they would put all their gold and silver. if the gold and silver was stolen or spent, the saying in German when one is bankrupt is ‘down to the dog’.

Back on the bus for an hour and a half drive to Rothenberg. Big thunderheads roll in and it rains hard. However, when we reach the “Red City”, the sun comes out and it’s gorgeous again. Rothenberg is a medieval walled city with 42 look out towers. Walking over the wall and into town, I feel like I stepped into Hansel and Gretel’s neighborhood. The buildings are very traditional and haven’t changed. Big beams of wood, bright colors, lots of flowers hanging from the windows.

A special treat is made only in Rothenberg. It is called a snowball. The dough is similar to a Christmas cookie dough and it’s cut into strips and wadded into a ball. The ball is then deep-fried for five minutes. A filling is injected in the middle of the baked ball and the outside is covered with powdered sugar, chocolate, nougat, cinnamon sugar, etc. 

If I had not done Dachau yesterday, I might have done the Museum of Torture.  I saw enough yesterday. The fantasy of torture never seems to leave man.

Catholic and Protestant. Driving through the countryside you can tell when you are in the Catholic area because the churches have an onion shaped dome on top. The Protestants have a spire for a steeple. I don’t have any photos because it was too foggy this morning.

 

Cheese Truck! Yum!

Rothenberg experienced heavy allied bombing. Approximately 40 percent of the village was destroyed by the bombs and most of the houses inside caught fire and burned to the ground. Money was donated from all over the world to help restore the village back to it’s original design and look. 

My type of taco truck -
Full of Cheese!

We took the Autobahn home and as you know, there is no speed limit for cars. Trucks are only allowed to do 80km. Cars fly by in the left lane.  I would say I ‘won’ with this trip. I really enjoyed it. However, I might be down to the dog soon.