Day 10 - Rothenburb Ob De Tauber, and Bamberg, Germany

July 11

Today was an incredible day (as most days are) on this amazing European adventure. We were supposed to leave Nuremburg, and head north to Rothenburg Ob the Tauber. This particular town I was very excited to get to, as it looked incredibly charming online via pictures. The Tauber river is located almost in the center of Germany, and runs along the western edge of this town.

Because there was allot to do today, and allot of ground to cover, we decided on an order to get the entire itinerary in. We were to leave extremely early….so early in fact, we didn’t even have time to get coffee in the morning (since nothing was open at the Nurenburg Train station), until we arrived in Rothenburg.

We arrived at the train station of Nuremburg, where we were to connect through Bamberg, and then head onto the relatively small, yet extremely historic area of Rothenburg. This town featured possibly one of the most iconic tourist pictures of Germany. This is especially true for historic towns, as you can see below. The reason we started with Rothenburg was to allow us to explore the town of Bamberg, upon the return to Nuremburg in the afternoon, without having to leave us a further trip to return in the evening or late afternoon.

PROTIP– When traveling to multiple cities by train in Europe, make sure to outline the directions and time of connecting points, as 1: The trains are very efficient and most of the time on schedule and 2: you can find a better parameter of return time to your hotel. This day in particular, was a great example, as we were able to explore more through the morning, and have time in Nuremburg by the evening. This was done by waking up early, and having a logistical route of return, to maximize time.

One of the goals for the day was to walk a portion of the perimeter of the town, and see a famous alley that the overlooking buildings encompass. There is a popular walking route, which encompasses the perimeter of the town. The town itself is a walled in German city that can be traversed while overlooking the buildings. The walk into the city, however, is full of German prestige, and since it is a walled in city, it shows how the historic past of their lands. The town is actually elevated about 200 feet above the Tauber river below, which allows for incredibly scenic vistas from the walkway which goes around the entire walled city.

The famous picture shown above was actually where we ate breakfast, and was a wonderful start to the experience of Rothenburg. It featured mostly traditional traditional items with strong German influence, of course. We toured the streets and took some wonderful pictures before heading to the larger neighboring city of Bamberg. As you can see below, the pictures of the city are some of the most iconic in Europe, and should give any viewer a great idea of how unique historic German architecture actually is!

From this point we headed back towards Bamberg, which once again was our connecting points, in order to explore this mid sized town in central Germany. This is located about an hour from Rothenburg, and is a great way to spend the other half of a one day tour outside of Nuremburg.

Bamberg is a historic riverfront town which features incredible architecture and paintings, located on the OUTSIDE of the buildings. This is what it is known for, especially among Social Media. Our goals for this town were to enjoy the local atmosphere, explore the churches, and historic areas, as well as the iconic photo opportunity on the river which is shown below. This building is called ……

We decided to eat a local German restaurant near a bit of a tourist area, but nonetheless had an incredible restaurant and bar inside, and to my excitement, a piano. This piano was an upright, and when a customer went up to play (Remember I am a pianist for a living), I decided to introduce myself and play with him. We hit it off playing songs for customers for almost an hour as Ashley drank beer and sang along. It was a wonderful and memorable afternoon. This town I highly recommended, but it was time to head back to Nuremburg to see the night activities once again, and relax for the next day.