a day trip to rothenburg ob der tauber

I’ve been wanting to visit Rothenburg since 2009, so when my friend Taylor asked if I’d like to take a day trip there with her and her husband, I jumped at the chance.

Did you know it was the inspiration for the village in the Disney movie Pinocchio?

Evidently, a portion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was filmed here too.

{This site analyzes which scenes it could be!}

Taylor and her husband, who you may recall from this post:

I have nothing to say about this bridge, other than that it is a bridge.  Sorry.    

 

And I’m sure this is something noteworthy but I’m much too lazy to research it.

In case you were wondering what it’d look like with me sitting in front of it:

 

Rothenburg is known as being a tourist hot-spot but we had it pretty much to ourselves!  I love when that happens.

We walked up to the Burg (castle) to see the castle gardens, which have been around since 950 (the castle wasn’t even built until 100 years later).   

 

During the 1930s, Rothenburg was a major Nazi city, as it represented to them the classic German ‘hometown’, the epitome of all things German.  They called it “the most German of all German towns” and in the late 1930s, expelled all of its Jewish citizens.  In the castle gardens, there is a small tribute to these Jewish citizens – the last of which were forced out of Rothenburg in October of 1938, their destination unknown.

This sign, below, hangs directly inside that building, above, and reads: ‘We believe in a Germany that is whole and free’. 

And of course we ended the day eating ice cream in a parking garage – the way all good day trips come to an end.