Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Yesterday we took a day trip to the medieval walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tabuer (people just call it Rothenburg, unless you're really fancy). We went with the spouses club here in Schweinfurt, so we had the courtesy of riding in a comfortable bus that was driven by a man named Wolfgang - who even brought along a cooler of beer for his passengers. 

Vic, of course, took part in the bus drinking.

The city was beautiful ... it was like being inside one of those fake villages at Disney World - but the real thing.

 One of the guard towers ... I think it was built in the 1300's - you don't see that kind of stuff in America!

 Houses on the main street.

 The streets were all cobblestone.

 Alley way ... which was a little creepy after dark.

 Town Hall Square ... they had their Christmas Market going on. Surrounding the square are tons of little shops, cafes and restaurants.

Town Hall of Rothenburg.

After getting off the bus, our first order of business was lunch. We knew we wanted to do a big authentic German dinner, so we settled for a small Italian cafe and split a pizza. Vic added a cup of Gluhwein, which is huge at these Christmas markets. It's mulled wine that's served warm - pretty good, although I could only try a sip.

After lunch we headed to the Medieval Torture Museum - which is the largest legal museum in Germany.

 Spiked torture chair ... obviously.

 Real life chastity belt ... woman had to wear these when their husbands went away or if they were traveling somewhere alone.  Gross.

 They had a ton of these shame masks that people were forced to wear if they acted a certain way or violated some law. This was my favorite and was for a 'blabbermouth' woman. The ears were big to hear everything, the eyes were big to see everything and the tongue was big because they told everything. This mask would get a lot of use on an Army base!!

 This is a drunk tank ... weights were attached to the outside and drunk people were forced to walk around in them. I immediately thought of Lee Cleary when I saw this ... I can imagine she would have had to sport the drunk tank a time or two if she lived in the Middle Ages - and I probably would have been right next to her a couple times.

 This is the worst ... you had to sit with your hands shackled at the top and your feet through the holes - then then towns' people could walk by and tickle your feet all they wanted. Give me death before tickling.

 This is a huge rosary that you had to wear if you fell asleep in church.

 Executioner's mask.

 The cage looking thing to the left was for prostitutes, wild men and bakers who made their bread too small ... apparently they took their bread baking very seriously.

Tally sticks ... instead of paying for every drink, the bartender would make a notch and you had to pay when it was full. Kind of like a medieval credit card.

Vic in shackles outside the museum.

After the museum we did a little more sightseeing, shopping and started our search for the perfect place to eat dinner.

 Vic next to the wall that surrounds the city of Rothenburg ... it's huge.

 Christmas Market at night.

 In front of the Christmas tree in the square. It was freezing and this was right before we threw on extra layers, hats, gloves and scarves. I love when Germans notice that I'm pregnant because they always point and say 'zee baby' ...

 Vic in the doorway of some terrifying medieval manhole. 

 This was like a life-size cuckoo clock at the Town Hall.

These are the types of German restaurants that we keep finding ourselves in. This was the whole restaurant - only about 20 - 30 seats and you can see the kitchen from the dining area. Vic and I were the only people eating at this time, but it was full when we left an hour later.
This was our first authentic German meal, and we definitely picked the right place. Vic ordered jagerschnitzel, which is a thin breaded cutlet of meat (pork in this case) covered in mushroom sauce. I got hanchen-schnitzel (chicken) stuffed with ham and a cheese sauce ... pretty much a cordon-bleu type thing. It was amazing and we both had no trouble cleaning our plates. The waitress came over afterwards ... she was very happy that I ate everything and said, 'it is very good for zee baby'. Ohhh, I love zee Germans.

After dinner we met the rest of our group in the town square for the Night Watchman Tour. This was ran by a man in character who took us through town and stopped to explain different pieces of Rothenburg's history from the start to WWII.

Here is the Night Watchman kicking off the tour in front of the Town Hall. He was really in character and pretty funny.

 Here he is on the second stop of the tour talking about the plague - very interesting. 

 This is on the tour, outside the guard tower ... the picture doesn't do justice for how pretty this was!

The tour pretty much wrapped up our trip and we jumped back on the bus - and Wolfgang had even refilled the cooler of beer! We definitely want to head back here for a day trip when the weather is warmer.

Everything else is going well! We STILL don't have phone/Internet service, but it has been promised (again) to be turned on by December 22nd. I was actually thrown out of the shop earlier this week for yelling and causing a scene ... so it looks like Vic will handle all further phone/Internet issues. Our car is still floating on the ocean somewhere, along with our household goods. The Jeep should be here in the next couple weeks, but I can't say the same for our stuff. I'm guessing we won't get that shipment until the middle of February ... which really hurts to think about. Anyway, we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to check on Baby E ... I'll post pictures if we get any good ones!! Hopefully we will be able to make some phone calls and/or Skype right in time for Christmas!!