Thursday, October 11, 2018; Day 6: Rothenburg

Got up around 7:30 am, got cleaned up and headed down for breakfast around 8:00 am. David still asleep. After a nice omelet breakfast, went back up to the room. David had arisen and was gone.

We pulled into Wurzburg around 10:15 am. We met in the lounge at 10:30 am to begin our bus trip to Rothenburg. Jennifer was our guide and, on the way to the city, clued us in on a couple of rules of the German language. First, "th" in German is always pronounce as a hard "t". Second, cities that end with the spelling "burg" (pronounced like "borg") denote a fortified city whereas cities that end with the spelling "berg" (with a hard "e") denote a city on a hill or mountain. She also told us that Rothenburg was essentially spared from destruction during WWII. During our tour of the city with a local guide however, we were told the city was 40% destroyed.

We arrived in Rothenburg after about an hour's drive and started the tour, which lasted about 75 minutes. Then we had free time until 4:15 pm. . On the bus, Jennifer gave each of us €20 for lunch. We ended up not eating lunch.

City Center

Beautiful half timber houses

People's church

City map

Inside the People's church

Main alter

Alter behind the organ

Espalier Pear Tree

 After the guided tour, we went to see the 16th century craftsman house/museum.

Then we headed off to a photo opt.

As we were walking, I noticed a very familiar symbol in the cobble stones. Our local guide had mentioned that Rothenburg was on one of the many paths to Sanitago.

Camino de Santiago

We saw a poster advertising the criminal justice museum. We decide to go if time permitted.

We then began our walk around the city's wall fortification. I think we got about one half way around before running short of time.

We quickly visited the criminal justice museum and examined the "tortuous" means they used to use to extract the "truth" from those they "knew" to be "guilty".

 Finally, on the way back to the meeting spot, we visited the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas store where I found son-in-law Stephen's stein.

Tomorrow (Friday) we are in Bamberg. Both David and I have a walking tour scheduled. When we depart Bamberg, we leave the Main River and start into the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal.Saturday, we arrive in Nurnberg. We have to be packed and will disembark the MS Esprit for the last time. After our day in Nurnberg, we will embark on the MS Treasures.

Our shipboard friend, Jean (San Francisco), sent us this picture she captured last evening as the sun set on the Main River. Thanks Jean!!