There are hotels, and then there “are” hotels.  The Burg Hotel in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (there are two Rothenburg’s in Germany) was our favorite place in our month-long journey through Bavaria.

Without a doubt, Rothenburg quickly became one of our favorite Medieval cities.

Hopefully, you will have a chance to meet 84-year-old “Otto,” the manager of The Burg.  His daughter is actually the proprietor, while he helps operate the establishment.  You will find him sitting down in the front foyer sipping his coffee, or eating a slice of cake or just reading the paper. Sometimes Otto takes a nap too.

If you talk to Otto, you will find out that he is part of an 8-generation family that has lived in Rothenburg a long time.  He was five years old in 1945 when a bomb exploded outside his family’s hotel in town.  He states, “The Americans were good to us.”

Otto may tell you that the James Bond character, Roger Moore, once stayed at the Burg.  He will “not” tell you what room Roger stayed in—I tried four times to do so.  The WIFI code is “Bond—007.” Besides the memories, my fondest collection is Otto’s hand-written receipt—impeccable handwriting.

We stayed at the Burg for three days in early June of 2023.  We arrived by train and used Google to help us navigate a walking path to the Burg.  We would recommend calling The Burg having a taxi pick you up.  The cost of going back to the train station by taxi was about $9.00US—well worth it.

On-line you can choose your room.  We picked Room #15.  We highly recommend that room as it has not one, but two windows that face into the valley.  I really think Roger stayed in this room—but Otto will never tell.

Our room has a four-posted bed.  After running into one of the posts at night, I quickly learned how to navigate through the large room.  There was a smaller, but comfortable bed to the far end of the room.  The bathroom was, indeed, adequate.

Breakfasts are a treat.  A number of tables were located in a separate breakfast area over-looking the valley.  Having decaffeinated coffee was not a problem.  Eggs were cooked to order.  The bread and croissants were heavenly. 

In early June, the nightly temperatures went down to the low 50’sF-10C.  Otto says “it really does not get hot in Rothenburg.  Google says that the average highs in the summer is 74F.  In any case, there was a large fan in the room for us warm-blooded people. If there is a fault to the Burg, well, it was getting ice.  My wife needed it for her shoulder.  Usually, the restaurant, owned by the daughter, would provide ice across the street.  The restaurant, unfortunately, was closed at our visit.

We would recommend highly of trekking around the mile-long Medieval walls.  It is free. To help support these Medieval Walls, one can actually donate monies for a plaque.

We did like the outside restaurant of Reichskuchenme, which Otto recommended.  We had the best sauerkraut in Germany at this place. It was on the sweeter side. At our table, we met two young women who are German English teachers.  They both “love America.” 

In May and into June, one can order “sparkle” which is white asparagus. It is so tasty and good.

Close by this restaurant is the Church of St. James.  The church is famous for the 35-foot high Altar of the Holy Blood.

We thoroughly enjoyed Castle Gardens close by the Burg and a walk down in the valley to Toppler’s Castle.

Down in the valley is one of the smallest castles you will ever encounter. We came across these two motorcycle guys dressed in the appropriate motif.

We enjoyed the various architectural delights of Rothenburg.

 

We even found where a dentist is located:

Rothenburg has six Kathe Wohlfahrt stores, famous for everything Christmas.  Going into one is like having Christmas in Summer.  Everyone visits at least one of these famous stores while in Rothenburg. 

 

 We found the kiosk along the wall by “Franziskanerturn” to have the best priced beer for $2.50US.  Helga has rented this small establishment for nine years.

And for a night time treat, we recommend the Night Watchman Tour.  At first, we thought it would be rather cheesy, but the Watchman is rather hilarious and entertaining. He leads a tour around this famous Medieval city. 

One of the reasons we visited Rothenburg is to see the place where my parents took a picture in 1953. The famous corner is known as Plonlein.  The area does have an interesting history to it.

We had to find this corner in 2023.  It practically looks the same.