Alpine Summer

Another full day of touring. First, breakfast, which was basically the same as the day before. Then, we headed to Rothenberg, which was a longer trip than I had anticipated. We talked a lot on the bus -- a lot of us are really getting along, which is good. We're all going to be together for 5 weeks, we should get along. I was really afraid that I wasn't going to get along with anyone (( I'm always worried about that )).






















Rothenberg is amazing. It's also a tourist area. We had another great tour -- this one all on foot, because Rothenberg's supposed to be car-free from 11 AM - 4 PM (( though it's not )). It's been practically untouched since the start of the Enlightenment. I don't know how towns like that get left behind, but it was really pretty. We saw a lot of half-timbered houses, which is the stereotype of German houses (( i.e. Helen, Georgia )). I learned that, if the timbers have lots of notches cut into them, that means that it was once plastered over. Thinking that it was more aesthetically pleasing, many people would build their houses and shops half-timbered, but would cover them in plaster. The notches were cut so that the plaster would adhere better to the wood.

Rothenberg is picturesque. They still have most of their old walls, and other parts have been rebuilt over the years. The palace church is absolutely gorgeous -- the guide said that you have to make reservations a year in advance to get married in the church, it's in such high demand.






















St. Jacob's / St. James' cathedral is there, which is fascinating for many reasons: 1) The carving of Moses on the roof has horns. This is one of the famed horned Moseses that suffered from the problems in translating "horned" for "crowned", considering they apparently come from the same Hebrew word (( correct me if I'm wrong, all you Hebrew scholars )). 2) There is a huge carving outside of the agony, which is behind bars. 3) Inside, the alter is one of controversy. The painting is of the Last Supper, where Jesus is telling them that one of his disciples will betray him. In this particular image, Judas is already holding a moneybag, indicating that it has been done. All the disciples have looks of horror or surprise on their faces, except for John. John is lying, peacefully asleep, across Jesus' lap. The biggest controversy is that Judas is pictured in the center of the painting, and many people see / saw that as heresy. However, the artist created Judas on a removable, separate piece, so that he could be removed completely from the picture. The removable of Judas also allows one to see John more clearly, and note his calm expression.






















The original gate of Rothenberg still stands. "The eye of a needle," as in the thing through which a camel will pass before a rich man will go to heaven, is part of an old gate, not the literal thing through which a thread must pass before a seamstress can work. The gate is at least 15 feet high and was closed every night at dark. If you were a citizen or a welcome visitor who arrived after the fall of darkness, you had to be admitted through the eye of the needle, a very small door in the center of the gate.

Outside of the palace garden was a perfect place to take pictures -- the city is long and thin and curves around to form a backward C, though not with so sharp of turn. The palace gardens are on one end of the end, on the inside. Therefore, looking out, you can see the other side of town as well as landscape.

















Apparently, the medieval times were all about torture. An ancient polizei building is now used as a kriminalmuseum, a place dedicated to torture. For only a few Euros, you can tour the museum, which is about 6 or 7 stories high (( and low, several of the floor I'm counting were below ground )). As one of the guys from our group commented, it seemed like it would be hard NOT to get tortured back then. They had a dunking cage for bakers who cheated their customers out of bread weight (( thus began the "bakers' dozen" -- a baker would go ahead and give another piece, lest his bread be deemed underweight )), shame masks for anyone who committed minor crimes (( anywhere from gossiping to adultery to just "acting like a pig" )), an iron maiden (( they have determined that the spikes were a 19th century addition and it was only used as punishment for young women, not death, in the medieval period )), etc. Also, interestingly enough, if a man were to be seen getting beat up by his wife, the town would unroof his house. The logic was that a man that was weak enough not to be able to defend himself against a woman did not deserve to be shielded from the wind and weather. Do remember that this is a place where it snows heavily.

















After adventuring through Rothenberg, we headed to Schwäbisch Hall, which is a tiny ancient town that is not a tourist attraction. We walked through a lot of the town. We didn't have a tour guide, but Dr. Noll told us a bit about the town. There is an island just off of the mainland, in a river, that is mainly a park. They have a miniature Globe Theatre, and they had some sort of musical festival going on while we were there. This is also where many of us tried German ice cream for the first time. German ice cream is wonderful -- I dare say it's better than American ice cream! It's icier than American ice cream, but creamier than an Italian ice. It's also cheap -- 1 scoop (( not like a Bruster's scoop, but probably the kind you'd scoop for yourself at home )) in a cone is 0,60 Euro. Even in American money, that's still only about $0.80.

















After walking all day when it was hotter than anticipated, a lot of us were wanting to go swimming. So, we inquired about the pool in Schwäbisch Gmünd when we got onto the bus. So, on our way back to the Universitätspark, we swung by the pool to get some information about it. It's pretty cheap, but not free. And, by the time we got all the way back home, none of us really felt like swimming anymore. I guess the bus cooled us off a lot and the amount of walking we did all day finally kicked in.

We were on our own for dinner for the first time in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Luke and I walked down to the Kebaphaus, which is actually a Turkish restaurant. There we tried to order, but the man didn't understand us. He didn't know any English, so we looked for someone around that could at least help us enough to order. Unfortunately, the menu was stuck to the outside wall and we couldn't just point to what we wanted. One guy indicated that he knew a little English, but we never heard him order for us or anything; he just told us to sit down outside and wait 20 minutes. Utterly confused and not entirely sure that we were even getting food, we did as we were told. Less than 5 minutes later, the man from the restaurant flagged us and pointed to the food. Each of our pita-type sandwiches was listed as 5,50 Euro on the menu, so Luke handed him 11,- Euro. The man gave him back the 1,- Euro coin and then changed the 10,- for a 5,-. Confused, we assumed that he just thought Luke was paying for his own, so I tried to hand him 5,50. He refused, shooed us away and pointed at the food and shooed us again. So we took the food and started eating, thinking that maybe somehow we had offended him by not knowing German or something. Later, he came outside and told us, in German, that England had won the soccer game with a score of 1-0, and that Beckham had kicked the ball. At least, that's the best I could understand. I guess he assumed we were British because we were speaking English, so we tried to tell him that we're from America. He didn't care about that, and just wanted to tell us about the game.

[This is supposed to be an arrow. Oh well.]
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