katzen

I'm fine tuning my (2) nights in Rothenburg. We are staying at the Burg Hotel. Our list so far includes:

~Night Watchman's Tour (8:00 English)
~Climb the town hall tower
~Walk the wall
~Medieval Criminal Museum
~Doll and Toy Museum
~General sightseeing and shopping

My notes show a few different "good" places for dinner:

~Reichs Kuchenmeister (wine restaurant)
~Hotel Markstrum
~Klosterstuble

Does anyone have personal experience with the above restaurants or can recommend one that I may have missed?

Thanks!

PJK

katzen, Sorry I can't offer any help, but I am going to be in Rothenburg in September and have a similar list going, so I wanted to bring this ttt, hoping you and I both will get some feedback. We are staying at Klosterstuble. Have fun. PJK

tcreath

We stayed at the Klosterstuble last year (good choice PJK!) and had dinner there. The food was very good. If I remember correctly we both had schnitzel and spaetzel, and our meals were wonderful. The atmosphere is also very nice.

Tracy

kangamom

We stayed at the Burg Hotel last year and loved it. There is a restaurant overlooking the church right up th street from the Burg Hotel (towards the main town square). It may be part of a hotel, but the outdoor terrace is really lovely and food tasty as well.

katzen

Thank you for the replies. tcreath, I love schnitzel and spaetzel!!!

tcreath

LOL katzen....I think we had schnitzel and spaetzel at least once a day on our two week jaunt through Germany and Austria last year! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it; the schnitzel around my home town just isn't the same....

Tracy

travelinsue

We stayed in Rothenburg for 2 nights last spring (May 2005). We stayed at the Gastof Goldner Greifen:
www.gasthof-greifen.rothenburg.de/e_index.php3

This is a wonderful old, old place. It used to be the home of Mayor Toppler before he was sent to prison and died (he found himself on the wrong side of the new king in the region).

I liked everything on your itenerary EXCEPT I don't see any shopping! Rothenburg is the home of the Kathe Wolfart Christmas Shop (there are actually 2, but one is bigger & has great animated displays). We easily spent over $100 in her shop & had them mail everything home for us.

Rothenburg has great shops & charming little streets.

Have a schneeballen too!!!

Zeus

Ask for a sample of the Schneeballen before you buy one! They LOOK much better than they taste. They are beautifully displayed in the bakery windows. Covered with powdered sugar or drizzled with chocolate sauce they appear to be diet-busting temptations. We bought a box of a half dozen of them on our last trip and they ended up sitting uneaten on the dashboard of our van for almost two weeks. They were vile. Definitely an acquired taste.

If you're looking for a "Guy's Store" while the wife shops at Wohlfahrt's, just a little further down the same street (in the direction AWAY from the market square) you'll see a store with flags and a suit of armour out front. Inside are all manner of knives, armor, weapons, toys and pipes. Lots of military stuff. Even if you don't buy anything it's more entertaining than walking around trying to look interested in the wife's growing basket of Christmas ornaments.

I really doubt you can go wrong eating anywhere in Roethenburg. There are a number of inexpensive, quaint little restaurants in the upper corner of the market square.

tcreath

Zeus, we too found them to be utterly disgusting. We bought several and ended up throwing them away. Since then they have been the butt of many jokes between DH and myself!

Tracy

Bob_C

Can recommend both staying and eating at the Hotel Markstrum having stayed there twice.

wren

I am curious about why you didn't like the schneeballen...I have no idea what they are, but will find out in a few weeks. What was disgusting about them?

katzen

travelinsue, lol ... I must admit I LOVE to shop! In fact, I think this is the 1st post where I didn't mention shopping. As for the Christmas place .. yes, I will be stopping there. I decorate my house with every Christmas with the German ornaments and nutcrackers/smokers I can't wait!!

I too am curious as to what the Schneeballen taste like?

katzen

I also wanted to ask that while driving along the "romantic road" ... are there signs that say "dinkelsbulh, nordlingen" or should I get specific directions to these places?

katzen

... I keep thinking of something to add after I've hit the 'post' button. I'm also assuming that getting to Munich will not be a problem from the Romantic Road either .. from the maps I've been looking at it shows hopping on A8 from Augsburg to Munich?? We are now in the 'driving/mapping' stage of our planning.

tcreath

katzen, definitely pay close attention to the signs and a map when driving the Romantic Road. We were headed from Rothenburg to Dinklesbuhl and missed our turnoff and went about 15 miles out of our way before we figured it out. We only drove a small section of the Romantic Road so I'm not sure how the rest of it is.

As for schneeballs, I just thought that they had a bad taste. Its kind of hard to describe, but in my opinion they tasted stale and unappetizing, and I didn't like the texture. I much prefer snacking on delicious chocolate croissants! But they are sold everywhere and they aren't too expensive. If you think they look good go ahead and try one.

Tracy

katharineclifton

As we passed a schneeball store the local tour guide told us not to buy them. But they looked so beautiful all piled up in the window I had to have one. I bought one that was all covered in powdered shugar. Took one taste and have never been so disappointed. They taste like strips of pastry that are wound round and around and then fried. Very tasteless and very greasy feeling in the mouth. I took it back to my tour bus and insisted that the bus driver and our own tour guide taste them just so they could warn their future tour groups. One of them tasted it and said "The man TOLD you not to buy one, why did you do this?" Look, take pictures, but so not waste your money.

speckles

I second the Kathe Wohlfart Christmas shop. I have fond, if not vague, memories of this store when I visited Rothenburg 16 years ago (at age 16). Ever since I have been waiting for a chance to return to Rothenburg to see more of the town, including the KW store.. and my chance happens in August!

katharineclifton

I agree with the Kathe Wolfahrt Shop. The outside gives no indication of what you are about to see when you walk in. It is like walking into a magical world when you step inside the door.
The Criminal Museum was a bit of a disappointment for the teenage boys I was with. It was more of a "Humiliation" museum. I think they were expecting to see torture devices and cruel weapons. It is very different from what you see at the Tower of London with the displays of beheading and their torture mechanisms. Gruesome, yes, but then we are talking about teenage boys here.

derekflint

A friend of mine was bitterly disappointed in the schneebals. Rick Steves calls them doughnuts but they aren't at all - they are basically cookies. Kind of like many little cookies stuck together to make a ball and then covered in this or that flavor - at least that's what the ones we got were like. Several shops had deals like "buy two, get one free". I didn't think they tasted all that bad - but I'm in no hurry to go back for more!

Mimar

We stayed at the Reichskuchenmeister. The food doesn't stand out in my memory, but I do remember the biergarten/terrace, which was a very pleasant place to pass some time. I don't remember any other such place in the town.