Rothenburg

Our first day trip: Rothenburg. It's a walled city about 2.5 hours away (assuming you plug the right Rothenburg in your GPS, we discovered there are a few Rothenburg's in Germany...but we found the one we were looking for, eventually)

It's a beautiful, very picturesque city. Kathe Wolfahrt, the epitome of Christmas shops is headquartered there. There are no two buildings alike - lots of different designs and colors. When I walked through the gates and into the town, I felt like I'd entered into a Dr. Seuss story.

These are two of the most photographed places in Rothenburg.

These steps lead into the old city hall.

We went to a "Criminal Museum" (or torture/punishment museum) that highlighted the old city laws and how the local governments maintained order and dealt with disobedience.

While there were a lot of funny, gross, inhumane and interesting laws/punishments, I'll just share a few that I liked...

The shame flute - was used for shaming bad musicians.

A shame mask - there were many different types of masks. Some had big noses for those who were too nosey, others had big mouths and tongues for gossipers, etc.

This one was for delinquents - feet and hands were fastened down, and passer byers were encouraged to tickle the persons feet. They'd also rub salt into the feet and let goats lick it off.

Overall, Rothenburg was an awesome city to visit. There's plenty to see and do, lots of shops, restaurants, cafes and bakeries. We went during the off season, it actually felt like we had our own personal city to tour through. There were very, very few others in the city. In the summers and during the Christmas season, many tourists travel to Rothenburg. I hope to head down for next year's Christmas market.