Today I took a bus from Munich to Rothenburg along the so-called Romantic Road. Along the way we drove through such romantic sites as Augsburg, whose chief claim to fame is that it's the sister city to Dayton, and Wallerstein, where you can see the famous Plague Pillar. I was also romantically thrown down the aisle of the bus by our bus driver, who seemed to think the gas and brake were more like on-off buttons than continuous pedals.
Actually, the Romantic Road is quite beautiful - lots of cute villages, rolling farmlands, and old castles. Most of the homes have red-tiled roofs and flower-boxes under their windows.
We stopped for about an hour in the town of Dinkelsbuhl, where I ate my first schneebal (translation: stale piece of dough). After passing through many other towns that sounded like Volkswagen marketing slogans, we finally arrived in the medieval city of Rothenburg in the afternoon.
Bavaria is the one place in Europe that imposes an age restriction at youth hostels (you have to be under 26), so I found a lovely little zimmer frei (translation: bed and breakfast) instead. Although it was just as cheap as a hostel, I actually had a private room with my own sink. This may not sound like much, but when you're traveling as simply as I am, it's definitely a luxury. I was delighted.
At dinner that night I learned one of the best reasons for traveling alone - it forces you to learn at least a little bit of the local language. If there are two (or more) of you traveling together, it's really easy to simply talk to each other in English and keep yourselves in a bubble. But when you're alone and conversing with the locals, it feels rude to speak in English. I really wish we weren't such monoglots (translation: speakers of only a single language) in the U.S. I think it should be a requirement in school to learn another language fluently, not just take one or two years in high school.
Today I'm also experiencing an aversion to Americans. I think this might have to do with the fact that Rothenburg is highly touristed these days - mainly by big groups of Americans & Japanese on tour buses. They typically come into town dropping money left and right - buying up cuckoo clocks, novelty beer steins, Kathe Wohlfahrt christmas ornaments, and T-shirts that read, "I'm with dumm".
Many make no attempt to speak the local language. Okay, I'm obviously stereotyping here, but run with my rant for a minute. I'm beginning to see why so many people in the world don't like us. We are LOUD. We ask stupid questions like "How long is the Autobahn?" and "Do you speak MY language?". When we were on a subway in Munich the other day, some Americans got on and loudly shouted out in a thick Southern accent (to the leder-hosen wearing crowd within), "Is this the way to the Octoberfest?!?" No buddy, that's in New Orleans. You're on the wrong subway.
Anyway, to make a long story even longer...Today in this town I find myself either being very quiet or speaking in simple German phrases whenever I encounter a group of English-speaking folk. Despite hiding in my shell, I had a fantastic dinner of roast duck with potato dumplings, homemade apple streudel, and a couple glasses of a local Pilsner.
After dinner I went down to the town square to take the colorful Night Watchman's tour of the city. I was a bit apprehensive at first because of the huge crowd of tourists, but the "Night Watchman" (George) was so good that I quickly warmed up to the event. He walked us all over town in the dimly lit medieval streets with his lantern and halberd in hand, making everyone laugh with his storytelling.
George taught us all about the sieges that the city withstood over the centuries, until finally being defeated during the Thirty Year's War (1616-1646) because of a mistake by one of Rothenburg's own soldiers (note to anyone defending a castle: never enter the powder room with a lighted torch).
We also learned a little bit of everyday peasant life. One fact that remained indelibly marked on my brain was that since there was no real plumbing in the Middle Ages, people simply dumped their "chamber pots" into the street from the 2nd floor window (although they were supposed to shout a warning beforehand). I also learned that the word "salary" comes from the word "salt" because salt was so valuable back then that people often used it for money.
George pointed out many of the architectural features of the city, such as the archway to the castle gate (built in the mid-14th century), which still contains a door made in 1555 - meaning that it was the NEW door. Above the door is a stone face with holes for the eyes and mouth - for pouring hot oil on those below. Probably one of the coolest things is the wall surrounding Rothenburg, which still has most of it's original foundation.
You can actually climb the stairs and walk the entire wall (about 1 1/2 miles) any time of day. Make sure to bring a headlamp, though, because it's not well lit, and people must have been shorter back then (I hit my head more than a few times when I walked the wall later). Overall, the tour was fantastic, although one of the more gifted people had to ask George afterwards, "Now where is the wall exactly?".
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