Rothenburg, Germany

After our visit to Juliusspital Winery, we continued our journey and arrived Rothenburg, a small and picturesque Medieval town along the Romantic Road in the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany.

Hotel Altes Brauhaus was the hotel that we stayed for one night in this lovely and magical town and this hotel had so many good reviews on Tripadvisor.

Everyone was busy taking photos

When we opened the door and saw four single beds, I asked Wei Ying whether the tour manager made any mistake as I couldn't believe that we were assigned to a family room at ground floor. But I guessed that the twin sharing or double room in this hotel had been fully booked so we were lucky to get this. Super convenient as we no need to wait for the lift. The room was basic but super spacious! Others complained that their room was too small.

A clean and decent washroom with bath tub

Waiting for the tour manager to arrange for the famous "Night Watchman Tour".

We couldn't stop taking pictures, as every corner, every street presented such beautiful photo opportunities.

It seemed everywhere we looked there was a picturesque half timbered house, quaint clock tower, shining cobblestone street, or pretty sidewalk.

Our hotel was painted light blue color

Souvenir counter beside the reception at hotel lobby. They have many teddy bears for sale. Do you know that teddy bear is super famous in Rothenburg? Simply because the largest teddy bear shop is located in this fairytale town and they have everything for girls like me

Complimentary chocolates and sweets at reception counter

Halloween decor at the lobby

Autumn feel.........

After waiting for 45 minutes, our tour manager finally turned up and informed us that the Night Watchman Tour was cancelled as the "watchman" met an accident on the way to Rothenburg. I was so disappointed and upset because the sky had turned dark and I had no more chance of touring this beautiful town and capture the postcard-like photos at this scenic gem. The stupid tour manager should have asked us to walk around instead of waiting him at the lobby for 45 minutes. Such a poor arrangement!

Our tour manager then showed us some attractions of this town and along the way, we found so many interesting and cute shops that sold super lovely and nice souvenirs and Christmas stuffs.

All the shops here closed at 6.30pm or latest by 7pm. At 6.40pm, we supposed to go for dinner after a short walk from the hotel to Market Place, but I quickly got permission from the tour manager to spend our last 20 minutes for shopping.

Our first and the last shopping stop- Teddys Rothenburg.

So many teddy bears and lovely decorations that you shouldn't miss for photos.

Before choosing our souvenirs, we took many photos at the ground floor and first floor.

Okay, time for choosing our souvenirs!

So cute OMG!

The price wasn't cheap of course.

I bought some teddy bear keychains, postcards and Christmas decor. After paying, we couldn't shop anymore as all other shops were closed T_T

With so much of complaint in my heart, we proceeded for the dinner at Hotel Restaurant Rote Hahn.

Fresh salad as starter

Grill pork with garlic butter, mix vege and french fries

It wasn't up to my expectation as the meat was too hard to cut and chew. Everyone was so tired eating this plate of hard meat

Vanilla and strawberry ice cream with whipped cream. Again, this was just mediocre.

After the dinner, we decided to explore this magical town on our own as the tour manager did not even have intention to tour us around to replace the cancellation of the Night Watchman Tour.

And our decision was right! Though all the shops were closed, but we managed to do window shopping and snapped quite a lot of photos.

Window shopping and shooting time!

Did you notice that I changed my coat? The black biker jacket was not warm enough in this freezing cold night so I changed a thicker one.

The street was quite dark and when we were on our way to this famous sight, we were followed by a drunken person on the street and without hesitation, we walked to the main street with more people. Okay, Rothenburg could be very very quiet at night because the locals will not walk on the street after 6pm. People here rest very early. But of course we met some tourists and most of them were from Japan! And we even got the Japanese ladies to take photos for us!

Lucky that my camera was able to take photos at such dimmed lighting condition

What can you understand from this sign board?

One of the restaurant that still opened

Obviously selling all kinds of liquor

And we spotted some souvenirs and with a rocket speed, we rushed in and shopped again! Bought three cuckoo clocks magnet here!

And before we left we requested the cashier to take a photo for us

So many Rothenburg miniature houses

How I wish I could bring one of them back

Directory but too bad I didn't know where to go for those must-see sites

So cute that I almost broke the window class to steal all these

Rothenburg is definitely the best place for souvenirs!!!

The Rathaus or Town Hall

Passed by another cure shop and we loved the window display so much!

This is the Market Square. On the left is Marktplatz

Looking at all these, I really felt like Rothenburg was a storybook come alive!

Or perhaps I could call it a Christmas village?

Clock tower was everywhere!

Because of the cold weather, I believed it was about 2 Degree Celsius, we reluctantly went back to our hotel for rest so that the next day we could get up early to continue our plan to explore this town again!

After breakfast (didn't even bother to take photos as we wanted to be real fast), Wei Ying and me quickly headed to other unvisited places of this town before the departure time at 8.45am.

Climb the stairs from the street and we reached the town wall

Walked further up and we could see the outskirt area out of this town!

One of the local private houses that attracted me

We were back to the landmark of Rothenburg again for photos! The sky wasn't bright enough at 8.30am as the sunrise here was late during autumn. On the left is Siebers Tower. The quaint yellow half-timbered house to the the right of the city gate is called Plönlein.

Postcard feel

Walking up the street, rushing back to our hotel as it was approaching the departure time. Run, run, run!

The last shop for window shooting. Christmas music boxes. Why the shops not opened for business yet???

Quick shot of a building

When we reached hotel and passed our luggage to the bus driver, Chee Lean brought us this town wall and climbed up for the town view even it had passed the departure time and some of the tour mates were complaining. According to the reviews on Tripadvisor, no trip to Rothenburg would be complete without a walk along the town walls.

How beautiful and I really wished to stay here for another day!

Although we spent one night here but the time was too short for us to discover the true beauty of this town. You know what? They have Christmas Museum, Doll and Toy Museum and many many more interesting museums! But I missed the chance to visit all. Really felt like killing the tour manager when we bid good bye to to fairytale town (◣_◢)

We loved every part of our experience here simply because every step we took in this old town was a step through history with yet another beautiful spot to be discovered around the corner. Besides impressive views, I totally fell in love with the fairytale themed buildings that made this place romantic.

Rothenburg, I'll definitely return again! Next time wanna bring Billy and Ken here too!