8-3-13 Weikersheim to Rothenburg

Back on the trail we came to Tauberrettersheim and the Steinbrucke bridge.  This bridge was built in 1733 by Balthasar Neumann, the architect of the Wurzburg Residence.  The bridge is still in use by traffic today.

Then we came to The Herrgottskirche outside of Creglingen.  We wanted to stop here because of the Riemenschneider altar.  If you look back a Aug 7, 2011 blog you will see other carvings by him in Steinach and Munnerstadt.  Probably his most famous is the altar in Rothenburg.  He lived between 1460 and 1531.  A lot of pilgrims show up here around mid August because the sun shines thru a window onto  the face of the Virgin Mary and they think it's a miracle.

This the church St Peter and Paul in Detwang  am Tauber below Rothenburg.  It to has a Riemenschneider.  These churches are getting smart and charging admission to see the artwork. 

The Altar by Riemenschneider in Detwang

This is the Toppler-schlossen, a medieval castle like structure along the Tauber, built by the mayor of Rothenburg , Heinrich Toppler in 1388.  The garden around it could be flooded if needed for protection.  It can now be rented as a holiday cabin.

We got a room outside the wall of Rothenburg(because it's a lot cheaper),  then walked thru the town to the Burggarten overlooking the Tauber Valley.  The picture is the burgtor entrance to the city.  Rothenburg is a completely walled city that's hardly changed in the last 300 yrs.  The main plaza was mostly under renovation and the Rathaus was covered.  The city is also famous for it's Torture Museum.  This is good city to view on Google earth and some of the pics from that site that I can't reproduce. 

When we were walking thru Rothenburg we looked up and there were 2 storks on the roof.  It could be that what the one is standing on used to be a nest that had blown off.  Stormy springs are hard on the chicks because they are in the open. 

Johanna really likes storks and we saw quite a few this trip and got pretty close so some of them.