Rothenberg
Imagine that you are in an old museum somewhere in southern Germany. It is late in the day and you come back again to a painting you can’t get out of your mind. The little city it depicts is so real that you feel you could reach out an touch the buildings. Reluctantly your hand finally reaches toward the painting to feel its texture at least, and instead you reach INTO the city! Stunned, you glance back and forth in the museum - no one is watching!
Quickly you step through the frame and walk free on narrow cobblestone streets through air filled with the smell of fresh bread, frying onions and cooking bratwurst. You find yourself wandering through cloistered archways, listening to the Tauber River flowing below the village as it has for thousands of years, and hear music that faintly comes from the town square which is never more than a few blocks away.
The sidewalks sometimes lead along a great rock wall, sometimes beside ancient stables or sometimes by houses and gardens or great medieval gates But they all eventually lead into the center of Rothenberg, a square which lies open in front of its great cathedral.
An old man might stand here in the evening sun, playing an accordion in front of the RatsStube Cafe, or a woman with a violin perhaps or maybe a couple or a small group, but will they invariably play haunting music which will float across the square and lead you to dance down those ancient streets with unfocused eyes through a world we all thought was forever gone. You become transformed from a modern tourist walking through a medieval city into a medieval person at home in a familiar place where you know you really belong. Everywhere you go you are surrounded by the smell of good food and the sound of ancient music, and your soul knows it has finally come home.
Toured Aschaffenburg museum & castle in the morning after great bkfast. <2 hr to Rothenburg. Late lunch - bratwurst me, salad JPW. Walk town. Climb tower. To Park with flutist playing. Good supper beef tips me, trout JPW. Fish 20 DM, beef 30 DM, 2 beers 7.6 DM 2 glasses water 10 DM. Walk with Night Watchman - good.
©John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
Quickly you step through the frame and walk free on narrow cobblestone streets through air filled with the smell of fresh bread, frying onions and cooking bratwurst. You find yourself wandering through cloistered archways, listening to the Tauber River flowing below the village as it has for thousands of years, and hear music that faintly comes from the town square which is never more than a few blocks away.
The sidewalks sometimes lead along a great rock wall, sometimes beside ancient stables or sometimes by houses and gardens or great medieval gates But they all eventually lead into the center of Rothenberg, a square which lies open in front of its great cathedral.
An old man might stand here in the evening sun, playing an accordion in front of the RatsStube Cafe, or a woman with a violin perhaps or maybe a couple or a small group, but will they invariably play haunting music which will float across the square and lead you to dance down those ancient streets with unfocused eyes through a world we all thought was forever gone. You become transformed from a modern tourist walking through a medieval city into a medieval person at home in a familiar place where you know you really belong. Everywhere you go you are surrounded by the smell of good food and the sound of ancient music, and your soul knows it has finally come home.
Toured Aschaffenburg museum & castle in the morning after great bkfast. <2 hr to Rothenburg. Late lunch - bratwurst me, salad JPW. Walk town. Climb tower. To Park with flutist playing. Good supper beef tips me, trout JPW. Fish 20 DM, beef 30 DM, 2 beers 7.6 DM 2 glasses water 10 DM. Walk with Night Watchman - good.
©John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
posted by fauxtaographer at
11:56 AM
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