Rothenburg – evening 1

Resuming after drinks at base.  We headed back into town for an appointment with the night watchman at 8pm. Different light falls on pretty picture corner (at Untere Schmiedgasse and Kobolzeller Steige).

Shop window.

Into Marktplatz and the human numbers have dropped off big time.

The gathering point for the Night Watchman tour is right here in front of the Rathaus.

We wander around to kill 30 minutes.  Sooo… you’re staying where??  Try this after a few wines!

No payments modernisation here either Matt.

Suddenly, we look up and see two things you wouldn’t expect to see that often in Germany. 1. A hot air balloon.  2. Blue sky!

A tower within a tower.  14th century Galentor (Gallows Gate) is seen through Weisser Turm (White Tower – 1172).

The people begin to arrive at Marktplatz for the Night Watchman tour.

The man has arrived.  Muzz positions well for a pre tour snap.

He advises everyone the cost (€7 for adults – payable at the end), and offers photo ops).  So the blonde steps in immediately.  She remained pretty close along the way.


He leads the faithful across to the first stop.  Quickly we can see that at €7ea, payable in cash (for a 1 hour tour), this guy is making a killing.  He does an English tour at 8pm and a German tour at 9:30pm.  Group sizes are typically large. You do the maths!

But you could see how he’s built his reputation. This is a comedy show / history lesson all in one.  He is hilarious.  Such a dry presentation method, but it works perfectly!  Don’t come to Rothenburg and miss this tour!  The pied piper moves his disciples down Herrngasse.  Kath’s got no chance with the blonde staying close.

He stops and conveniently spaced positions and shares more of his vast knowledge, pointing out interesting things along the way.

We head out Burgtor (Castle Gate), the tallest of all the towers, built in 1356.

He takes us along Burggasse.

The sun sets across the southern part of Rothenburg.

The tour ended and everyone was happy. I’m not sure if everyone stepped forward to pay him (I guess there’s always a few sneaky ones). As I stepped up to pay I could see his hat was virtually overflowing with Euro.  What a job eh. Only a couple of hours a day and raking it in.  We decide to go to Zur Holl (Hell) to reserve a table for the next night, but quickly find out this isn’t possible. They are closed on Sundays.  In fact we soon discover that Germany virtually shuts down on Sundays.  C’mon Germany, there are customers waiting. Do you want our money or not?  Well this was no problem for Hell because they got ours anyway. We stayed for a few drinks and then got a bit peckish so we ordered the Teufelsspiess mit Salat und Brot (Skewer of steak, pork and roast veggies with salad and bread). Delicious! And all washed down with a Landwher-Brau beer.

Well eventually we had to leave. The night watchman even popped in to empty his hat out the back!  Here’s Marktplatz late at night. Not too may out as you can see.

During the walk back the building art came alive!

We were told that the town is very safe, and crime simply doesn’t occur.  At no stage did we care about walking dark streets (i.e. we took the direct route back to the hotel).
Safe but spooky!  The shop windows came alive!!  (Or did we just drink too much???).

Last photo for the night.  ‘Pretty picture corner’ in another mood. Just us and one other couple in sight!

Guten nacht!