Rothernberg

Rothenburg walls and fire tower

Today we took an hour bus ride to the town of Rothenburg. The 30 years war left the town with no money, so they never modernized their buildings, leaving the interior of the city from the middle ages. A wall surrounds the town with many of the original fire towers. A picture of a night watchmen shows him carrying a horn to signal fires and an axe to cut off the head of anyone violating curfew. There are also 54 wells in the city, used for fire, not for drinking. Everyone drank beer or wine since the water would make you sick. We reached the central square where the clock, commemorates how the mayor saved the town from Captain Tilly. He made a wager that he could drink an entire gallon of wine in one continuous swallow. The fountain of the square gained notoriety when it became the model for Disney's Beauty and the Beast. 

Fountain in the square

The highlight of the tour was Kathe Wohlfahrt's Christmas museum and store. She got her start when a US soldier wanted a Christmas decoration to bring back for his girlfriend. She picked up 12 wholesale and found that she quickly sold all 12. During our free time, I went to see the Altar of the Holy Blood , carved by Tilman Riemenschneider between 1499 and 1505. There was also a beautiful altar of the Virgin Mary, all in a Lutheran Church.

Altar of the Holy Blood

After having the local food specialty for lunch, a beef strogonauf with spaetzle, I went to the medieval crime museum. They had all sorts of torture devices like a rack and a iron maiden. I found out that an iron maiden wasn't filled with spikes and used as a torture device, that is just how a museum in the 19^th century depicted it, instead it was probably used as a shaming device to hold a woman. Other shaming devices were a neck flute, with a collar for the neck and restraints for the fingers used for bad musicians and a shaming mask with bells and a large tongue for gossips. There were other things in the museum like wax seals and miters. One of the more interesting exhibits was an elaborate birth certificate used to prove that a nobleman was of legitimate birth.

Neck Flute

Rhine-Main-Danube Canal

Tomorrow we enter the Rhine-Main-Danube canal. It is 106 miles long from Bomberg to Kielheim. It crosses the continental divide at 1340 feet using 16 locks between the rivers. The tallest are 82 feet high. Charlemagne was the first to propose a canal of 1.8 miles between tributaries of the Main and Danube, but only dug .3 miles. Ludwig 1st did complete a 100 mile long canal, 50 feet wide and 5 feet deep in 1846. It took 101 locks requiring two months to navigate. It was used until 1950. Nuremberg pushed for a wider canal from before WW II. Work was done between 1945 and 1972 for a 180 foot wide canal between Bomberg and Nurenberg. Work began then to continue the canal to Kilheim, completed in 1972.