Have you ever thought of how Europe would have been in the medieval period? What if I tell you that there still exists a place where you can witness all of this? You are reading it right, there is a fairytale location right there in Germany where it feels like you are just living a fairy tale.
Rothenburg Ob der Tauber, situated in Bavaria region is part of the famous Romantic Road in Germany. It’s a beautiful town that has survived many wars major one being World War-2.
How is it being there?
So, we started early morning from Nuremberg to reach there by car. Right from the parking, we could see a huge wall which was used to protect this town from the war. As we enter the huge door of the town, we saw a tall height couple dressed up in traditional attire walking outside the door. The man was carrying a big gun on his shoulder, and the lady had a dead squirrel hanging around her waist-belt. It was just the entrance, and we couldn’t think of what’s more to come when we get inside.
As we entered in, we saw beautiful colourful houses with pretty flowers around windows that would make you feel that you are in a fairy tale. We moved forward to the town where they have actually recreated the look of the medieval period, the table, & chairs covered with animal prints fur, men explaining the history of the town (they have eagles, & vultures along with them to give you the true feel of the ancient times), & people heating up the iron in the old form, beating them with hammers to form beautiful necklaces.
By the time we reached the town hall, we started hearing the loud voice of the parade walking with drums, flutes, & other instruments. As we reached them we saw around 50-60 people were walking towards the town hall, all wearing traditional dresses to perform the act, & music on stage. Oh, it was awesome to see the way they enacted history.
We then took our lunch & moved towards the Christmas market & museum. It is undoubtedly the most beautiful market we would have imagined for Christmas shopping, it’s a not be missed thing if you like to purchase beautiful accessories for Christmas trees. We would recommend skipping the museum though as it was not very interesting in comparison to what we were visiting.
Then, we went to the huge wall that covers, & gives a view of the whole of the town. It was so beautiful to watch it from there, that we didn’t want to come down from there. People in traditional clothes moving around in a medieval town having colourful beautiful houses, who would like to move to see such a beautiful view. We wrapped up from there at around 7 PM after watching an ancient style band performance.
Few facts about Rothenburg Ob der Tauber:
- Filming of Movies Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows –Part 1 (2010), and Part 2 (2011) was done here.
- The name “Rothenburg ob der Tauber” means “Red fortress above the Tauber” in English. Rothenburg is built on the plateau of Tauber river, so this name was given.
- There is one more place in Germany named “Rothenburg”, & hence people often get confused between the two.
- During the middle ages, Rothenburg was the second largest city in Germany with a population of 6,000 people.
- It is often considered in the list of top 10 places to visit in Germany.
