Tuesday 4th October – Stadtsteinach, Germany

Rothenburg is definitely our favourite place on the sojourn so far and is a 'must visit' if you are travelling through this area of Germany. We entered the walled town through a semi-circular bastion bristling with cannon and after walking through a second defensive gateway we found steps up onto the walkway around the town walls. This provided excellent views over the city roofs and towers and gave the opportunity to explore the various gateways on the way. Having walked round over half of the walls, the walkway stopped at the north-east gate of Klingentor and we walked through the streets and then outside the walls until we reached the impressive Burgtor (Castle Gate) where we admired the lovely wooded views from the Castle Gardens. Continuing outside the walls we walked just above the vineyards and found a bench to rest and enjoy the warm sunshine.

Re-entering the city we walked up the main street to the market square. Here the Ratstrinkstube, a former drinking house, has a clock dating from 1910 that celebrates a famous event from the Thirty Years War. In 1631 the Protestant town was captured by General Tilly's 40,000 Catholic troops who then pillaged it for three months. Tilly's was going to raze the town but on a whim said that he would save it if a local could drink a Meistertrunk of wine in one go. A former town mayor, Georg Nusch, took up the challenge and drank the 3 litres in ten minutes. He survived and so did the town but it is reported that it took him a few days to recover! As the clock struck one, General Tilly appeared in a window on the left and Georg Nush with his tankard appeared in a window on the right. He raised his tankard to his mouth and slowly drained it. A great story!

We found a small café off the main street and had an excellent pasta salad. This allowed us to keep going for another couple of hours investigating more of the lovely town.

Returning to the van, we found it surrounded by gypsies in caravans who had occupied a large part of the motorhome parking area. We hadn't decided whether to move on or spend another night in Rothenburg but when the children started asking us for money, that made our mind up.

We had thought of stopping at another stellplatz in Bamberg but we decided to leave that for another visit to Germany and headed instead for Stadtsteinach in the Frankenwald. The journey was pretty with a number of Schloss (castle) sightings and we arrived at the campsite at 19:00 with a lovely sunset promising good weather for tomorrow. By the time that we had booked in, filled with water and settled down, time was getting on so I opened a tin of ravioli for dinned. My culinary talents know no bounds!

Photos: Rothenburg town wall and walkway; The famous clock; The Castle Gate; Plonlein Square is the most photographed place in Rothenburg showing two town gates and the pretty houses.