Officially we're having a walking-free day to give my foot a rest as prescribed by the doctor in Ochsenfurt, however, we did go out and about for a while.
Light rain was forecast for a bit later in the morning so we went out fairly early - a real bonus of being early was that the streets were quite empty, just an hour or two later they were crowded.
Last year I gave Jeff a jigsaw puzzle of a scene in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for his birthday so we thought we would find where it is.
This is the puzzle image:
And this is a photo from this morning, including Jeff.
This scene is one of the most photographed spots in Rothenburg. The tower on the left is Siebers Tower, which dates back to 1385, was part of the new town fortifications. The smaller tower on the right is the Kobolzell Gate and was built around 1360.
The approximately 4 kilometre town wall dates back to 1142 were built to protect the trading centre and a royal castle. Partly due to this, Rothenburg became the second largest city in Germany by 1400.
We later walked along the ramparts of part of the wall.
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| The stairs we came down on. |
The eastern part of Rothenburg ob der Tauber was bombed during during 1945 resulting in over 40% of the old buildings being destroyed by fire. Parts of the wall were also destroyed and after the war the major of Rothenburg called for donations from around the world to help with the repairs. Those who donated had their names added to the wall, and many include the length of the wall their donations paid for.
Two more towers:
We returned 'home' to rest before going to Mass at St Johanneskirche, St John's Church, which was built between 1390 and 1410. The interior was a mix of old and modern.
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We went to a small bakery for breakfast. Jeff had an egg and ham pretzel and I had a small lemon tart. It was beautiful and reminded me of Dad's lemon honey of my childhood.
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| The bakery where we had breakfast. |
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a strong Lutheran area and St Johanneskirche is the only Catholic Church in the vicinity.
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| St Johanneskirche. |
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| The Stations of the Cross were placed around four pillars. |
At the end of Mass we noticed Carla, our German pilgrim friend, talking to the priest. She was asking him for a blessing and when she spotted us she invited us to sit with her explaining to the priest that we are also pilgrims. Of course the blessing was in German but it was surprising how much we understood.
Once again we had hugs goodbye with Carla and she was on her way. It feels wrong that we aren't walking too.
For most of the rest of the day was spent resting as the doctor ordered, lunch being bananas, and yoghurt with blueberries, all of which we had in our room.
Late in afternoon we ventured out to the St Jakobskirche, St James Church, mainly to have our passports stamped. Built over a period of years, 1311 - 1436, St Jakobkirche, like many of Germany's older churches, was originally Catholic until the 16th century when it became Lutheran.
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| St Jakobskirche. |
The church is dedicated to St James and is one of the churches on the Jakobsweg, the German pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. After having our pilgrim passports stamped the woman in attendance at the church said that as pilgrims we had free entry, the usual €3.50 each was waived.
Some random photos of today:
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| Marien-Apotheke, the Mary Pharmacy. |
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| The reason for its name. |
Window shopping:
And while the women shop:
Flowers in Rothenburg:
Our 'home' here in Rothenburg ob der Tauber:
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| Our room is on the first floor, the second set of windows on.the right. |
