October 21 The Romatic Road and Rothenburg ob der Tauber
The Romantic Road is the scenic route from Munich to Frankfurt. We drove part of it today and saw picturesque villages, farmhouses and a walled city. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is said to be the only walled medieval city in Europe without a single moderm building. Apparently this town is usually filled with tourists but today it was relatively quiet which made for a very pleasant visit.
We spent most of the afternoon wandering the cobblestone streets and popping in and out of the many, many Christmas shops that fill this town. A storekeepter told me that it is too busy at Christmas time. It was neat to look at all the ornaments and to listen to the cuckoo clocks that lined many of the walls.
We stopped for coffee and pastry and then made our way to the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum a fascinating place that specializes in everything about medieval crime and justice...especially instruments of torture. The items that fascinated me the most
were the "shame masks" that had to be worn for various reasons. For example, if someone acted like a pig, they were forced to wear a mask of a pig for punishment. If someone told "smutty jokes" they were forced to wear a certain mask.The masks were made of metal and were tightened on the criminal's head. Apparently they were very painful to wear.We found a grocery store outside the town wall and after stocking up for the next couple of days, we made our way back to the camper, which is parked at a stellplatz just outside the town wall. We noticed very dark clouds when we were walking back and made it to the camper just in time...just before a torrential downpour.
The rain stopped after dinner and so we decided to walk the one kilometer wall that surrounds the town. We walked about half way and then descended into the town because it was too dark to see where we were going. We will go back tomorrow morning and walk the wall in the daylight.
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