A Week in Franconia: The Walls of Rothenburg ob der Tauber

While I was in Nürnberg, I went on a daytrip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This is a very picturesque place, picturesque enough that plenty of guidebooks have a picture of Rothenburg on their covers. And yes, now that I have been there, it does feel like an open-air museum. The preservation efforts of the city definitely is successful. Anyway, I got here first by taking a train from Nürnberg, and then connecting to a bus. The bus drove through fields, and right when you think you're in the middle of nowhere, you see that there's a town, a population centre, and there's a medieval Old Town, surrounded by massive walls. These walls were the first order of business, at least for me.

See, one can actually climb and walk on top of the walls. It is thick, after all. So I found a staircase, climbed it, and started walking the perimeter.

As you can see, these walls are thick, and there's a walkway that one can use to walk the perimeter of the Old Town. I was there one morning, and it was quiet. I was strolling these walls as the town was slowly waking up. The daytrippers (like me) aren't there yet. They would later come in droves, but for the moment, things are quiet.

You can see that the Old Town is not filled with skyscrapers, but more or less of equally tall pointy buildings, plus every now and then a tower.

After completing the perimeter, I climbed down, and explored one of these towers that guard a gate. It was round, and had some artillery that were pointed outside, ready to defend the Old Town if needed.