Wanderung 15

Volksmarching through Germany and a Cruise to get back.

September-November 2007

Thursday, October 11th - Volksmarch around Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Bob:

We were blessed with another sunny day, so we decided during breakfast to walk the Rothenburg Volksmarch. The starting point was two houses down from our pension, and the lady at the desk knew exactly what the Permanente Wanderweg was all about. Armed with written directions (but no map) we started off past an old cemetery, brushed by one outlying section of the Rothenburg city wall, and descended to a little feeder creek for the Tauber River called the "Schandtauber", following the special "DVV" signs as well as the somewhat brief and terse instructions. The first part of the walk was through a streamside forest with all the leaves above us turning yellow.

The creek itself was also quite pretty. At one point we crossed the creek on an old wooden pedestrian bridge that looked just like the old covered bridges in the Midwest, but on a much smaller scale. We were following an "Instructional Trail" at this point, so we found informational plaques about the creek or the surrounding flora, fauna, or rocks along the way, and they were really quite interesting. I particularly liked the one about how they had installed a ford across the creek by building a nice flat dam that made the water flow over it in a thin sheet that could be easily forded by horses, wagons, and people wearing boots.

Another plaque informed us that the rock strata along the banks were fossil-bearing limestone formations from many millions of years ago. That made us curious and when we found an outcropping of rock that had crumbled down near the path, we stopped to check out the rocks for possible fossils. I was astonished that at least 50% of the rocks we turned over did have some kind of recognizable fossil imprinted on them, usually a stem or leaf of some ancient plant, but occasionally we also saw the imprint of a small animal of some type. Searching among the rocks for a small, easily portable fossil was like an unexpected treasure hunt, so we spent a few minutes doing that and continued our walk in a south by southwest direction, following the edge of a cultivated field for a little over a kilometer before curling back down to the stream.

Monika:

Today was the day of the Rothenburg Volksmarch which started a block down from our hotel. We noted that the walk was called "Altstadtblick" - "View of the Old Town", indicating, we were not going into the town, only get views of it. And indeed we walked only through the area surrounding Rothenburg with some spectacular views of the city.

The walk started by walking down to the river Tauber, after all the correct name of the city is Rothenburg ob der Tauber, or Rothenburg above the Tauber. We crossed the Tauber on a little covered wooden bridge and then walked along the Schandtauber, a tributary to the Tauber. Here we found signs that explained some of the erosion controls and other aspects of the river. Of particular interest to us, was that this part used to be a sea bed and the river has carved its bed through fossil bearing limestone. And indeed when we found some rock formation next to the walk, we did find some stones with fossils. Very exciting!


 

Bob:

We crossed the Schandtauber one final time using an old, graceful stone bridge, and found our first "Selbstkontrolle" or checkpoint (the letter "B" on a large white plaque) as we started to walk up the driveway through a picturesque little farm on the opposite bank. We continued on across farm fields where they were apparently growing and now harvesting turnips. The turnips really looked healthy to me; in fact they were growing right out of the ground so harvesting them was probably very easy. We also ran across a turnip truck but I unfortunately I fell down just as I tried to climb aboard it. Monika immediately snapped a picture to prove that I quite literally "just fell off the turnip truck"! How embarrassing!

Monika:

After we left the river, we walked along and through fields. Most of them were turnip fields in all stages of the growing cycle: small plants, plants about ready to be harvested, already harvested fields, and fields that had been plowed under. The scenery remained varied, and the trees had just started to turn color. It was a glorious day, with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky.

Bob:

Suddenly we looked over to the right and there was the remarkable and unique skyline for the city of Rothenburg on the horizon. The centuries old city wall and buildings were just glowing in the morning sun. Fantastic! We curled back to the North through fields and patches of forest and were rewarded with more stunning views of the city's skyline. We could clearly see the spires of the church and the gleaming white tower attached to the city hall, and since the morning mist had by now burned off, they looked so close in the clear air that I thought I could almost reach out and touch them.

At one point we even ran across a table and bench constructed out of solid logs where we could sit with the city skyline just across the field in back of us. That would have to be one of the greatest lunch spots in the world, but we had neglected to bring any provisions, so we just had a drink of water and continued on our way. But right about there I had the epiphany that walking in the gorgeous fall foliage across the picturesque German coountryside with the warm sun on my back and an intriguing old city in view in front of me was actually heaven, at least for a person like me. Now my brother Terry would have probably preferred to attend the nearest Schutzenfest and observe the shooting, my sister Lois would prefer dancing some 18th Century dances with the local villagers, and my sister Phyllis would either be out riding a horse or sitting comfortably in a coffee house somewhere, probably she would choose one of those coffee house and bakery combination shops where you can have a choice of flaky desserts to go along with your coffee. I could see that each of these things in its own way could be very satisfying, but for me personally wandering a beautiful countryside in perfect weather with Monika beside me was Nirvana.

Monika:

. After one turn, the town suddenly appeared before our eyes. Of course, we tried to take pictures and found that our eyes are a lot better at filtering haze than the camera is. Only after we got a lot closer did we finally take some reasonable pictures of the city skyline.

Bob:

Ultimately our path crossed the River Tauber on the impressive "Double Bridge" that consisted of an upper series of about 5 arches based on a lower series of 3 big arches to achieve the height needed to bridge the river properly. It looked graceful from a distance but reassuringly solid from up close and our path led directly across it. I had, of course, assumed something that old and scenic would be for display only, but in fact that bridge had a paved road as its upper surface and that, as I found to my annoyance, was still in use by motorcycles, cars, and even tanker trucks, all of which interrupted my picture taking.

The folks of the local Volksmarch club must have had a sense of humor, because rather than follow the street right up to Rothenburg above us on the hill they had us curl around to the right and down so that we could walk underneath the bridge and then work our way laboriously back up the hill to the city. Still, we had a lot of nice views that way and it was nice to see the bridge "up close and personal" so to speak.

After climbing to the base of the city wall, we followed it around to the right (counter-clockwise), staying on the outside, until we reached the gate we had passed by on our way South. After passing underneath that gate we rejoined the route out from the starting point and returned there to have our books stamped by the lady at the front desk. The nice thing about that 12 kilometer Volksmarch was that we really got to see the rural area surrounding Rothenburg, and that nicely complemented the walking tours we made of the city itself.

Monika:

We descended back to the Tauber and crossed it on a "Double Bridge" - the bridge had two lines of stone arches on top of each other. But now we had to do some serious climbing to get back up to the city. We walked around it back to our start point. The walk itself was very nice. The club gave us directions and also had signs up on trees so that it was easy to follow. Only at the end, when we got next to the city walls, we had to rely completely on the written word. I think, the club is probably not allowed to put signs up on the city wall. The instructions in German were terse but with all the signs we did not miss a turn. This was actually a great addition to walking in the city.

Bob:

After stopping off for lunch at the Imbiss just outside the city wall again and having a very nice chat with a red-headed 3-year old boy named Janni who seemed to be on the loose, we decided to walk around the city proper for another couple of hours. In particular, I took advantage of the opportunity to walk along the battlements at the top of the old city wall. You can walk at least 1/3 of the way around the city up on the wall, and possibly much more than that. We both enjoyed the vantage that our aerial walkway provided and took dozens of pictures of the sun lighting up the old city center.

We finally returned to street level to visit the Christmas shop, where we bought a unique Advents Calendar for our granddaughter, and then made a brief visit to the St. Jacobs church, which had become a Lutheran church after the Reformation. There we saw the intricately carved and really beautiful altar carved by Tilman Riemenschneider before he was imprisoned, tortured, and ruined by the aristocracy for siding with the peasants in the Peasant's Revolt of 1525. Curiously, that masterpiece was kept in the room in back of the church where they had the organ, while a different but also very nice carved and gilded altar was placed at the head of the church. In general the church had the more Spartan look of Lutheran churches rather than the more elaborate and ornate look of Catholic churches I have seen.

Returning at last to our pension, we were too tired to be very hungry so we shared a roll and then put up our feet for the rest of the evening, taking turns using the computer to write our journals and working on puzzles. We ended up watching a historical quiz program broadcast live from Hamburg, and it was surprisingly interesting and engaging, in part due to host Joerg Pilawa, a really nice host for those kind of games.

Monika:

We walked back to our hotel and noted that right next to the hotel was a computer shop with internet access. And yesterday we couldn't find one in 2 hours of walking! But first we had lunch again at the little Imbiss and then went back to the Internet store. The three computers that they had were busy, so we decided to go back into the city.

There were two things I wanted to see, the Christmas Store and the Jakobs Kirche with the Altar carved by Riemenschneider. But first we climbed up on the ramparts that surround the city. It was fun, with great views of the roofs of the houses. When we finally had to come down at the other end of the city, we started walking back to the market square. We meandered through the Christmas store and bought an Advents Kalender for Annalise. By this time we were seriously running out of steam, but the church was just a block away so that is where we went next. They really have two beautiful altars, the High Altar in the nave is also quite beautiful, but the Riemenscheider Altar is breathtaking. The carved wooden figures seem to come to life when you look at them and of course, each one is quite unique. This was well worth a visit. After that we just limped back, checked our email, send off an email letting people know we are fine, and booked a room for our stay in Friedrichshafen, our next goal.


 

Copyright 2008 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
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