My wife Sharon has a habit of finding places for her birthday trips that I’ve never heard of before. Sometimes that means adding a restaurant or attraction to our plans. Other times, she finds an entire town that looks like it came from a storybook, leaving me to figure out how we are actually going to get there.
That was the case with Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Before Sharon showed me pictures, I had never heard of this historic German town. But once I saw its stone walls, towers, half-timbered buildings and cobblestone streets overlooking the surrounding valley, I understood why she wanted to add it to our trip.
Getting there from Hamburg required three trains. Spending three nights there turned out to be exactly the pause in our trip that we needed.
Why Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber Looks So Different
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is located in Franconia, in the German state of Bavaria, along the popular Romantic Road route. Its old town sits above the Tauber Valley, surrounded by historic walls and towers.
The town was once a prosperous Free Imperial City, but its fortunes declined after the Thirty Years’ War in the 1600s. While that decline was not good for the people who lived there at the time, it also meant Rothenburg didn’t undergo the same kind of modernization and industrial development as many other German cities.
By the 1800s, artists and travelers were drawn to Rothenburg because it appeared to preserve an older version of Germany. Tourism eventually became a major part of the town’s identity, helping make it one of the country’s most recognizable historic destinations.
That doesn’t mean Rothenburg has simply remained untouched for hundreds of years. Parts of the town were damaged during World War II and later rebuilt or restored. Still, the historic buildings, city walls, towers, and narrow streets give Rothenburg an appearance very different from that of most places we visited in Germany.
Today, that preserved look is exactly why so many people come here. For many visitors, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a stop on a road trip or a destination reached by tour bus for a few hours of sightseeing before moving on.
We were about to take a different approach.
Getting There Was Not Particularly Convenient
There are easier ways to get to Rothenburg ob der Tauber than the way we did it. If you’re traveling through Germany by car, it can fit naturally into a road trip. If you’re coming as part of a bus tour, someone else handles the transportation and drops you close to the sights.
We were arriving by train, with luggage, after starting the day in Hamburg.
Getting there required three separate trains. That was a story in itself, with the last connection including us rushing up and down the stairs at a station trying to make it (thankfully, the train waited for us), but it wasn’t the type of travel day when we arrived eager to start checking attractions off a list. By the time we got there, it was around dinner time, so we ate at our hotel, unpacked and settled in.
I was glad we were staying here for three nights.
Up to that point, our trip had involved constantly thinking about what time we needed to leave, which train we needed to catch and where we needed to be next. Rothenburg was our first real opportunity to stop moving for a while. We could go to sleep knowing that the next day was simply ours to explore.
In hindsight, Rothenburg ob der Tauber was the perfect place in our itinerary to slow down and reset.
A Town Best Explored At Your Own Pace
The next morning, we walked into town without a departure time hanging over us. That made a difference, because Rothenburg is the kind of place where wandering around is part of the experience.
There are plenty of things to see. The Marktplatz is surrounded by some of Rothenburg’s most impressive buildings, including the Rathaus, or town hall. We even climbed the 220 steps of the Rathaus Tower to look at the old town and the surrounding countryside.
But Rothenburg isn’t the kind of place where you spend the entire day moving from one official attraction to the next. Much of its appeal comes from walking through the streets, looking at the buildings and seeing what is around the next corner.
Being from Orlando, I found walking around Rothenburg ob der Tauber to feel unexpectedly familiar. There’s a reason for that. The Germany Pavilion at EPCOT was influenced by the city, and the St. George fountain in the Marktplatz directly inspired the St. George fountain in EPCOT. We have seen Disney’s version many times, but it was interesting to come across the original while walking through the town.
We wandered down narrow streets, then saw towers framed between buildings. Every corner brought an unexpected surprise. There are also plenty of shops to explore, ranging from souvenirs and local specialties to stores that fully embrace Rothenburg’s storybook appearance.
One thing that doesn’t come through in the postcard views is the hills. Plenty of them. The cobblestone streets are charming, but after walking up and down them for a while, your legs let you know you’ve been exploring.
Walking Along The City Wall
One of the features of Rothenburg ob der Tauber is its historic city wall. At several points around the city, you can walk along covered portions of the wall.
As we walked along part of the wall, we got an appreciation for how Rothenburg is laid out. On one side are rooftops and buildings inside the old town. On the other is the landscape outside the fortifications. Walking along the old wall makes it easier to imagine that this was once a fortified town, rather than merely a destination designed for tourists.
The View From The Castle Garden
Another place that made it clear why Rothenburg has become such a popular destination was the Castle Garden, or Burggarten.
Despite the name, there is no large castle. What remains of it is an elevated garden area overlooking the Tauber Valley, with an amazing view back toward the walled town.
From there, you get a sense of Rothenburg as the city it was hundreds of years ago, sitting high above the valley. You can see the walls, towers, churches and red-roofed buildings lined up across the ridge.
Shops, Streets And A Little Bit Of Christmas
Rothenburg has plenty of shops aimed at visitors, and it is nearly impossible to walk through town without stopping in at least a few.
There was no way we were going to pass up the massive Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas Village. Even though we were visiting in the spring, the enormous tree and endless collection of ornaments and holiday displays made it difficult not to feel at least a little Christmas spirit.
The Advantage Of Staying In Rothenburg
During the daytime, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a popular tourist destination. There were plenty of people walking around the central part of town, stopping for photos and tour groups moving through the streets.
That’s not a criticism. We were there for the same reasons they were. Rothenburg is popular because it’s remarkably beautiful.
But because we were staying for three nights, we weren’t limited to seeing the town only during its busiest hours.
Once evening arrived, the atmosphere began to change. The shops closed, most of the visitors left, and the streets that had been active earlier became noticeably quieter. The lights came on, and the fading daylight gave way to deep blue skies above the old town.
This was what we would have missed if we had visited for a few hours during the day. Now, we walked through the streets without feeling rushed, returning to places we’d already seen during the day to see how different the town looked after dark.
Another perk of staying in town was being able to take the Night Watchman Tour. On this evening walking tour of Rothenburg, the Night Watchman led us through the streets, telling stories about the town and what life was like there long ago. It was as entertaining as it was educational, and well worth the €9 per person price. Just remember to bring cash, since that is the only form of payment accepted.
Even some of Rothenburg’s most photographed scenes felt completely different in the evening. During the day, these areas attract a steady stream of people stopping for “The Picture.” At night, with the buildings and towers lit against the dark sky, they felt much quieter.
Staying for three nights, Rothenburg unintentionally served a purpose beyond sightseeing. It gave us a break. For the first time on the trip, we weren’t worrying about where we were supposed to be. We had time to see the town, but we also had time to enjoy just being there.
Final Thought
Before Sharon started planning her birthday trip, I had never heard of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Once she found it, my job was figuring out how to reach a town that required three trains from Hamburg and did not fit as neatly into the itinerary. I might have asked her, “How’d you find the one city in Germany that’s impossible to get to?”
Had we been visiting for only a few hours, I’m not sure it would have been worth the effort. But spending three nights in Rothenburg made all the difference.
We had time to walk the streets, explore the shops, see the city walls, take in the views from the Castle Garden and experience the town after many of the daytime visitors had gone. More importantly, Rothenburg gave us the first real opportunity on the trip to slow down and enjoy where we were without immediately thinking about where we had to go next.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is not an undiscovered destination. It is touristy, popular and very much aware of how picturesque it is. But it is also historic and beautiful. One of those places that rewards visitors who give it more than a few hours.
In hindsight, Sharon didn’t just find another pretty town to add to her birthday trip. She found exactly the kind of stop we needed.
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