Apr.26 Wed. Day-2 - Rothenburg

Jan's phone app says we walked almost 6.8 miles yesterday.   Not sure how accurate this number is ..but.. my knees agree with this estimation!

Bright cold skies greeted us this morning.   Upon entering the breakfast area the owner greeted us with ... "it is cold this morning, it's 1-degree (C)!!"  .. which is 33-deg.F .. still cold!   We enjoyed a hearty breakfast.  Here's a few pics :

Afterwards we were ready to walk outside the walls.   Here's some pic's :

This was the first corner we came to :

We had to cross over on a covered footbridge to continue on the trail :

We went around another corner :

You'd think we were a couple of tourists !

Even though we were much smaller than the wall, we were still very high overlooking the Tauber River valley :

Then we arrived at the spectacular Castle Gate.   This was situated at the start of the area that extends out to where the imperial castle (1142) used to be located.   Here's what it looked like before an earthquake destroyed the castle complex in 1356.  The stones of the ruins were used to start building the city wall.

Now it's the site of a beautiful garden with spectacular views.

From this promontory here are a few views looking to the south from later in day when the afternoon light was better :

In the lower right hand side of the pic above is the small Church of Our Lady to Kobolzell, built in the 13th century as the church for the fisherman village of Kobolzell on the Tauber.

We traveled along the wall a little further then entered through another gate and we found .. the catholic church of St.John, established around 1200 as a church for and by the religious order of the Knights of St.John of Jerusalem.

It's a very small church.  The organ was installed in 1886.

The four shell limestone pillars were put on high pedestals in 1604.

We were ready for a coffee and treat break.  Time to enjoy a Schneeballen !!

We chose a cinnamon one .. it was .. OK .. not as good as a maple bar :)

For our last few hours, we walked through several more streets and said our goodbyes to this fairy tale town.   Here's a few more 'interesting' pic's :

What a very interesting medieval town for us to discover in two days.   You would think you were on a middle ages movie set or a large Disney attraction!   I think tourists have been coming here for hundreds of years.   Definitely .. worth a visit!  On to the train station and to Bamberg in the morning.   The adventure continues!  Hope you're enjoying the pics.    Take care.