Drivin' Adair by Bimmer 09: Rothenburg ob der Tauber

We drove north from Hohenschwangau on our way to Rothenburg 175 miles away. We drove the Romantic Road rather than the A7 Autobahn, just out of curiosity as it passes through some small towns we'd not have seen otherwise including Landsberg am Lech where Hitler was imprisoned in 1924.

Avoiding the A7 added an hour to our drive and kept our speed down to 80 mph maximum as the road is often 2 lanes wide and gets a lot of truck traffic.

Rothenburg was one of this places unknown to us until we saw a Rick Steves TV show in 2002.

Since that first visit, which we are looking at now, we have been back twice. We have always stayed at the same hotel-the Burg Hotel which I picked out online using TripAdvisor.

Rothenburg was bombed from the air in March 1945 and after the war was rebuilt as it had been. It looks like a movie set and it doesn't take long to fall for it's quiet charm. It's crowded with daytrippers during the day, coming in by rail, car or tour bus but once they leave in the early evening the town would be ours to explore and savor in peace.

It's a medieval walled town and when I first drove in through one of the town gates I immediately had to reverse out again as a tour bus was coming through. Then I drove slowly on cobbled streets, through the town square and to the Burg Hotel which is built against the town wall. I found a parking spot on the street near the hotel. They do have a small indoor garage but it's tight and dark in there.

Here I am in front of the hotel....

On that first visit we couldn't book the Bavarian Suite on the 2nd floor with it's view down into the valley below. Instead we were on the ground floor in another suite with less eye-candy appeal.
We have booked the Bavarian Suite each time since...

This is our ground floor room at the back of the hotel with a view over the garden

The ornate four poster bed

And a small part part of the living room

Basic accommodations but we are not planning to be in the rooms much. We have two days to spend here and we didn't arrive until after 3 pm.

Here's the back of the hotel, showing the town wall

It was time to get out and explore the streets of Rothenburg. The town with only 11,000 inhabitants is small enough to explore entirely on foot. We were soon in the town square with all the other tourists.