Rothenburg ob der Tauber is one of Europe's gems. Not many people have heard about it. It is like a Disney fairy tale village except this is the real thing.

You must make time to visit this wonderful charming old Germanic medieval walled town. The town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber is 80 km west of Nuremberg and 60 km south of Wurzburg. It is built on top of a cliff 1,275 ft. above sea level. Below the town runs the River Tauber in its 180 ft deep steep sided valley. This is the reason why the town has the additional 'ob' or 'above' the Tauber. It a completely preserved medieval city with no modern buildings inside the town walls

The history of Rothenburg ob der Tauber is very similar to the history of the Belgian city of Brugge (Bruges). The medieval town became rich through the trade that used the river Tauber. When the river harbour silted-up it caused the town to stagnate. Rothenburg owes its architectural preservation to economic failure. After thriving in its medieval heyday it became a ghost town when the trade moved elsewhere.

For centuries nothing new was built. Towers, fortified gates, town walls, half-timbered gables have all has remained unchanged since the Thirty Years' War. You can walk around the town on the covered fortified wall in half an hour. What ever time of the year you visit you can shop for Christmas decorations and also visit the Christmas museum (Deutsches Weihnachtsmuseum). The Crime Museum (Kriminalmuseum) has some grisly exhibits of instruments of torture for you to see

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