Keeping with our hectic (some may say “crazy”) schedule, the next morning we were back at the train station to begin the final three days of our trip with our first stop at the oldest town in Germany, Rothenburg ob der Tauber,

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg isn’t really centrally located to much of anything, sitting in the lower foothills of south central Germany. In order to get there, we had two tight connections (both being less than 4 minutes between) but luckily we made both and an hour and a half later, we were at our destination.

If you picture in your mind what the traditional or almost stereotypical rural German village looks like, odds are the old town of Rothenburg fits that image. Sitting within the confines of a medieval fortification wall, Old Town Rothenburg consists of brightly colored buildings with contrasting outlines, cobblestone streets and imposing arches that allow motor and foot traffic inside; because of its history and appearance, thousands flock here to take it all in.

Of all the towns and cities we’ll visit on this trip, Rothenburg will be the smallest but still hosts an annual market. The Rothenburger Reiterlesmarkt is hosted in the center of old town every year with the typical booths setup but with a whole host of activities scheduled throughout advent. We were lucky to arrive just as the brass band was setting up and performing a variety of Christmas songs directly adjacent to the square’s lit pine. Here, we found our first booth offering spaetzle, a small dumpling resembling a noodle, and of course we had to order a serving of the cheese variety.

Awhile the entire country celebrates Christmas through various markets and festivals, Rothenburg would likely be considered its capital. The architecture and scenery definitely offer a fairytale type setting but permanently fixed within it are three Käthe Wohlfahrtn stores. Prior to this trip, i had no idea who this was (or even if she’s a person, I still don’t know) but seemingly in each market we’ve been to previously had a booth dedicated to this company (or artist?) all based out of its Rothenburg headquarters.These stores offer hand made, Germany wood Christmas pieces and intricate tree ornaments of every shape, color and design. Included are Christmas pyramids in every size imaginable, Christmas arches, ceramic, porcelain, lace and glass ornaments and other home decorative pieces, usually made out of wood. Pries for these pieces usually range from 5 to 50 euro for the ornaments and 200 to 10,000 euro for the wooden pieces, We spent several hours browsing what was offered and although we were tempted by a few things, we came out empty handed (not to mention restricted by our bag space, just our two backpacks for the entire trip!)

Included in the main store was a Christmas museum that walked visitors to the history of many German Christmas traditions such as the pyramids, arches and even Krampus, but also broader ones like the beginnings of the Christmas tree, Santa’s origin story and the development of tree stands (spoiler alert – they haven’t changed in nearly two centuries). I won’t go into details of everything we learned but I now have some nuggets of information I can throw out at parties.

After making the loops through the market and Käthe stores, we took our own walking tour of the city to really embrace where we were. Along the outskirts of town, there are several sets of stairs that allow visitors unfettered access to the interior of the city wall, with a full path around the city.

We ended our walking tour at Castle Garden, an open green space on the southwest side of the city where, once stood the castle of rulers of the past. In the summer, lavish flower beds are blooming with extraordinary color but this time of year only snow and fallen leaves cover the ground. What does remain, is a panoramic view of the hills and forests that cocoon the city offering breathtaking vistas, even in winter and the remnants of the castle that once occupied the space.

Our evening ended much like the others with a lit stroll through the market followed by dinner. This evening we decided to take a break from the fried food, würsts and sugary items from the market and found an Italian place called Eiscafe, a block from our hotel. You may question the logic of going to an Italian restaurant while in Germany but I don’t care. The plus side was I was able to break out the Italian I’ve been studying for the past four months with the wait staff and not look completely foolish!

Würzburg

Another cold and early morning found us and after taking a few photos of the vacant streets of Rothenburg, we headed back to the train station to make our final jaunt of our trip to Frankfurt. Before we end up there, we stopped at Würzburg, since it was on the way.

Much like the other cities we went straight to the market to check out what they had to offer. Würzburg only had the one but was spread out enough for us to get work out some stiffness and not subject our extremities to frostbite. From a culinary perspective, this particular marketed offered a few items we haven’t seen yet. The first was riclette which is the name of a local cheese but what was interesting was how they served it. Half wheels of cheese were cradled under heat lamp, caramelizing the top and scraped out with a spoon onto a bun. These were offered with various types of meat but we chose simple cheese and was incredibly decadent and tasted much better than the cheesy funk that surrounded the stall. To follow up our cheesy lunch, we found stalls that served bratapfel glühwein and glühbier. The former a glühwein made from baked apples which elevated the original apple one and the latter can be best described as a mixture of regular glüwein and beer. The combination of the two was fascinating and even as I write this two days later, I still don’t know how I feel about it. The best part of the glübier was that it came in a coffee cup size ceramic stein which I totally kept.

After exploring the market we did a little wandering around town and ended up on the bridge over the river Main with an incredible view of the Marienberg Fortress. Built in the 13th century, the sprawling complex was originally purposed as a residence for local bishops. Now it holds two museums dedicated to the history of the fortress and the town of Würzburg.

Oh, I also bought a new winter hat the local outdoors store. Exciting? No! Interesting? Hardly! But I’m over the moon about how warm it is and just wanted to share.

Frankfurt

We were only set to stay two hours in Würzburg but after an hour and half train delay (thank you DB) and an order of McDonald’s curly fries (you read that right) we made the hour journey to Frankfurt just as the sun set and the snow began.

Due to the weather and our unexpected achy bodies, we took the underground to the hotel, checked in and…headed for the Christmas markets in the center of town (I feel like I’m getting redundant). The city center had a total of five markets with plenty more around the city that we just simply didn’t have the time to see. Must like others, all five bleed into each other so we didn’t know where the first one ended and the last began. Seeing how this was our last market, we took the opportunity to try anything that we haven’t had up to this point. Frankfurt’s markets were similar to Berlin’s where there wasn’t much personality or uniqueness in the sense of what they had but we did finally find dampfnudelhaus. This peculiar dessert blurs the line between a bread and pastry but the end result is incredibly delicious. It’s a steamed bun that is light and fully, filled with a fruit, in our case blueberry and then liberally doused with a vanilla creme that I could bathe in. We also found our first schnitzel of the trip and I finished up the evening with a serving of currywurst, a grilled sausage, cut in pieces smothered with a curry turmeric sauce. I’m not the biggest fan of curry but seeing how it’s a local favorite, decided to give it a try. Suffice to say, I likely won’t be actively searching for it in the future.

At long last, after a full week of city hopping and a thorough, full on Christmas assault our trip came to an end.

Our final tally: 9 cities, 28 Christmas Markets, 6 glüwein mugs, 3 McDonald’s visits and 1 winter hat over the course of the 8 days…not a bad way to kick off the holiday season. On behalf of Lauren and myself, we wish you a safe and warm holiday, surrounded by the ones you love. Merry Christmas and Auf weidersen!

Travel/Post Notes:

• Post includes travel from December 3-4, 2023
• Accommodation:
  • Rothenburg – Hotel Eisenhut
  • Frankfurt – Moxy Frankfurt Center
• Featured Image – The storefront of the main Käthe Wohlfahrtn store, which was located directly across from our hotel
• Rothenburg hotel was the only civilized one that featured a bidet but had garish pink bathroom fixtures
• After dinner at Eiscafe, we wandered back to the market to pickup a lebkuchen for dessert. This one was chocolate covered with a wafer of marzipan on top that was surprisingly good despite having marzipan
• During our city tour in Rothenburg we stopped at Cafe Einzigartig, a decent place that resembled a thrift store than cafe
• DB has very spotting WiFi on their trains and I wouldn’t recommend relying on it for anything. I had to rewrite my previous post due to it.
• My new hat was bought at Jack Wolfskin, a European based outdoors company. My original intent was to buy one at a market that used German wool and was locally made, but that apparently doesn’t exist
• Flights Home: FRA>DFW>PHX (American Airlines)