red roofs and chocolate pantaloons

The first time I went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, it was on my high school German exchange trip -- my first trip to Germany, my first trip out of the U.S. During our two days in Rothenburg, my friends and I discovered fruit-flavored ice cream, checked out medieval torture devices, got terribly lost (in a town the size of a button, never mind), and discussed the fact that the town was clearly the inspiration for the Playmobil castle we'd grown up with, and that the surrounding countryside, with its rolling green hills and forests, was just the sort of place we imagined the heroes of our eighth-grade novels riding through on their white stallions while wearing their chocolate leather pantaloons.

As for the actual town, I remembered it as being pretty touristy, but also just plain pretty: the most true-to-stereotype vision of (medieval) Germany there could be, thanks to the fact that the town became essentially a ghost town after being captured during the Thirty Years War and modernization couldn't take place for centuries, full of red tiled roofs and Fachwerkhäuser (half-timbered houses).

And on the return trip, Rothenburg certainly didn't disappoint. Except for the last morning we were there, our weather was yucky and gray, but the town itself looked just like I'd remembered it, in all its kitschy glory. A particular highlight, in spite of the fact that I'd done it before, was the Night Watchman tour, which was the very best kind of dramatic and hilarious historical kitsch. The dude's comedic timing and voice (the latter of which reminds me strongly of Brad Neely doing "Wizard People") absolutely made the performance.