Well, folks, the weekend we have all been waiting for is here! It’s time to head to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, for its annual walk. This is one of the “don’t miss” walking events of the year. There will be busloads of walkers from the big American volksmarching clubs, Ramstein, Heidelberg and Stuttgart. Last year the three clubs’ flags were at adjacent tables, creating a unique photo opportunity. We’re hoping that will happen again this year.
We plan to drive down Thursday and have a leisurely afternoon and evening in Rothenburg. Friday we hope to walk the 12-kilometer permanent trail, the Altstadtblick, which offers a panoramic view of the old city. We will do any shopping or sightseeing excursions Friday because of all of the volksmarching planned for Saturday.
We’ll be at the start hall bright and early to do the morning walk. After lunch in the start hall, we’ll head out on the afternoon Altstadtwanderung. We hope to see a lot of our walking friends and share a story or two either on the trail or in the start hall.
Again this year, the Rothenburg club will have 6-, 11- and 21-kilometer courses outside the city both Saturday and Sunday as well as their 22nd annual 11-kilometer old city walk Saturday afternoon that will wind volksmarchers through the streets of Rothenburg. If these routes do not offer enough choices, you can walk the 12-kilometer permanent trail.
The start times are Saturday 7 a.m. until noon for the 6-, 11- and 21-kilometer courses and then noon until 4 p.m. for the 11-kilometer old-city walk. Sunday’s times are 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. for the 6- and 11-kilometer marches and 7 a.m. until noon for the l21-kilometer course.
As past years, there will be food, music, assorted vendors and a lot of volksmarchers in the sport hall, which is the start.
We really look forward to our annual Rothenburg weekend trip. Even though we’ve been there many times, it seems we find something new every time we visit.
There are some very unique sights to be seen in and around Rothenburg. In March 1945, Rothenburg was bombed and about 40% of the city was destroyed. It is remarkable how it has been rebuilt and restored. There are several towers and gates in and around the city. One of the most famous of these is the well-photographed Plönlein and Siebersturm. One of our favorite places to visit is St. Jacob’s Church. Inside is one of the huge, ornately carved altars made by master sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider around the year 1500. You also have to find the Alte Schmiede. This is a centuries-old, triangular-shaped building that used to be a blacksmith’s shop. If the town hall is open, try to climb to the top of the tower to get a breathtaking view of the city and the Tauber Valley.
The cobblestone streets in the city can be hard on the feet, so wear good walking shoes. They might be jarring for anyone riding in a stroller, so you might want to carry the little one for a while if it gets too rough. The trails can be steep and pretty slick in places if it is a frosty morning so watch your footing, but then, it is February, and it could be slippery anywhere you walk. Just be careful. The start hall can get very crowded, and a small dog might get tripped over, so if you’re walking with a dog, try to get there early in order to beat the crowd. Another tip is to buy your food and drink coupons before you walk. Once you’ve walked and worked up that appetite and thirst, you can go directly to the food and drink areas and not have to stand in line first for your tickets.
One place that is frequently visited and talked about is the Medieval Crime Museum. In it you’ll find instruments such as the torture chamber, various executioners’ axes, and you can even have someone take your picture while you position yourself in the stocks outside the entrance.
Then there’s the Doll and Toy Museum on Hofbronnengasse, just off the Marktplatz. Again this year, certain museums along the old town route will give you a discount when you present your IVV start card. The amount of the discount varies from museum to museum so there is no specific discount percentage.
Don’t miss the Käthe Wohlfahrt shop, either, where it is Christmas all year round. Saturday there will be all kinds of shops open in the morning and early afternoon. Later in the afternoon, shops start to wind down, but there will still be a few shops open for souvenirs. There are a few nice art stores where you can buy a nice lithograph of the city sights. These make nice souvenirs.
Look for stores that sell the Rothenburg Schneeballen. These balls of dough come in many flavors and taste pretty good as you work up an appetite walking. As you wander around, make sure you walk along a portion of the wall that partially encircles the city. This will offer another unique perspective of the city. If you are there in the evening, the city is usually lit up at night for even more beautiful sights. Last year, we took an evening guided tour of the city by a medieval night watchman who explained the history of the city. After a full day of walking, another walking tour was asking a lot from our feet, but we had such a good time that we would like to do it again this year.
Outside the city there is an old Roman double bridge that crosses the Tauber River. Nowhere else have we seen a bridge with two rows of arches, one on top of the other. When we did the permanent trail a few years ago, we went several kilometers outside the city and got a tremendous view of the old walled part of Rothenburg. As we worked our way back to the city, the trail took us across the double-decker Roman bridge and then into the city. There were several steep areas as well as stairs, so strollers could be challenged on the permanent trail.
Whether you choose to walk the trails outside this city or the Saturday old town walk within, plan to spend some part of your weekend in Rothenburg, the most well-known walled city in Germany. With any luck, there will be at least a little bit of snow on the buildings to add to the “Wow!” factor. Take along extra batteries and memory cards for the camera…in Rothenburg you can use them up quicker than you think. Even if you are not overly enthusiastic about Volksmarching and only do one Volksmarch while you are here in Europe, this is the one for you to attend.
The prize this year is a cloth shopping bag with a picturesque Rothenburg scene. They will also have B-medal candles and beer glasses, as long as quantities last.
Rothenburg is easily reached by way of Autobahn 7 and is near the intersection of A6 and A7. No car? No problem! The start hall is at the sports hall which is only a five minute walk from the train station.
• If you enjoyed the Bastogne Historical Walk last December, Sunday’s walk in Houmont, Belgium, might be for you. Whereas the Bastogne event commemorates the 101st Airborne Division and its attached units, Saturday’s walk, called the Dead Man’s Ridge Walk, will follow routes traveled by units from the 17th Airborne Division during the Battle of the Bulge. This is not an IVV-sanctioned walk, so you will not get your IVV books stamped. What you will get is a “boots on the ground” experience across terrain you read about in history books. This year, you can walk either 7 or 17 kilometers.
There will be re-enactors walking the course and providing food and drinks at the rest points. Food will not be provided on the walk. If we weren’t already spending the weekend in Rothenburg, we would definitely be heading to Houmont.
• Thanks again to the contributors to this week’s column. They are: William Castro and Maureen McHugh-Castro, Michael and Michelle Connor, Celia and Austin Entwistle, Cath and Rob Floyd, Bob Gambert, Richard and Donna Glenn, Wayne Henry, Tim and Luchi Lynch and “Pat” and Cheryl Patterson.
Email volksmarch information to two.walkers@yahoo.com. Mail brochures to Bob and Lorraine Huffaker, CMR 460, Box 278, APO AE 09752.
