The Wanderings of Bonnie and John: Rothenburg o.d.Tauber

For those of you anxiously awaiting the latest news....sorry for the long delay in posting - we lost our internet connection at the last hotel - but will try to catch up a bit today.

Rothenburg - above the Tauber River (o.d.T) - is a city inside a medieval wall with many of the buildings dating back to near the turn of the century. The unique story about the town is that it was left mostly intact during WWII. The story goes that the German 2nd in command defending the city decided at the very end of the war to save it - by abandoning it one night while the General was away.

Not quite as excititing as the the 1630 saving the city from the Catholics. The legend goes the mayor had to give the conquering general a welcoming drink. After drinking his large tankard he was feeling really good and told the mayor if he could drink the entire 3 liter tankard of wine in one gulp the town would be saved. The mayor drank it all, the town was saved - and the mayor slept for 3 days! The master draught story is reenacted on the town clock tower daily on the hour.

We were able to stay in an old hotel dating back to the 1100's with much of the original woodwork still in place. The city was beautiful, but it was good also because the town was small enough to walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes- so the legs were able to recover a bit!

The highlight was a tour of the town after dark by the "night watchman" telling tales of the old days in the town. We also ate at the restaurant "Zur Hoelle" -meaning "to hell" - after reading in one of the guide books suggestions that if you want a good dinner . . . you can go to hell!