1980 Rothenburg ob der Tauber (7/10/1980)

Thursday, July 10, 1980

Arrived in Stuttgart about 05:45 and sat in the waiting room for the 07:00 train to Ansbach (for Rothenburg ob der Tauber). A couple policemen came in to clear the waiting room of anyone without tickets (at least half the people there!). They came in again a few minutes later and had to tell one lady for the second time to leave, "Auf Wiedersehen!" After getting off at Ansbach and wondering where the schedule was posted, a conductor asked us if we were going to Steinach, and then escorted us to the train. At Steinach we boarded the 2-car diesel train to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The train had to blare its horn at unprotected farm crossings and stopped at bus shelter-type stations.

Distant view of Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Postcard of Rothenburg

At the Rothenburg station we washed up, then checked our bags in a locker. We wandered through Rothenburg in drizzling rain, visiting the city hall and the city gardens.

Ratstrinkstube mit Kunstuhr

We then found the Kriminalmuseum showing a torture chamber and lots of torture/punishment devices.

Museum ticket

Next we stopped for some Frühlingsrollen, which are German egg rolls with a spicy beef and cabbage filling. We also got "snowballs" which were confectionery sugar-covered balls of light pastry. We saw the city hall clock show off with the beer-drinking mannequins in the window. We wandered back toward the station; most of our walk was along the top of the wall surrounding the town. 

Rothenburg brochure cover

We stopped in a market for some groceries. At the station we discovered there were no buses that day along the Romantic Road. So we took the next train back to Steinach, then a train to Würzburg.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber Map cover

Map of Rothenburg

We decided to then go to Vienna, but to backtrack a few cities to catch the train at an earlier point. So we took a train to Frankfurt arriving at about 16:30. We still had a bit of a wait until the 21:00 train to Vienna, so we took a walk through Frankfurt. We believe we saw the city hall and the major cathedral of the city.

Frankfurt Rathaus/City Hall

Frankfurter Dom

In the Römerhalle, we saw an exhibit on marker stones. We walked along the main "drag," and then had dinner at a Burger King. It is turning out that a meal at McDonald’s is even cheaper than buying our own groceries. However, we are really overdoing our food budget. Back at the station we thought to take a ride on the S-bahn, but my immediate impression was that it seemed to go only to neighboring cities (i.e., Mainz, Wiesbaden), and that we might not be able to take a very short round trip.

Franfurt Map cover

Map of Frankfurt

So we went to the computerized train information machine, and managed to punch in Venice when this little kid paused between getting a hundred different print-outs. To go to Venice from Frankfurt, we would have to change at München, so we will continue with our "plan" to go to Vienna. As we waited in the cafeteria/waiting room, a middle-aged guy sat at our table. When Terry pulled out the postcards, he apparently wanted to know of what they were. That started his nearly one-sided conversation in what seemed to be a slurred (although he wasn't drunk) German. I had great difficulty understanding, but he brushed on our national origin, where were we to sleep that night, and that apple wine would have us running to the toilet. On the train to Vienna, we fortunately again got a compartment to ourselves for most of the trip.

Next: Wien/Vienna.